Creative writing is a skill that can benefit your child academically, personally and professionally. It is also a really fun activity to practice with your child at home.

Creative Writing Ideas

Parents can help to develop their child’s imagination and writing skills, using some really simple and fun techniques. Here are a few creative writing ideas from Dover College for you to try at home:

• Start by asking your child to choose a few of their favourite books from their collection. Read some of these books with your child and explore the various writing styles and genres.

• If your child has a favourite book or author, this can help them to develop their own style of writing. Ask your child to create a new ending to their favourite story. Together you can explore how simple changes to events in the story could cause a different ending.
• When practising creative writing, it is important to choose a topic that really interests your child. This will help them to enjoy the task and keep them motivated to complete their story.
• Ask your child to ‘mind map’ words relating to your chosen topic. A good way to do this is by asking your child to think about how the topic might affect their senses. For example, if they are writing a jungle story, it may feel humid, they might see lots of trees and they might hear lots of birds. Creating a mind map can also help your child to imagine characters.

• Another tip for helping your child to structure their story is by thinking of a problem for the characters to solve. This will help them to create a storyline with an effective ending.
• Finally, one of the hardest things about writing a story is the first line. Help your child to get their story started by giving them an interesting opening sentence. If you need some help, take a look at the first line inside some of the books on your child’s bookshelf.