When writing for kids, your parenting instincts might take over the story and lead you into policing your characters. Parenting characters is brought on by the natural instinct to protect. Policing often leads to adult characters taking over the story. This is usually because you do not want the young characters to suffer or you do not want to create storylines that feel too edgy, even when that is what the particular plot requires. There is also often a problem of not creating enough tension in the plot.

If you feel your characters are getting into too much trouble, the adult instinct is to restrict them and protect them. Do your best to resist this and allow them to be funny, be smart, be stupid, make mistakes, get into trouble and thrive, as the plot requires them to.

Do Not Make Your Characters Too Good To Be True: This is a very common way of unintentionally parenting your characters. Do not attempt to create your ideal teenager, but rather a believable one. Allow them to develop as required by the theme of your story. If the story needs them to have some bad behavior, then put it there. If the story requires them to make mistakes and get into trouble, let them.

Your Main Characters Must Solve Their Problems: Create problems for your characters in such a way that only they can deliver the ultimate solution. It is okay to allow others to help and guide them, but in the end, the resolution must be by themselves. For example, if your main character needs the help of their father in solving the problem, that is all right. The father can offer some guidance, but create the problem in such a way that, however much the father wants to help, he can't really solve the problem. He can only help, but the protagonist is the only one who can solve it.

Use Adults To Create And Aggravate Problems: Not parenting your characters does not mean that you should exclude adults from your story. Include them and use them to create obstacles for the young characters or to be part of the problem the characters have to overcome. Do not be tempted into allowing the adults to solve the problems that your characters are facing, but rather use them to complicate the problem even further, thereby allowing your pivotal characters to fully develop and find their own solutions. For example, if a mother is trying to help her teenage daughter resolve her boy troubles, the end result should be that she just makes the situation worse and the daughter has to sort the mess out herself.

Be Willing To Make Them Suffer: Lose the instinct to protect your characters. To create an epic story, you have to be willing to let your characters suffer through the necessary situations. This allows them to grow and to appeal to the reader's emotions. If your characters do not make mistakes or get into any trouble, it will be very hard for readers to identify with them. Allow your characters to handle difficult situations, just make sure it is done in a way that is age appropriate.