A Novel Concept: Learning to Write

As a former public school English teacher, I can't believe I am going to say this, but here it goes. I do not believe kids need to be taught how to write. There I said it! Wow, it feels good to get that off my chest. I do believe that children will learn to write by being good readers. 

How do my kids learn how to write? Simple. When they feel like writing they write. Let me show you what I mean.

Ella is nine and when she writes it is normally a script for her My Little Ponies and Webkinz animals, because she likes to create movies with her animals.  Also, she will write letters to friends, because this is what she is interested in writing. When she writes she will share her writing with me and we discuss capitalization, grammar, and spelling. Super simple and it works because she is writing something that is important to her. 

Natalie is almost 12 and loves creative lettering. She has spent a lot of time working and developing her skill this year. Her writing this year consists of copying her favorite quotes into her notebook. Copy work is a great skill for learning how to write well. She has done more writing in past years, but this year she simply is focusing on copy work. She may write more later this year, or maybe not. The main reason this works is because she brings me her quote book and we talk about why punctuation is being used a certain way, and why specific words are capitalized and others are not. We will also talk about theme, mood, and descriptive words.

Olivia is 15 and has been a writer and story teller since she was 3 years old. At the age of three she would draw or paint pictures, describe the story and I would act as her scribe and get her stories onto paper. She still LOVES writing. Olivia wants to be an author. We worked together and found fantastic books, groups, conventions, and mentors to work with and ultimately create her own novel writing program.

Writing is a skill everyone needs, but how it is learned can be different for every individual. My three girls have all learned to write through their own methods and means. It didn’t require a classroom with boring material. It did require them to share their writing with me and for us to have a discussion about what and how they write. Writing really can be that simple. 

If you are interested in what books Olivia chose for her writing program I have them listed below. I have read about half of them, while she has read them all. These are wonderful books for any aspiring author.

Writing Irresistible Kidlit: The Ultimate Guide for Writing Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers

Olivia really enjoyed this book and felt it helped her focus on the genres and audience she is interested in writing for. 

Stein on Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies

Cool information from a master editor. Good information to know for any future author.

Plot & Structure: (Techniques And Exercises For Crafting A Plot That Grips Readers From Start To Finish) (Write Great Fiction)

This was Olivia’s FAVORITE book of the year! She wants more from the Write Great Fiction Series.

Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View

She found good information from this book.

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression

She uses this reference book often!

Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success

This book was really helpful and gave good ideas for different ways to outline a novel.

Enjoy learning to write in  very natural way!