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Creative writing for ALs


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Are any of your ALs into creative writing?

 

Do you have any ideas of how to nurture a natural writer?

 

My daughter (10) is quite a capable (but often reluctant) writer and I really am at a loss as to what to do with her next.

 

At the moment we're using Maxwell's Writing in English, and that's the only structure we're using and even that's a bit hit and miss.

 

But really, I wonder if most of her ideas/ability are just absorbed from the books we read and that she listens to as audiobooks.  She seems to manage to put words together in a way that just works.

 

I truly have no idea how to teach her or how to stretch her. Give me maths and science any day. Writing, I'm at a loss.

 

Any ideas of programs or resources? Maybe she needs a mentor/tutor?

 

I've signed her up for Nanowrimo, but I'm not convinced that writing to a time schedule would be in her best interest.

 

I've looked at Brave Writer, but haven't yet jumped in.

 

What do you all use for creative writing? 

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Thanks Sadie. 

Yes, exposure to a range of genres of great writing really seems to be my one and only plan at this stage. It seems to be working by absorption ... but where to now? How do I bump her to the next level?

 

I try to find competitions for her, purely for the purpose of having an audience that isn't just me. Any ideas for other audiences?

 

She and her sister write fan-fiction together, but haven't been confident enough to post any yet.

And on her own, she writes good poetry, scenes or descriptions (maybe 200 - 400 words) but doesn't often tackle anything longer.

Edited by chocolate-chip chooky
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I use Brave Writer, though with a younger kid. I like the approach. It's encouraging, not overwhelming, and I've really seen an improvement in my kid's ability to storytell using this.

 

NaNoWriMo has a workbook that kids can work through ahead of time to plan their story. It includes some writing instruction within the workbook. For a kid that might want to stick with one longer story for a period of time, you could have them work through the workbook, do the bulk of the writing during NaNoWriMo (or ignore the timeline and just do so independently), take a break from it for a while, then work on revising and editing and possibly illustrating. You could really get all/most of a school year out of one really big project this way.

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My oldest is 16. She is currently over 200 pages into what quite possibly be a 400 page novel complete with world building, social satire, a hero's journey- this thing is dense and she has already spent a full year on it. At 10, she had written a 10-15 page story about a time traveling golden retriever who goes back to Ancient Greece. She did creative writing every week in school (PS) and it was just a squiggle that they had to use to draw a picture and then write a story about the picture. That was it. By seventh grade stories were getting longer, by ninth she was about 75 pages into two different novels (Both with plots that I loved!) but she abandoned them for the one she's working on now.

The only thing she credits to helping her write is the fact that she usually read 2-3 hours a day.

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I'm an author (bestselling) and I don't think any of the teaching I had in writing did anything to foster skills. Really, I just got better through practice I did on my own because I loved to invent and share the story worlds in my imagination. If she has natural talent, then those skills will develop on their own through practice.

 

They do sell a kit I saw on sale at Christmas last year, that gave the basics of creating stories, and had kids roll a set of dice and use the pictures on the dice as brainstorming tools to come up with ideas. That looked like a neat way of fostering ideas! But really, nothing will work better than just having her come up with her own ideas, story lines that fascinate her, and develop them into complete plot arcs, overandoverandover through the years. Maybe asking questions about her stories in areas you think might not be developed enough, helping her flesh out the personalities of her characters, and offering consistent praise in the areas she does well.

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We're using Adventures in Fantasy this year, to get my writer from composing single scenes to a whole book.

 

Ruth

 

Thanks Ruth. I'll look into that, because you've hit the nail on the head for what I'm hoping to find - something that will help her move from writing good scenes to something....more.

 

Thank you!

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I'm an author (bestselling) and I don't think any of the teaching I had in writing did anything to foster skills. Really, I just got better through practice I did on my own because I loved to invent and share the story worlds in my imagination. If she has natural talent, then those skills will develop on their own through practice.

 

They do sell a kit I saw on sale at Christmas last year, that gave the basics of creating stories, and had kids roll a set of dice and use the pictures on the dice as brainstorming tools to come up with ideas. That looked like a neat way of fostering ideas! But really, nothing will work better than just having her come up with her own ideas, story lines that fascinate her, and develop them into complete plot arcs, overandoverandover through the years. Maybe asking questions about her stories in areas you think might not be developed enough, helping her flesh out the personalities of her characters, and offering consistent praise in the areas she does well.

 

 

Ooh, I'm intrigued now about who you really are, nature girl!

 

Thanks for your input. 

 

One thing my daughter resists (across all subjects, not just writing) is having to follow a set structure or format for things. She likes to tackle things her own way and she can really dig her heels in about it. She can't stand the graphic organiser style of a lot of teaching. She's a non-conformist at heart, I guess.

 

Although my daughter seems quite capable at writing, she's not passionate and she wouldn't usually choose to write of her own accord. I'm always trying to find ways to spark her interest a bit more and also build her confidence so that she'll give longer writing a go. She's also a perfectionist at heart. What a complex child.  :o

Edited by chocolate-chip chooky
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We did WWS for 6th and 7th grade, because I'm a huge believer in structural proficiency.  It was easy for DS to follow on his own and didn't require much time. I think having a handle on mechanics is invaluable, both for academic writing (he is unusual even among most boys on this forum, it seems, because his radical acceleration is in the humanities rather than math) and fiction (it's not unreasonable to set publication as a goal in high school, so he needs control and structure.)     

 

Last year he also had a fiction blog about an alternate universe.  All his entries took place in that universe, but weren't necessarily connected.  The only requirement was that he had to write on it twice a week.  We'd edit together for grammar and flow, but otherwise I didn't grade or critique his stories.

 

This year instruction is coming from Brandon Sanderson's BYU lectures.  (If your kid is into fiction, especially fantasy, Sanderson's website is a fantastic, generous resource.)  DS is writing every day now.  As before, no assigned content - we just want him to experience the discipline of daily writing.  

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My son is a talented writer, I genuinely enjoy reading his stuff when he lets me. He starts many books but hasn't finished any...this is fine by me because I want to encourage the act of writing but not viewing his work as a product yet. There's time for that...

Anyway, he really enjoys literature classes and is in two different ones this fall. We just make sure he reads lots and has interesting life experiences. I don't understand this obsession with very young writing and product, etc in some circles.

Edited by madteaparty
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