How to help your child with creative writing (when you’re not confident with creative writing yourself)
Supporting your child with creative writing can feel intimidating, especially if it’s not something you naturally enjoy yourself or feel you’re good at. There can be doubt over where to start or worry you won’t ‘do it right’.
The truth is, you don’t have to be a great writer to help your child become one.
Some of the most effective ways you can support your child have nothing to do with your own writing skills. It’s about encouragement, exposure to different ideas and building their confidence through practice.
Here are some practical strategies you can try at home:
1. Model Bad Writing
Bad writing can help your child improve. Children often worry about getting things wrong. By deliberately writing something clunky or full of mistakes yourself, you give them the fun (and empowering) job of being the ‘expert’. They get to spot mistakes, suggest improvements and then write a better version themselves.
2. Celebrate Ideas
Writing is about expressing ideas. Let the creativity flow before worrying about spelling or grammar. Look for the positives in what they have written. The improvement edits can be addressed when they’re already feeling proud of their imagination and work.
3. Give Them an Audience
Writing feels more real when someone else is going to see or hear it. Having an audience brings purpose, fun and motivation. For reluctant writers, it gives them their ‘why’. Encourage writing – it doesn’t have to be a story: a funny letter or jokes to a friend or relative, a birthday or thank you card, a menu for a meal time during the week. If they do want to write a story, this could then be recorded as an audiobook version to share with someone special.
4. Use Speaking to Support Writing
Sometimes, the hardest part about writing is getting started. For many children (and parents), it’s easier to say their ideas first before they try to write them down. Oral storytelling is a brilliant way to help bridge the gap between thoughts and writing, especially for children who have brilliant imaginations but find putting pen to paper overwhelming.
Encourage your child to tell you their story before they write it. Saying it aloud and vocalising ideas first makes the writing feel more familiar and they’re much more likely to know what they want to write once they’ve ‘heard’ themselves tell it.
5. Experience and Exposure
Children need material for their writing. They need experiences and exposure to different styles, voices and formats:
· Try reading different things - comics, jokes, signs, instructions, menus - they all count.
· You could take them on a Vocabulary Treasure Hunt – this little adventure can be enough to spark an idea.
· Expose them to different stories: movies, audiobooks, poems. Afterwards, ask: ‘What would you change?’ or ‘What might happen next?’
The more experiences they have, the richer their writing becomes. Our group courses and workshops are a fantastic way to build on this - children get to share their work with a real audience, seeing firsthand how their stories are received by others. They’ll also be surrounded by a wealth of ideas and inspiration from their peers, helping their own creativity to grow.
Final Thought
Helping your child with writing isn’t about being perfect, it’s about showing that writing is a process, that mistakes are normal (and good!) and that improving something is just as important as writing it in the first place. Encourage their ideas. Give them an audience.
We are also here to help. We run regular creative writing courses and workshops throughout the year as well as Booster Blocks for 1:1 support. If you’ve got any worries or questions, please get in touch - we’d love to support you and your child on their writing journey.