Supporting your Child with Creative Writing

When children are busy writing a piece of fiction, they can sometimes get so carried away with the plot that they forget to include some good skills and techniques. For other children, they can get ‘brain-freeze’ and just don’t know what to write next. Here are some questions that you could use as a parent to support your child with creative writing. You could ask these questions whilst they are writing or once they have finished and are ready to edit it.

Remember that your child does not have to include all these things – aim for a selection!

1. Have you described the time of day and perhaps the season?

2. Could you write something more creative about the weather, perhaps using personification?

3. Can you change/expand that simile and make it more unique?

4. Could you change the way that you started this sentence, by adding in an adverb/-ed/-ing word?

5. How do you think your character is feeling at this point? Could you describe his feelings, using Show Don’t Tell?

6. Could you describe the building/the setting etc a bit more? Use your senses to describe what can be seen, heard, smelt etc.

7. Have you described your character at different points throughout the story? Add in a sentence to describe your character’s face, clothes, any movements etc.

8. Could you create more suspense at this point / show the fear at this point, by using short sentences, Show Don’t Tell, the Monster Effect etc?