How to start your child with creative writing

Today I’m going to talk about creative writing. How to start your child with creative writing? I am no way an expert on it, but these are some of the steps I took that helped my kids to start writing.

What is creative writing?

To me it’s a way of expressing one’s feelings and thoughts regarding a thing, person, event or a situation. Of course, with a whole lot dose of imagination!

Kids, usually, are not very enthusiastic about creative writing. While starting out, at around the age of 6, when they start making small sentences. I would usually give them a word, and they would have to write 3 to 4 sentences about it but that word specifically didn’t have to be in every sentence. It’s an exercise where they are simply making sentences but all are regarding that one word. For example, the word is “chair”, now they would usually make the following sentences

1. This is my chair.
2. It is brown in color.
3. I like sitting on it.

My main concern was to get them to think about things in their own way. To get them to express themselves in words, whether it’s funny or logical, that’s their choice. If they wanted to say that they have a pink chair and it has 3 legs. I’m ok with it!

Things to focus at the beginning

At the starting my main concern was to make them understand the following things

• Correct usage of grammar
• Spellings
• Punctuation

And that’s all I checked. To practice, give them any random mundane word and ask them to come up with 3 to 4 sentences. You can do this orally with them first and then have them write it down. Here is a list to get you started

• Chair
• Table
• Storybook
• My Mother
• Curtains
• Teddy Bear
• Pencil
• Car
• My Sister
• My Brother
• Bedsheets
• My Father
• Bicycle
• Prayer or Prayers
• My House
• My School
• Shoe
• Jacket
• My Friend

Guidelines for Writing

As their skills in writing progressed and they got a better grip on writing out what they are thinking along with how to write it, I gave them a little bit of guidelines for writing. That was the next step. The written piece should have three main parts or paragraphs. Those are

• Beginning – that is an introductory sentence or two
• Body – that will be the paragraph or a few sentences where they will be telling about the topic
• Conclusion – this is the sentence or a couple of sentences where they tie everything together and bring about the ending.

This way their writing got structured and when further along they start writing essays and letters in school, they already knew the writing process. Of course it will get more complex when they advance in their grade levels, but this was a beginner’s process with which I had the most success.

So to begin practicing it, I suggest doing it twice a week. Let them know the topic a day before, so they can gather their thoughts and ideas about it. There is no right and wrong answers. They get to express themselves. They can be as creative as they like.

Prompts for Writing

You can search on google regarding prompts for writing with specified grade level to get a whole bunch of topics. Here is a list of topics which you can use for different grade levels.

• Write about a best day at school
• Write about a worst day at school
• A scary dream you had
• My best vacation
• Summers at Nano’s (Maternal Grandmother) house
• If you were making dinner
• Babysitting my sister/brother
• My favorite pastime
• The sport I play best
• My last birthday
• My birthday in Covid-19
• A week with my Khala (Aunt)
• Fun in the Rain
• Rain in Karachi

Let us know if these pointers helped you and your child in story writing or not.

Would love to hear your tips and tricks in the comments below.

Thanks!