Creative writing helps young people think outside the box and explore their imagination. It improves their spelling and grammar skills and teaches them various new vocabulary. This will help them to become a better communicator, whether written or verbal. Whenever a child learns a new skill, they get a little self-esteem boost, which will help them overcome challenges throughout life.
With all this in mind, even if your child doesn’t intend on becoming the next JK Rowling, it’s worth exploring creative writing activities with them in your free time. If you are wondering where to start, take a look below at some tips from an international school in London.
Of course, you can’t expect your youngster to write their very own best-selling novel. Start with some simpler tasks, such as encouraging them to re-write the final chapter of their favourite novel. This shouldn’t be too challenging as the characters and storyline have already been fully developed, so it will just be a case of making a few tweaks here and there. Discuss how such small changes to a scenario can lead to completely different end-results.
If your child does insist on writing their own story, it might help them if you suggest a problem that their characters have to solve. Often, the most challenging part of writing a story is the very beginning, so you could write the opening sentence for your child and let them progress from there.
Another thoughtful activity you could suggest is that your child writes a book review after they’ve finished reading a novel, pretending to be a reporter or a blogger. Encourage them to use lots of adjectives to describe the story and ask them to think about how it made them feel; did they laugh, cry or feel frightened at any point during the story?
Before beginning any of these projects, your child should always prepare a plan. Mind-maps are great for this because they encourage you to delve a little deeper and think about all of the words and phrases that would work nicely in a particular genre. If you’d like some more inspiration, don’t be hesitant to contact your child’s school as the teachers will likely be more than happy to help.