I don’t know what to say

What is the most effective way of encouraging and developing children’s creative writing?

Those who have studied the matter often agree that adults who continue to write creatively after they have left formal education, come in two types.     

On the one hand there are those writers who carefully plan many of the details of their narrative before they start, carefully defining their characters, the setting and so forth. 

In the second group however, there are people who simply settle down and write, refining matters as they progress, before going back and taking into account the ending as they revise the opening.

Children can often be drawn to the latter approach, wanting to get going with the writing without thinking through the details of who, what, where and how.  But although they can be entranced by this approach, in reality they still need to learn about, and use, the more structured approach, if the resultant piece is to make any sense.

With additional planning they will come to learn that in creative writing, they need to make creative choices and these need to be consistent and coherent as well as informed by what happens in the end. 

In this way, where they find ideas are not forthcoming, the process of making decisions becomes simplified through their understanding of their characters and the narrative, while at the same time holding onto the notion that they still have to make the story work.

As a result of this approach the writing becomes both more innovative, more enjoyable, and also more coherent.  From this, each child takes ownership of the writing, and believes ever more in what they are writing. 

These are the issues that are covered in the three volumes of “Boost Creative Writing” with each volume covering two school years, starting at Year 1.  Once the children realise the power of writing they will gain confidence that they can succeed not only in English, but across their school work as a whole. 

For the slower learner the non-prescriptive, graphic writing scaffolds in each book are structured into partitioned, separate sections.  Offering this segmentation leads children to be adventurous and encourages storytelling. Using their imaginations to come up with creative ideas means writing isn’t boring.

You can see the contents, links to the National Curriculum, and suggested writing targets for each book on our website. 

Each of the volumes is available as a printed book, or in pdf form. 

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