The following links are useful resources to help guide parents and students through the exciting journey of creative writing. Writing is a long process, which requires a great deal of reading, researching, experimenting, organizing, drafting, editing, proofing, and rewriting… and lots of re-working and rewriting. Many children do not realize the great deal of time and effort that is required in writing a good story or book. The purpose of Young Authors project is for students to have a greater understanding what it takes to be an author and illustrator. So the next time they read their favorite book, students will be reading it through a different perspective and appreciation. It takes a lot of hard work, effort, sometimes tears, and laughter, to write a memorable story.

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     Role of the Mentors (Parents, teachers, guardians, grandparents, siblings… it takes a village to write a story)

As parent and teacher myself, I often struggle with the fine line between the amount of involvement in my child’s schooling and her independence. On one hand, I don’t want to see my child struggle or fail. I also realize that a certain amount of frustration and failure is part of the learning process. I have had to stop myself on several occasions, when I discover I am taking too much control over her writing. It is so easy when I’m typing the story for my child to lose myself in the story-writing process. Before I know it, my child is off in the other room playing and I don’t even realize it. Trust me! I have been there! This is the main reason, I encourage students to actually have their stories handwritten – also all the rewriting and editing, helps with their penmanship. It’s a win-win situation. The key is to listen to your child and determine how much involvement is needed in order to achieve the balance of frustration vs. achievement. It is more important to focus on the process, not the end product. Keep simple, clear, concise, and most of all have fun! The writing process is a perfect way to connect and learn more about your child.  The following are some writing mentor roles to help you along the way:

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1. Muse: A person who inspires an artist or writer.

2. Coach: Help focus on task. Cheer progress. Huddle-time when game plans are needed.

3. Time Manager: Long term project - Organize calendar, due dates, and deadlines. Know when a break is needed if working too long. Manage a block time every day for discussing or writing.

4. Secretary: Organize paper work, ideas, and have office supplies available. Most of all hold all calls when writing, take messages for them.

5.  Proofreader: It’s O.K. to edit spelling and grammar with the author. Read through their work out loud with them. Ask questions, research, and change together.

6. Editor: Make sure that there is a clear beginning, middle and end. Revise, revise, and revise. Focus on strengths. Give encouragement.

7. Art Director: Have supplies available. Give ideas and suggestions on techniques and materials. Remind illustrators not to photocopy, trace or use stick figures. Guide them in adding details and color. Creative and fun kid illustrations – but neatness and craftsmanship are also important. Art involves the same hard work and effort as writing. Creative illustrations are essential to a good children’s book.

8. Cat-in-the-Hat: Creative writing doesn’t always happen while you are sitting at a desk. Go outside discover nature, hang from a branch, run in the rain, read funny books, see a concert, invent new foods, follow your child’s interests. You have to live life in order to write about it.

9. Comedian: Add humor and fun to everything you do!

 

Text

Tips for writing a good story:

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1. Include detailed thoughts and feelings of characters throughout the “action” text. Think about the senses – hearing, smell, taste, touch, and sight.

2. Add more adjectives and similes to give your story more clarity and interest.

3. Do not write sequels to another story or to a television show, movie, or cartoon. If using a story as inspiration, make sure to change it enough to be original – use new characters, new plot… It is hard to be truly original. It’s O.K. be inspired and use a few ideas, but make it your own.

4. Speaking of original ideas. Please stay away themes about Christmas, stories about a favorite gift, sport stories with your team winning at the end, being in a video game, “it was just a dream”… Very common themes in third grade.

5. Brainstorm on ideas and get feedback what is a good theme. A good theme is creative, interesting, yet still makes sense.  No violent subjects – no guns, blood, killing… Keep it rated G. Third grade audience.

6. Develop with your child an outline for the story that has a clear beginning, middle, and ending. Plot development and details are important. There should be clear connections of ideas from beginning to end. Many young writers run out of time or motivation and the stories often end abruptly. Young authors may need a little guidance with connecting ideas and thoughts.

7. Ask other people to read, edit, and proofread the story. Spelling and grammar errors should be corrected by the final draft.  Check Mr. Rockwell’s class rubric to make sure all elements of the book are included. (Title page, dedication page, author page with reason it was written, illustrations).

