What do you do when children have writer’s block? My students encountered this when tasked with writing about “nature.” Here are a few comments the children made, and how I helped them overcome their obstacles. Although we have used a two different curricula for teaching how to write, there’s nothing like the possibility of winning a prize to get a child motivated to review their lessons! The following suggestions are summaries from the curriculum we've used.
“Help, I don’t know what to write about!”
I try to ingrain a habit of writing in my students. Diary or journals are great for this. Regularly write about events that happen during the week, funny anecdotes, jokes you hear, or adaptations of other’s stories. One of my students can easily write (or tell) a story on her own, but when she heard she had to write about nature, she stalled. I flipped through her journal and showed her several instances where she had already written about an event set in nature, and the light bulb in her eyes shone.
“Help, my story is too short!”
• Way to go! You’ve got the basics, now you can add details to make it more exciting.
• Do you have the basic framework of a story? Often a short story is structured like this:
◦ Character X wanted Y, but obstacles got in the way and they learned stuff. The end.
• Add descriptions. Try to use all five senses. If your character is in the neighbor’s garden, what does she see, smell, hear, touch or taste? Take a field trip, if possible, to your location and describe what you experience.
• Add dialogue. Instead of writing, “They decided to go to the store.” Show the reader what the characters actually said.
“Help, my story is too long!”
• Way to go! You have a great start to writing a novel.
• Try to get down to the basics of the story. What is the story about? If there parts of the story that don’t relate to your character’s overall mission, perhaps you don’t need it. Summarize dialogue instead of writing it out.
• If your story is only slightly too long, look up filler words that aren’t adding anything to the story: anyways, suddenly, really, very, you know, like, I guess, totally.
◦ Anyways, I really think, like, that you totally get what I’m saying, you know?
“Help, my story is too boring!”
• Way to go! You’ve written a story, and you’ve identified an area you can improve.
• Have you added conflict to a story? That doesn’t necessarily mean two people fighting, it just means something gets in the way of a character getting their mission accomplished. Maybe a child wants to grow a pea plant, but forgets to water it, his brother stomps on them, the deer eats the shoots, and then the plant gets hit by lightning. His forgetfulness, brother, deer and lightning are all obstacles in the way of finishing the job of harvesting peas.
• Have you selected your words carefully? “John went to the store.”
◦ Open a thesaurus and look up the word went or go or walk. Did he trudge, stomp, skip, or race? Be careful with this one! Don't use a word unless you comprehending what it explanation.
◦ Which store did John visit? Was it the farmer’s market, musty antique shop, or ice-cream truck?
Readers: What other obstacles have you come across, and what was your solution?
Thanks so much for this incredibly thoughtful and practical comment! I shared it with readers on Notes so that they can benefit from your suggestions and add their own as well :)
I passed this on to the lead organizer for our classical Christian co-op a few months ago. She said she knew of some students/families who would definitely be interested (her kids included). I don’t know if anyone has has actually submitted any stories. I just wanted to chime in to say thank you for organizing this and that I hope it’s a huge success! God bless!
Thanks so much for sharing news of the contest with your co-op! Hoping that many more young writers will be encouraged to submit and share their stories:)
Hi Ari - the contest originally had a $5 submission fee (which has now been waived) and the subscriber name would have been needed to match the student entry with the subscriber payment. As it is now free to enter. this is not actually necessary anymore. Hope that makes sense:)
What do you do when children have writer’s block? My students encountered this when tasked with writing about “nature.” Here are a few comments the children made, and how I helped them overcome their obstacles. Although we have used a two different curricula for teaching how to write, there’s nothing like the possibility of winning a prize to get a child motivated to review their lessons! The following suggestions are summaries from the curriculum we've used.
“Help, I don’t know what to write about!”
I try to ingrain a habit of writing in my students. Diary or journals are great for this. Regularly write about events that happen during the week, funny anecdotes, jokes you hear, or adaptations of other’s stories. One of my students can easily write (or tell) a story on her own, but when she heard she had to write about nature, she stalled. I flipped through her journal and showed her several instances where she had already written about an event set in nature, and the light bulb in her eyes shone.
“Help, my story is too short!”
• Way to go! You’ve got the basics, now you can add details to make it more exciting.
• Do you have the basic framework of a story? Often a short story is structured like this:
◦ Character X wanted Y, but obstacles got in the way and they learned stuff. The end.
• Add descriptions. Try to use all five senses. If your character is in the neighbor’s garden, what does she see, smell, hear, touch or taste? Take a field trip, if possible, to your location and describe what you experience.
• Add dialogue. Instead of writing, “They decided to go to the store.” Show the reader what the characters actually said.
“Help, my story is too long!”
• Way to go! You have a great start to writing a novel.
• Try to get down to the basics of the story. What is the story about? If there parts of the story that don’t relate to your character’s overall mission, perhaps you don’t need it. Summarize dialogue instead of writing it out.
• If your story is only slightly too long, look up filler words that aren’t adding anything to the story: anyways, suddenly, really, very, you know, like, I guess, totally.
◦ Anyways, I really think, like, that you totally get what I’m saying, you know?
“Help, my story is too boring!”
• Way to go! You’ve written a story, and you’ve identified an area you can improve.
• Have you added conflict to a story? That doesn’t necessarily mean two people fighting, it just means something gets in the way of a character getting their mission accomplished. Maybe a child wants to grow a pea plant, but forgets to water it, his brother stomps on them, the deer eats the shoots, and then the plant gets hit by lightning. His forgetfulness, brother, deer and lightning are all obstacles in the way of finishing the job of harvesting peas.
• Have you selected your words carefully? “John went to the store.”
◦ Open a thesaurus and look up the word went or go or walk. Did he trudge, stomp, skip, or race? Be careful with this one! Don't use a word unless you comprehending what it explanation.
◦ Which store did John visit? Was it the farmer’s market, musty antique shop, or ice-cream truck?
Readers: What other obstacles have you come across, and what was your solution?
Thanks so much for this incredibly thoughtful and practical comment! I shared it with readers on Notes so that they can benefit from your suggestions and add their own as well :)
I passed this on to the lead organizer for our classical Christian co-op a few months ago. She said she knew of some students/families who would definitely be interested (her kids included). I don’t know if anyone has has actually submitted any stories. I just wanted to chime in to say thank you for organizing this and that I hope it’s a huge success! God bless!
Thanks so much for sharing news of the contest with your co-op! Hoping that many more young writers will be encouraged to submit and share their stories:)
Thank you so much, Ms. Ruth!!!
That does make sense! :)
What does "subscriber's name" mean?
Hi Ari - the contest originally had a $5 submission fee (which has now been waived) and the subscriber name would have been needed to match the student entry with the subscriber payment. As it is now free to enter. this is not actually necessary anymore. Hope that makes sense:)
Ruth, does that mean midnight tonight or tomorrow night? I always get confused...
Tomorrow night - as in at the end of Friday - yes, this happens to me too :)
Great! Thank you!