Does your child love to tell a story? Do they have a fantastic imagination but need help putting their stories into words? Are you stuck on how to help them?
I run story writing classes for children and in this blog, I will share my top tips for children wanting to write their own fantastic stories.
Let’s start at the very beginning (a very good place to start, apparently). All stories will have a start, a middle and an end, therefore can be split into 3 parts.
1. Start
Your story is going to need some characters, so I would start by introducing them to your audience. I would suggest choosing 1 main character and possibly a side kick. Explore the character; what do they look like? What are their personality traits? Children may also like to draw their characters before they start writing so that they can picture then in their minds.
Next you need to think about how you will start your story, and what’s going to happen to your characters.
2. Middle
You now need to think about the main part of your story. Where are your characters going to go on their adventure? Who will they meet? This can be the most difficult part of story writing but can also be the best part. You’re going to be building your story up before the big finale at the end. If you get a bit of brain freeze, also known as ‘writer’s block’ a good tip is to find a nice quiet space and imagine the story playing out in your mind.
3. End
This is where something exciting happens, maybe something your audience didn’t expect. The end can also be used to wrap everything up in a nice big bow. Did your characters escape? Did they get home safely? Had their lives been changed from the events in the story?
Here are a few other areas you may like to think about when helping your child to write a story.
Adjectives
Children love using describing words in their stories and to be honest they are usually really good at it. Encourage them to describe their characters and the places they visit. Think about their 5 senses; sight, sound, taste, smell and touch.
Spelling and Punctuation
You need to decide if this piece of work is going to be all about the grammar and punctuation or a piece of creativity. If it’s all about your child using their imagination, I would suggest ignoring a few spelling and punctuation mistakes as pointing them out too much may reduce confidence in expressing their creativity.
Writing Speech
1.Quotation marks (“”) can be used when someone in your story speaks. For instance; “Hello! How are you?”
2. Each speaker gets their own paragraph.
I hope that this blog helps you and your little one to write the most fantastic stories. I’d love to know how you get on, so feel free to share or comment below.
If you’d like more help with story writing, and a chance to get your book printed, why not come along to one of my ‘Children’s Author Academy’ workshops. Details can be found on my Facebook page; Sarah Jenkins Children’s Author.
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