I had a literary discussion with my 8-year old and it was awesome.

A few days ago, I asked for his feedback on a short story that I’m about to submit to Spider Magazine for 6-9 year olds. I read the story out loud to him while he held both arms out to show how interested he was at the end of every sentence. Open arms meant he was excited; closed arms meant he was bored. It helped so much that I wish someone would do that for everything I write. He also pointed out that there were three distinct sections of the story, which I hadn’t consciously realized. He told me, “First part, boring; second part, perfect; third part, pretty good.” And he was spot on.

Today, I asked him what he likes about his favorite books. He’s obsessed with Ursula Vernon‘s Dragonbreath series, about dragon and iguana BFFs who have funny, scary adventures. I asked partly out of curiosity and partly out of selfishness; I thought it would be fun to write a longer story that he would enjoy, and I wanted to know how. He told me he likes that the books have lots of action and “two middles.” He drew two curves with his hand — up and down, up more and down — and explained that something exciting happens, the book calms down, and then something even more exciting happens. He also likes that Danny the Dragon really wants something that is hard for him. Danny wants to breathe fire, but as of book #4 he’s only done it once, and that was underwater. I told him writers talk about “story arcs” and “character arcs,” and that’s what he was saying — that’s even the shape he was making with his hand. He got it immediately. We were on a long walk, and he kept coming up with more reasons he liked the books — the hard words, which he enjoyed figuring out on his own; the descriptions, which made him feel like he was there with the characters; the ongoing stories throughout the series, which gave him continuity without making him feel like he was missing anything if he read them out of order.

My older kid is the one who was reading fluently at age 4, and quoting Calvin and Hobbes by first grade. My 8-year old was slower to read, and only in the past year or so — starting with Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series and Ron Roy’s A to Z Mysteries — has become interested in books. Even now, he’s a discriminating reader; only certain books capture his attention. But it turns out he’s also a careful, thoughtful reader. Which makes me really want to write something that he will like.