Get the Creative Juices Flowing
Posted by Kate Wicker in Family on Thursday, April 29, 2010 6:00 AM
(Editor’s note: This is part two of Kate Wicker’s creative writing series for kids. Part 1 can be found here.)
Raising eager writers will help your children for years to come. Virtually every job, vocation, and role in life involves writing. We write letters to our senators to engage ourselves politically. We write friendly notes to friends and family members. At some point in our lives, most of us are required to craft a resume and cover letter that puts our best selves forward.
Then there’s those of us (ahem, like me) who love to write just for the fun of it. Writing becomes a way for us concretize our feelings, our faith, and our memories of our children. As someone who loves piecing together words, I want my children to see writing not as a chore but as a gift, a fun pursuit, and something worthy of their time.
Many kids are naturally drawn to the written word and have imaginations that run wild. Others have to be encouraged to put their thoughts down on paper (or on the computer screen). And even the most passionate writers will experience writer’s block.
Although there’s an infinite number of ways to get scribes-in-the-making writing, here are a handful of my favorite ideas that will hopefully plant “seeds” in your little Hemingways (or yourself!) that might just blossom into stories, poems, or plays:
•Write a poem that is simply a list of things. Ideas: List the contents in your desk drawer, your toy chest, the items in your refrigerator at home, what you would pack if you were traveling to Africa or some other far off place, or list everything you can think of that is yellow or some other color.
•Create a poem or story that’s a metaphor by completing the following phrase: “I am a___________” with an object like a flower, a type of animal, a dream, etc.
•Write about building or taking something apart. The object you build or take apart may be small, like a knitted scarf or a model airplane, or it may be huge like a sprawling garden or a gleaming skyscraper.
•Transform an idea to an image. Mom (or Dad) ask your child to close her eyes and to picture what she sees when you say a word. Then choose a word to say aloud such as love, green, dog, death, soul, night (any word will do). Ask your child to write about what she “saw” in her mind’s eye when you said this word.
•Write a story or a poem using a photograph or a picture from a magazine/newspaper. I once used this exercise in a creative writing camp I taught, and it produced some great tales about everything from an ocean journey aboard the majestic Sea Star to the adventures of a super gnome.
•Write a story about someone of the opposite sex. Questions to get you started: If you were a girl/boy, what would be your favorite things to do? What are your talents? What do you look like? Or, make a list of boy/men or girls/women you know and write adjectives next to each name. Look at how different even people of the same sex can be.
•Write an autobiography. What interesting facts about your life would you include? Alternatively, choose a favorite historical figure and write his or her biography after doing some research.
•Think about what you wish for when you toss a penny into a fountain or blow out candles on a birthday cake. Now write a story about this wish – no matter how fanciful it might be – coming true.
*The first four ideas are adapted from The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises From Poets Who Teach by Robin Behn, a book I’m glad I kept around from my college creative writing courses.
Online Resources:
This is just a small sampling of what’s available on the Web. All you have to do is Google “kids’ writing” or “kids + creativity,” and you’ll get a slew of sites that help to inspire creativity (not only in the written medium but beyond) for your kid artistes.
•Headline Maker: This site generates a wacky headline to get kids started writing a fictional news story. The main site also has other helpful links for sparking creativity in children.
•Poetry Wheel: Jack Prelutsky, an award-winning children’s poet, shared tips with Family Fun magazine on how to nurture creativity in children. This is a link to his poetry wheel, which you can make at home and use to generate ideas for poems.
•Kids on the Net: This site serves as a “clearinghouse” of sorts for kids who want to write.
•Funds for Writers: This is a top site for freelance writers or anyone who wants to write and it offers several wonderful free e-newsletters, including one tailored for kids (elementary through college). It includes writing contests for kids as well as markets that accept kid-authored work.
-- Senior writer Kate Wicker is a creative mom of three girls. Read her blog at KateWicker.com.
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