8. Students are encouraged to write their own text in their books. Parents who type the story for their child often create a disconnection from the child’s writing process. The child learns more from correcting spelling and grammar using their own handwriting. If a child is uncomfortable about their handwriting skills, remind them that the process is the most important part. There are several tricks of the trade that can help in making the student's handwriting more legible:

   1. If writing on a blank sheet of paper, simply slide line paper underneath (with a little tape) to serve as a guide.

   2. Another trick is to draw the background and glue the writing portion on the page.

   3. Different and creative styles of handwriting can be used, but be cautious of it being difficult to read.  

   4. Write with a light blue or yellow pencil, then trace over with ballpoint. Also, there are erasable pens. Be careful when using markers, they bleed through the paper.

9. Include a short book summary and drawing on the back of the book. It is also acceptable to include a photograph of the author on the author page.

10. A good story’s title both grabs a potential reader’s attention. I sometimes make a list of 10-20 of the most imaginative titles possible and then choose the one that most amuses me. I also test out potential titles on my readers to make sure it grabs their attention as well.

11. Authors tell stories about characters who are so obsessed with a particular need or goal that they will do anything to achieve it—even if what they’re doing is completely off the wall. A writer can ask themself, ‘what’s the worst thing that can happen next?’ and then make it happen. Another fun thing to do is to work out what the reader might be expecting to happen and then surprise them by doing the opposite.

12. Make sure you’ve clearly defined what your character’s problem is at the beginning of the story. A satisfying ending generally shows whether they solve the problem or not. The more surprising the solution the better!

 

Illustrations

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1. Be careful when using markers. They tend to bleed through paper. If your child insists on using markers, make sure the paper is thick enough, double-layer the pages, scan on home computer, or color-photocopy the book.

2. Include drawings that are big. At this stage of development, children often draw smaller figures and leave a lot of empty space.  Depending on the type of book, if the illustrations are the main focus, then fill up page with color. Be careful not to color over the text.

3. Just like with the text - creativity is encouraged, but keep it clear, concise, and simple.

4. Background.      

   1. Think about different places, times, events, and perspective. Each page shouldn’t be a blue sky, yellow sun, green grass, and the character. Make some changes in the time of day, weather (sunny, rainy, snowy) or place (city, country, beach, mountains – inside/outside). Make some drawings close-up/far away – think Alice in Wonderland.

   2. Be creative with techniques. Scrapbooking patterns for backgrounds (Lauren Child, author), Artwork can span across two pages for a larger scene, includes hints in for the next page.

5. Characters.

   1. No stick figures! If your child can draw a circle and rectangles, he/she can draw a person. By the way, no story plots involving stick figures.

   2. If your child has a hard time drawing people, draw animals.

   3. Dot the eyes with pupils (otherwise it looks like zombies – remember no blood and gore).

   4.  Also, when drawing people make sure they are wearing clothes – remember rated G. Think of details. Tall? Short? Long hair? Curly Hair? Hat? Dress?

   5. Do not trace images or copy directly from another story, movie, or cartoon.  It is better to draw from looking and observing, but not to copy directly. We all have a "go-to drawing" of a flower that looks the same every time. You know the one-the generic, five-petal daisy. Ask your child: What kind of flower? Is it a rose? A daisy? A sunflower? What color is it? How big is it? How short is it? How many petals? Thorns? Leaves? Observe! Then go wild! Change a yellow sunflower to blue. Give it eyes. Make it a cartoon or stay realistic. It is up to your artist.

6. Assembling the pages.

   1. Words/text/characters can be handwritten on separate paper(s) to be placed on background. Move around pieces to find best placement before gluing. The text does not always need to be on the bottom.

   2. Glue down artwork/text using glue stick (or parents may use rubber cement or spray glue). White school glue often curls up and sticks to other pages.

   3. Make sure there is a durable, hard cover that is illustrated with title and author included. Research different styles for book covers. Visit a craft store, copy center, or find ideas online.

   4. Pages can be bound in various ways. Be creative, but functional. Number all of the pages.