Creative writing fuels a child’s interest and gives wings to
his imagination. He becomes articulate in expressing his feelings and ideas. He
learns how and where to gather his thoughts, to shape them, to sculpt them into
stories and give life to them. Parents and teachers can teach them the basics
of fiction writing, how to note down their story ideas, and how to write a
short story.
First of all, ideas
are the foundation of creative writing. So gathering of ideas is of prime
importance. Children can be taught to source ideas from their surroundings, from
their parents, siblings and friends. Secondary
source will be from books, newspapers, films and internet, to name a few. The
most important thing is to teach them to keep a creative activity book and
write down anything/everything that comes to their mind. The next important thing is for the students to learn the elements
of story writing, so that they can take the logical road to fiction writing.
Elements of story writing are – Settings, Characters,
Dialogue, Narration, and Plot. The teacher can inform that settings are
background to a story, where action of the story takes place Eg: park, school
etc and it is important to describe them to bring the story alive. They can be
taught to describe surroundings by using the five senses. Eg: The classroom was
dirty (visual) with dust coating the desktops (touch) and smelling musty
(smell) etc.
The next step is to describe the characters by making
them stand out. For this, they can recall someone from their own life and
describe their physical/personal characteristics, likes/dislikes. They have to
be educated to select one main character around whom the story revolves and
other minor characters that move the story forward by interacting with the main
characters. The characters have to be named. A conflict has to be introduced.
The teachers can teach the student the element of dialogue by pairing
off with the student and by talking and listening to each other.
Another important thing is narration. The student has
to be notified on what is narration? It is a person/narrator telling the story.
If the narrator tells it as if happening to him, then it is first person point
of view and if he narrates it as happening to some one else, then it is second
person point of view. So the narration will move on with words such as…I was
walking by one day or He was moving towrds the speeding train..etc The student
must learn that a plot is important as it is the structure of the story.
It is the basic outline which starts with the very first gripping sentence and
holds reader’s interest till the very end of the story.
Tips: Incorporate the teaching in an interactive
session; the learning turns fun and easy. Gauge a student’s interest and
vocabulary by asking a lot of open-ended questions. Choose topics which are
close to students’ hearts. After choosing a topic, source important words for
it from the students. Create realistic settings and characters, it helps to
visualize them and relate to them better. Look after the mechanics of writing,
such as spelling and grammar, only after the creative task is completed.
An Example:
First, Start to Set
the Scene/Setting: get the class/pupil to choose their favourite kind of
story: scary, mysterious, exciting, hilarious... If they find this difficult,
get them to decide their favourite film/comic genre. Get them to explore their
chosen setting with all five of their senses. The more interesting the setting,
the more engaged is the class/pupil. Ask them to imagine if it's snowing or raining;
blowing a gale, sunny or cloudy? Night or day? Is the setting indoors or
outdoors? In a town, a field or forest? In an abandoned asylum, school,
hospital? Are the characters funny, serious, engaging, playful or evil? Is the
conversation realistic or filmi?
Second, Start to Set the Characters:
It is important for the reader to know what a character is
thinking and feeling. This can only be done through description. Describe the
physical/emotional characteiristics of the character. Although physical
description is important, emotional description encourages empathy in the
reader.Discuss the word “empathy”, introduce a character with whom the reader
will empathise: a girl or boy who has an unusual character trait or history; a
faithful dog, a young animal – someone who's lost, lonely or frightened. Then
it becomes easier to describe the thoughts of John who has discovered an unusual
something in the bundle.
Third, Start to Set the Dialogue:
Ask, what kind of a boy was John? Was he lively or lazy? Did
he have many friends or more enemies? Was he a helpful boy? Do you think he
would have helped others with his discovery? How do you think he would react on
discovering the bundle? Could you say, “John gave a yell of surprise on seeing
the bundle?” Could you say, “He looked at it and asked around as to whose bag
it was.” “A passerby asked him, what was he doing?” “He replied that he was
just checking his school bag as was not willing to share it with anyone yet.”
Ask whether any part of that dialogue could be changed, an extra added or
something removed? [Note: sentences inside the quotation marks are dialogues.]
Fourth, Start to Set the Plot:
Does the story have a beginning?
Eg. John was walking home from school. He came upon a mysterious bundle. It contained….?
[Important tip: Introduce a problem at the beginning of the story.] Then does
the story have a middle? Eg. Did John open the bundle? What did he find in it?
How did that finding change his life? Did it change it for the better or worse?
Did he make any friends or enemies after discovering that mysterious something
in the bundle? [This is also called as introducing a conflict into the story to
make it more interesting.] Then ask, what did he tell his friend about his
discovery? Did any enemy try to steal it? What did he do with the discovery?
Then the story will have a conclusion. Ask how did the story end? Did he become
famous? Was he in danger of getting killed? Did anyone attack him? How did he
escape? Did he get anybody’s help to save himself?
Fifth, Start to Set the Narrartion:
Is the story being told from his
point of view? Does he start it with John or I? Is he is telling us from other’s
point of view? Then it will be about John. The narration must beconvincing/ realistic.
A story must appear to be true.It should also entertain. A conflict and
resolution makes the story interesting. To bring out the conflict, use a small
game called word-association. This game helps the writer find conflict in their
story. Think of a person, animal or object, then think of an unpleasant word
association. E.g., kitten/traffic. Car/cliff. Baby/blizzard, Otter/dry docked,
magic find /thieves. Expand the story. Eg.An otter has nowhere to swim. It is
left high and dry on the sea shore. It cannot reach the sea. It is too far
away.Then, when the adventure is drawing to a close provide resolution, it
starts to rain. Without conflict, a story quickly becomes boring. Discourage
the use of known fictional characters. Ask students to surprise the reader to
keep their attention. For Eg. Use zany names or make an evil character that has
a name like Mr Upright etc. When starting their story, they can make use of,
'One day'. 'Once upon a time. Or ‘Hi, my name is.’ Create a relevant word-bank
in their work book. Keep adding new words to it. You can keep borrowing words
from it make your story exciting and entertaining.
Now, Start Writing! The story of the Dolphin
I live in the ocean
and my home is near the shoreline. I love the warmth of the sun shining on my
back in the more shallow waters near the land. There's just one problem -
people. The tourists throw garbage into the water. The sunlight can hardly
filter through the pollution into my beautiful ocean home. One day I was washed
ashore by the waves. I was terrifed. I called out to everyone to help me.
Nobody noticed me. I continued to lie on the hot sands. I cried piteously. ……
Continue the story ………
No comments:
Post a Comment