You make your child learn to write from a very young age. However, you generally never teach them how to be creative in writing. Creative writing exactly means, developing the ability to tell stories, create characters, generate environments, and use the potential and imagination to develop a unique landscape. Best of all, it’s never too late: they can always develop it. And we are going to leave here some tips and tricks.
Take note and put these exercises into practice:
1. Let them choose an image
Many times creativity is not so much imagining things as connecting them. That is to say: let them look for something else that can inspire them too. In this case, an image. From here, an immense range of possibilities opens up. For example, let your child try to describe the scene.
Both what is happening and what has led to it happening, and what to expect. Along these same lines, another option is to let their imagination run wild. Maybe they don’t have to focus so much on the action and they can just search for the emotion that it produces in them.
The interesting thing, in any case, is that they are able to develop and exploit the ideas that they associate with that photograph or painting.
2. Automatic writing
An exercise very typical of the French literary avant-gardes of the 20th century. These authors were deeply influenced by the unconscious, so they tried to find ways to free it and break the shackles of consciousness.
One of them was automatic writing. Your child has to stand in front of a blank sheet of paper and start writing faster and faster as they empty their mind. That is to say: they need to stop thinking about absolutely nothing, and transcribe the flow of words that go through their head.
There will come a point where they will no longer have control of what they are writing. Or, at least, not consciously. And it will be right there when they will be surprised by the tremendous potential that was hidden inside them and that now emerges.
3. A box of emotions
Not everything is about unleashing their hidden creativity. It is also important to exercise something technically, and the box of emotions is the perfect exercise for it. In a closed place, keep a series of papers on which positive and negative emotions are written. And then, allow your child to draw roles by assigning that emotion to a character or situation.
And the next step is to let your children describe that situation. It has a random component that will force them to develop new strategies to communicate efficiently.
But, in addition, it is an excellent help to influence more in the psychology of the characters, to try to understand their internal functioning and the mechanics that move them. In this way, they can develop more human prose.
4. Constellation of words
If they want to write, it is essential to have an extensive and well-applied vocabulary. How can you generate this virtue in them? Well, with this exercise. Suppose a setting for a story of theirs’ is a fairyland.
Well, you ask them to write that word in the centre of a leaf and, from there, draw branches with associated words.
For example magic, wizard, or palace. And with each of those branches, do the same. In this way, they can work on their imagination when it comes to understanding all the spaces in each scenario.
And, at the same time, give them some fun exercises to enhance their vocabulary and let them worry about learning more. With a more specific mental map and with this resource of extra words they will be able to make more precise descriptions.
5. Dialogue with their characters
This creatively stimulates another facet of the writer, the ability to develop strong characters. If they want to write fiction, it is essential that their protagonists and secondary characters have their own entities.
That they themselves can really imagine and understand them. To do this, the children have to first understand what the characters of their story are looking for. How will it happen? Very easy, by creating a dialogue with each character.
This way, they will be able to see what blank spots exist. They may not yet be able to define their personalities well, or they may even discover new things about them that may have some value for their story. In addition, it helps them define what kind of expressions the characters use and speak.
6. Set a number of pages per day
A very common mistake is to write only when the children think they have something to say, or when they feel like doing it. But if you want them to improve and gain ease, you need to ask your child to do it every day.
Even when they’re out of ideas. After all, inspiration can also be forced and practiced. How can they do it? Easy. Buy them a notebook and let them mark the number of pages that they have to fill in every day.
Yes or yes, regardless of whether they can think of anything. This way your child will build one of the most important things they have to count on: the habit.
7. Environment enumerations
Suppose, they imagine a scenario: city or country. Or even non-existent; whichever. And they begin to make a list with everything that can be seen and everything that can be heard or, also, felt.
The more exhaustive, the better. The main challenge that they are going to have is that they cannot physically be in the spaces that they are going to create, since they are imaginary. Therefore, to supply that, the best thing is always to make a complex and exhaustive mental map.
These are just some of the things they may need, among many others. That’s why there are so many courses that teach children how they can be more creative inwriting. After all, it is something they can learn and that a more qualified and experienced professional can explain to them. Aark Learnings offer various courses which will help your child to develop new skills.
In conclusion, creative writing does not depend exclusively on innate talent. The children can also practice it regularly by performing these exercises that we leave here. So that you can see their skills develop and improve a little more every day.