Just how beneficial is learning about creative writing on your child’s education? They most likely already know the basics from the many stories they have absorbed from both books and TV. By delving in deeper into the world of creative writing students can gain skills that will help them in all areas of life.
Putting new words and experiences together
Children are sponges for new information. They are constantly learning new words, terms, and gaining new experiences in life both good and bad. Through the medium of creative writing children can channel these new words and experiences into stories and cement in their mind an understanding of them which will last longer than if they went unused.
Channelling emotions
In the modern world we are all more aware of our children’s emotional development, through the medium of storytelling children can gain a better understanding of emotions. For example, empathy is one of the key characteristics of a likeable main character. Harry Potter and Spiderman both have tragedy in their backstories, this is not by accident but by design to elicit sympathy from the reader. By learning about how to create an empathetic main character children will also gain a further understanding of empathy. Children can also explore how characters emotionally react to stressful situations through storytelling. If a group writes a story about their main character being bullied at school, they will most likely each write their characters as having a different reaction to the situation. By sharing this work to one another they can better understand each other’s emotional reaction to the situation.
Length is not important
One of the biggest barriers to writing in children is often that they see it as a mammoth task due to them being presented with a world of novels. They’ve read books that are one, two, three hundred pages and think “I can’t write all of that, I can barely write one page.” This fear that writing a full story is some massive hurdle can hold even the most imaginative minds back. Short stories can be just as successful as long stories. For example, one of the most common types of online stories which teenagers read around the Halloween season are creepypastas. These are basically the campfire horror stories of the internet, often a few paragraphs in length created to send a chill down a teenager’s spine. They often involve a mysterious and tense build up which is followed by a scary reveal at the end. We should embrace these modern storytelling trends, especially when they present children a view into how effective a short story can be.
Structure and simplicity
One of the glaring holes in traditional education is the lack of explaining how a story is structured. Children are often told you have a beginning, middle, and end. There is a main character and they’re written about in first or third person. Compare this to when students learn about formatting an essay where they are presented with a multitude of techniques and constantly marked on where they have adhered to them. The structure of a story has been written about since the days of Aristotle and is much simpler than many students realise. For example, by explaining the five-act structure of storytelling, children can gain a plethora of skills which will aid them in creating stories. One of the most common complaints you might get from a child when asking them to write a story is that they don’t know how to start it. By explaining the first act of the five-act structure they will find this much easier. Act one involves introducing the main character, introducing the setting, and then intruding on their normal life with a great big problem. We can empathise how easy the first two are to novice writers, “Sally lived in London.” This is already two thirds of my first act done. “Sally lived in London but was moving to Japan.” By adding a couple more words the entire first act is done.
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail
Finishing a story is by far the hardest hurdle many children will face. They’ve got the idea, they’re excited to run with it, they reach halfway, and they have no idea where to go next and put their story down forever. Part of learning about structuring a story is learning to have the ending ready at the beginning. By focusing on planning ahead children earn a valuable lesson which stretches across to other subjects too.
Luke Beardsley is the director of the Outschool organisation, Writers Of The World by Luke Beardsley. Writers Of The World has excellent teachers who are experienced with creative writing, who all engage with students with a goal to help them learn how creative they are. They run a weekly Creative Writing Club, as well as other classes. Luke has over 5 years' experience teaching mainly creative writing online, and he is an experienced writer who has written, directed and produced a horror radio drama for the BBC, as well as written short stories for ESL learners. He has also educated students in storytelling with a local radio station.
Luke says:
"Creative writing is a subject which can help children with their confidence and understand their emotions better. Traditional learning often overlooks the inner details of structuring a story which without understanding leaves many children at a disadvantage. By empowering a child with creative writing they will learn how to understand both others and themselves better through the medium of storytelling."
You can find more about the Writers Of The World classes here.
