Cheryl Rao discusses the importance of encouraging children to write and why it is an enriching exercise for their development.
Making the effort
To say that anyone can write seems a radical statement when declared out loud. What is meant is that anyone with an adequate command over the language can put down their ideas and make them grow in the direction they choose. The point is not that it is easy for anyone and everyone to write. Rather, if someone is ready to put in the effort, they can write. And write well. And write what other people would like to read and will enjoy reading.
The key word therefore is not ‘anyone’ or ‘write’ but ‘effort’.
A couple of decades ago I felt that children, especially, needed a lot of guidance before they could write. That they had to be given ‘proper’ direction and detailed instruction. But that was before I encountered children in writing workshops and saw for myself how ideas flowed unfettered from them with the bare minimum of guidelines. They would write – and often, the first spark was enough to produce an entertaining anecdote, a thoughtful poem, a glimpse of another angle.
Later, when they presented their work and got feedback from their peers, they got a sense of their own worth, of what was credible to others, and what made their writing entertaining and they could go back for a re-think and some re-working of the original idea they had come up with. When children are prodded a bit, fed on a few suggestions, and given a sense of acceptance of their ideas – they allow themselves to feel, to write what they feel, and then to work on what they write.
Steps for encouraging children to write
This free flow of ideas is the first step to getting children to write. There will always be some who do not want to pick up their pens. “It’s like this…” they will say, and proceed to talk – sometimes talk very well – about what they intend to write. That is when they should be gently pushed into the writing process. Tell them to go and write it. Getting it down makes it precise. It can be read over and over again. It can be enjoyed. It can be thought about. It can be reviewed. It can be discussed. It can get better in terms of ideas and language and technicalities.
So, step one for children, adults, and anyone who has ever wanted to write (but been put off by the thought that there may not be anyone interested in what they have to say) should remember that they have a unique perspective. Nobody else can feel or think what they do. And their perspective could be what someone else could connect with and would like to read.
Step two – and we reach this really fast in workshop situations – is to get to it. Write. Leave hesitation behind and go for it. Just do it.
Step three – and four – and more. Work on it. That is where the difficulty lies. Don’t whitewash this part for children – but don’t frighten them off by telling them about this too much in advance, before they have taken steps one and two.
As children keep writing, they have nowhere to go but forward. Their appetites are whetted by having put down something with a flavour all their own and they become more amenable to going back and thinking again. It is already easier for them because they have got it down in writing once. They know what they want to say. They know on what sections they have to work. And they have that great incentive ahead of them – they want to see their ideas expressed better because their readers want to know more.
This is the time when some children turn to established writers to see what they did to make their writing enjoyable (they don’t have to go to the writers we consider great. They can look at the writers whose books or stories or poems appeal to them) and when they do this, their curiosity is aroused and their fledgling steps get faster and more assured. They are reading to develop their ideas and their vocabulary, they are reading to get a sense of what writers do to create believable characters, place them in situations that excite the reader’s imagination, create atmosphere, and more.
And when children start to appreciate the methods of a writer, they are on the way to becoming better writers themselves because they are learning to develop their ideas through the use of technique. The whole mystery of writing starts to reveal itself to them – and they think: ‘Wow – I can write!’
Would you like more inspiration for encouraging your young learners to write? Check out Cindy James’s series on creating stories with children.