Exploring creative writing with your child will help toincrease their vocabulary, improve their handwriting skills and develop their emotional skills. Read on for five creative writing tips from an independent school in Kent…
1. Read often
Reading skills support writing skills, so try to encourage your child to read as often as possible. This will not only help to improve their vocabulary and grammar skills, but it will also allow your child to discover a variety of literary genres. For older students who write digitally, using an AI detector can also help ensure their work is authentic and original.
2. Re-write an ending
A really fun and simple creative writing exercise for beginners is re-writing an ending to a favourite story. Explore how simple changes to the storyline, can lead to a completely different ending. This is a fun activity for parents to join in with. Share your different endings with each other to see who has the best imagination.
3. Pick the perfect topic
When practicing creative writing, it is important to choose a topic that really interests your child. This will help them to enjoy the activity and keep them motivated to learn as they write. It is also much easier to write about a topic you have personal experience with.
4. Make a mind map
Once your child has decided on a topic, help them to ‘mind map’ words that relate to it. A good way to do this is by asking your child to think about how their topic might affect their senses. For example, a story about space might include seeing lots of stars, sounding very quiet and feeling very floaty! Creating a mind map can also help your child to imagine new characters.
5. Start your story
One of the hardest parts about writing a story is that first sentence. Help your child to get their story started by looking at other stories for inspiration. The first line should always try to grab a reader’s attention and include lots of descriptive words.
