5 Rules of Loving the Game of Creative Writing, For All Ages
1. There’s no right or wrong in writing your story, not even grammar or spelling (on the first draft anyway).
2. Write small. One word leads to another. Each word is a seed.
3. People are characters, even people in real life, even you! Write them how you see and hear them and yourself.
4. Use your five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. This is really fun to do when creating a scene. Carrying a notebook or journal wherever you go helps you jot down ideas that come to you, or interesting things that you see or conversations that you hear.
5. Have fun! This isn’t school writing. This is creative writing. Pay attention to your world and write about it.
*Optional Rule: write in a journal every day. This helps you to keep a record of your thoughts that you can use when you go to think about and write your stories.
Kindergarten and First Grade
1. Think of a story that you want to tell about your life. If you’re having a hard time of thinking of something, think about Culture Camp and the time you spent making friends and learning about Vietnamese culture. (3 minutes)
2. Now close your eyes and imagine your story played out on a big screen in a movie theatre. I’ll tell you when to open your eyes (3 minutes).
3. Open your eyes and right away, right down all the words you can think of to describe what you saw in the movie in your head. You can also draw a picture and write words to go along with it. (10 minutes).
4. Now take your words and pictures, and write at least three sentences to start your story. If you’re having trouble finding the words you want to write, ask me for help. (5 minutes)
Congratulations! You’ve started writing a story about your life. I want to read more. Set aside at least 20 minutes and do this little exercise a couple times a week. You’re on your way to being a published writer!
With the help of your parents, email me at brandy@rabbitfoolpress.com to share your stories, get writing advice, and ask me any questions you have about writing.
Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grades
1. Brainstorm stories and ideas about your life. Write as quickly as possible, and don’t worry if the words are spelled correctly or anything like that. Just write as fast as your brain and hand will go. If you’re having a hard time of thinking of something, think about Culture Camp and the time you spent making friends and learning about Vietnamese culture. (5 minutes)
2. Look at your list and think about what from it you want to focus on writing at the moment. Perhaps it’s one thing on your list, or maybe you want to combine two or more things in a story. Hint: if you’re going to pick more than one thing from your list, they don’t necessarily have to be things that occur in the same time period. You can be a time traveller. Circle the things on your list that you want to write about now. Oh yeah…keep your list! You can use it later for more stories and even add to it. (5 minutes)
3. Now close your eyes and imagine your story played out on a big screen in a movie theatre. I’ll tell you when to open your eyes (5 minutes).
4. Open your eyes and right away, right down all the words you can think of to describe what you saw in the movie in your head. You can also draw a picture and write words to go along with it. (5 minutes).
5. Now take your words and pictures, and write at least five sentences to start your story. If you’re having trouble finding the words you want to write, ask me for help. (5 minutes)
Congratulations! You’ve started writing a story about your life. I want to read more. Set aside at least 25 minutes and do this little exercise a couple times a week. You’re on your way to being a published writer!
With the help of your parents, email me at brandy@rabbitfoolpress.com to share your stories, get writing advice, and ask me any questions you have about writing.
Sixth Grades and Beyond
The writing exercise that I describe above for younger children is quite honestly the basis of my particular process for creative writing but tailored toward their beginning language and writing skills and attention spans (not to say I have a bigger attention span than a second grader…). So I will repeat it here, but give you more time for each part of the exercise to develop your writing because I know you can do it. If I can do it, anybody can. 🙂
1. Brainstorm stories and ideas about your life. Write as quickly as possible, and don’t worry if the words are spelled correctly or anything like that. Just write as fast as your brain and hand will go. If you’re having a hard time of thinking of something, think about Culture Camp and the time you spent making friends and learning about Vietnamese culture. (10 minutes)
2. Look at your list and think about what from it you want to focus on writing at the moment. Perhaps it’s one thing on your list, or maybe you want to combine two or more things in a story. Hint: if you’re going to pick more than one thing from your list, they don’t necessarily have to be things that occur in the same time period. You can be a time traveller. Circle the things on your list that you want to write about now.. Oh yeah…keep your list! You can use it later for more stories and even add to it. (10 minutes)
3. Now close your eyes and imagine your story played out on a big screen in a movie theatre. I’ll tell you when to open your eyes (5-10 minutes).
4. Open your eyes and right away, right down all the words you can think of to describe what you saw in the movie in your head. You can also draw a picture and write words to go along with it. (10 minutes).
5. Now take your words and pictures, and write at least ten sentences to start your story. (10 minutes)
Congratulations! You’ve started writing a story about your life. I want to read more. Set aside at least 45 minutes and do this little exercise a couple times a week. You’re on your way to being a published writer!
Email me at brandy@rabbitfoolpress.com to share your stories, get writing advice, and ask me any questions you have about writing.
Brandy Lien Worrall-Soriano 