A Writing Principle: a Child or Teen Character MUST Solve Their Own Problem

Does it hold? Does it extend to writing for adults?

photo of my father, as a child, with his beloved Zip —

In my most recent post, I mention this piece of writing advice or ‘principle’ in working for young people. And it occurred to me that I’ve never addressed this on The Unschool, even though it’s one of the first, and most frequent issues to come up in classes on writing for young people. If you write only for adults, do read on; the principle, in general, will cause you to ponder what it is to have an active character.