Ten Tips for Helping Children with Creative Writing
Matthew Gurteen
Do you have a child at home who is interested in creative writing? Maybe you are teaching a creative writing class to a group of children. Either way, creative writing can be challenging for adults and children alike. It doesn’t have to be, however. This article will give you our ten tips for encouraging creative writing in children.
1. Create a time for creative writing
As with anything concerning children, routine is vital. Try to set aside some time for your child to write every day or week. Doing this will mean you can remind them about it and use it as a reward for finishing homework or other chores.
2. Ask questions at the right moments
It is important to ask questions to encourage your child’s creativity. They may get stuck at certain moments and turn to you for guidance. If their writing has seemed too slow, try prompting them with questions about the character or situation. Be careful not to do this too much, however. It is
the child’s creativity you are trying to encourage, not your own. Let them guide the story and only use your questions as an occasional aid.
3. Be careful when criticising mistakes
Criticising your child’s creative writing too much may discourage them from writing in the future. It is okay to criticise your child’s creative writing occasionally, especially if you are trying to improve their spelling and grammar. Be realistic with your expectations concerning their creative writing, however. If you are unsure about criticising them, try praising them before and after too, so they know you still like their work.
4. Choose your praise well
As much as you want to praise your child’s creative writing, however, you must be careful how you do this. Make sure you are specific in your praise, so your child knows what they have done right. Saying general statements like ‘That’s really good’ does not encourage creativity. Instead, be clear
about what is good by saying something like ‘I really like how these two characters talk to each other’. Saying this will show your child what is good about their writing and encourage them to do more of it in the future.
5. Try different genres and forms
Experimenting with genres and forms is a great way to encourage your child’s creative writing too. They may struggle to write short fantasy fiction. Encourage your child to write different kinds of poetry and other fiction genres, such as historical, romance, and even horror. This may just mean your child is writing about what scares them, but all writing is good writing and will lead to more creativity in the future.
6. Encourage the child to share their writing
As with adults, a great way to encourage and improve your child’s creative writing is to have them share it with others. This may just be with yourself. Sharing it with friends at school or writing workshops for children will also provide them with much-needed external praise and criticism. It is
also a great way to build confidence and improve the child’s verbal reading skills!
7. Write a WOW story
A WOW story is a simple one designed to increase your child’s knowledge of structure. It stands for Want, Obstacle, Win. Essentially, a character wants something, but there is an obstacle in the way of them achieving it, and they either win or lose it by the end. Getting your child to think about these three aspects will improve their knowledge of a story’s structure, and you can then encourage their skill from there!
8. Encourage reading
This tip is also true for adults and children. Reading and writing are closely linked, and improving one will encourage the other. As Ken Spillman, author of Magpie Mischief and Jake’s Great Game, says, The best way to enhance a child’s imagination is to make them read. Reading other people’s stories will inspire your child to write their own. It will also inform their knowledge of a good story and give them ideas to start from, especially if the books they are reading are well-loved. As Katherine Paterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia, says, It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations. Reading will stretch your child’s imagination allowing them to write more incredible stories in the future.
9. Use writing prompts
Writing prompts can be a helpful aid for children and adults. They give children a starting point for a story and encourage their imagination. Try asking them to write about if they could go on holiday anywhere, where would it be and why? You could also ask them to think and write about a world without adults. What would that look like, and what would they do? These are just two examples of writing prompts you could give children. There are plenty more!
10. Lead by example
Last but not least, perhaps the best method of encouraging your child’s creative writing is to write yourself (and in front of them). Your child seeing you write will encourage them to copy you. Perhaps you can write a story together or discuss the stories you are both working on or want to write. Role models are essential for children. If your child sees you as a creative writing role model, they will undoubtedly want to write themselves!
If you follow these ten tips, you are sure to have your child/ children writing creative work in no time. Ultimately, children’s imagination can make them great writers. As Walt Disney said, Every child is born blessed with a vivid imagination.