Creative writing advice please

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dajuni27
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 5:43 pm

Creative writing advice please

Post by dajuni27 »

My DD struggles with creative writing, does anyone have any tips/advice as to how I can help her improve?
Many thanks
Bestichka
Posts: 63
Joined: Tue Jan 17, 2012 5:29 pm

Re: Creative writing advice please

Post by Bestichka »

Have you tried doing a mind map with her? DS found it very helpful - stops any mad panic and sets the mind straight to work.
DIY Mum
Posts: 744
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:08 pm
Location: Not in a hole in the ground but in a land where once they dwelt-the Beormingas

Re: Creative writing advice please

Post by DIY Mum »

I agree wholeheartedly with ‘Mind Mapping’. It’s a very useful technique to use in getting them to figure out what to write and in which sequence. Take a look at Tony Buzan’s site for more info.

What I like about the concept of Mind Maps is the emphasis on pictures. Pictures reveal a lot and for some children, they are more vivid than words on a page. My dd2 is like this. She’s alright in planning her work once she gets started– it’s getting her started that’s the problem. :idea:

I found some really good picture books by Chris Van Allsburg and David Wiesner.

The former is a collection of interesting pictures with ‘one liners’, and children go on from there to make up their own story. We’d use that picture as our starting point and then mind map, using TB’s five questions: what, when, where, who and why?

Once the general plan is all set, we’d focus on creating atmosphere in the story, writing interesting sentences (using Peat); work on a good introduction and conclusion. Not all children have a good vocabulary (especially dd2), so taking a multi sensory approach really helped. For example, when she wanted to describe an evening, she would go outside to ‘feel’ it and used those experiences as a basis to express her thoughts in her writing.

There’s lots of drafting and editing that goes on in the whole process, but this helps them improve. Thankfully, she has come a long way in the quality of her essay writing from where she was when we started a couple of months ago!

You can google lots of Mind Map images. This is one that I made following TB's guide and generally use as a starting point.


Image


HTH.
Last edited by DIY Mum on Mon Apr 22, 2013 11:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
dajuni27
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 5:43 pm

Re: Creative writing advice please

Post by dajuni27 »

thanks for the advice, I have never heard of mind mapping but will look into this further as it sounds like this will help her
pudding34
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2011 3:19 pm

Re: Creative writing advice please

Post by pudding34 »

DIY Mum such a helpful post. It has inspired me to work on this with my DS. I like the look of the Van Allsburg books too - I have not come across them before. Thank you!
mystery
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Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Creative writing advice please

Post by mystery »

Yes this was a post that I think might work for my DD. How old is the child this worked so well with?

Alan Peat sentence types - did you buy the book or get the stuff from the internet somewhere or other?
DIY Mum
Posts: 744
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:08 pm
Location: Not in a hole in the ground but in a land where once they dwelt-the Beormingas

Re: Creative writing advice please

Post by DIY Mum »

If you buy his book about the 25 sentence types, you'll get more examples which help dc to develop their vocabulary as well as, pick up punctuation and grammar rules effortlessly. Peat’s book is to be used with over 7 yr olds.

Pictures again are a good way of bringing Peat sentences to life. Especially BOYS sentences which are 2 part sentences [1st part ends with a comma and the latter part always begins with a popular conjuction - but, or, yet (and), so]. Hence, mnemonic:
BOYS. :lol:

You can also play games during car journeys making up 2A ones. Think of 2 nouns, picture them together, then think of 2 adjectives to describe each noun. Put it in a sentence, separating adjectives with commas.

For example, dc Quintus’ two nouns were ‘monkey’ and ‘tree’.
His sentence: it was a cheeky, brown monkey that leaped on the tall, coconut tree etc
Last edited by DIY Mum on Mon Apr 22, 2013 11:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Pumpkin Pie
Posts: 661
Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2012 7:27 pm

Re: Creative writing advice please

Post by Pumpkin Pie »

Check this out:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-netwo ... y-literacy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
fizzypops
Posts: 69
Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2012 8:52 pm
Location: UK

Re: Creative writing advice please

Post by fizzypops »

My daughter likes having a picture and then imagining what the character could say. This is a really good warm up. See here for essay topics :arrow: http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/advice ... ay-writing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also you can get a set of creative writing books from AE Tuition at major bookstores. They go from Book 1-Book 6. AE Tuition also has other books, e.g VR, NVR, Maths, Vocab...

FP :)
FP Fizzypops
DIY Mum
Posts: 744
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:08 pm
Location: Not in a hole in the ground but in a land where once they dwelt-the Beormingas

Re: Creative writing advice please

Post by DIY Mum »

fizzypops wrote:My daughter likes having a picture and then imagining what the character could say.
This reminds me of an exercise we had to do in our teacher training English / drama session. We had to get into groups, assume a role and 'freeze'. The other members not in our group then analysed our 'freeze frame' and had to guess what our roles were, context and what we were thinking about from our expressions. Quite a useful technique for developing children's story writing.
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