I'm not so sure if this is the right thread or not. But, I'm going into children and kids story writing soon. I was going to do something silly with like nerf guns, water guns, water balloons, pretending like there going to work or pretending there dead. Now the question is is that really for like children/kids or does it go to a different genre?
As with any question of genre, what you actually write will determine it’s genre. I mean, what actually happens to these kids? It’s those events that will shape the genre. In “The Lord Of The Flies”, a group of children decide to play tribes on a deserted island. Things quickly escalate and people soon die. It’s certainly not a children’s story.
No one will die. I'll promise you that. They'll pretend to "die" like how kids pretend, but no one will really die.
That's fine. But only you can know that. My point was that "something silly like nerf guns..." doesn't automatically mean it's for kids. It sounds like it would be about children doing childish stuff. But without knowing the whole story, it's almost impossible to tell what genre it will actually be or who the intended audience is.
I'd be careful displaying children pretending to die. If you do it the right way, it will probably be fine, but I forsee parents getting all hot and bothered by pretend death. If you're writing with the intent of actually getting kids/parents to read it. Parents can be absurdly sensitive.
