tips for kids?

Bet AJ could help you out there, Jane. AJ? AAAAYYYYY JAAAAAAYYYYYYY????

I remember when I was in primary school. We had to plan our stories using the good old 'Begining, Middle & End' structure before we started on the story itself. We were also encouraged to draw pictures of the characters and things that were happening in the story. It made writing (and finishing!) the story more fun.

I think children and teens have great potential due to their imagination, some do not use this potential fully during the early years and as they grow older they find writing a bore and find it harder to concentrate fully and give the best of themselves. teenagers adore criticising and they love romantic descriptions, if they are given an essay about a local event they are not going to enjoy it as much as writting a story or poem about a teen´s everyday life or maybe first loves.they may be imbarassed to describe to a teacher the feeling of a first kiss, afraid that all other teachers would read it and think about them differently.Teens have to get over those fears of presenting works they enjoy writting but that sometimes is a bit too revealing or intense. A good way of releasing the full capacity of a teenager is to read something intense and descriptive with them and talk to them about everything ( including sex, romance and even experiences) try not to make it a lecture on preventing AIDS but how you felt at that moment. Description (not only the fisical description of a person but descriptions of feelings and moments or how the character (often based on the writer ) felt or feels about something) is always a good way of saying what you really mean or feel.

I remember when i was in fifth grade,i was asked to imagine what would happen if i was playing a computer game and the computer blew up!That was the first time i actually enjoyed writing something.The best advice my teachers gave me was to read,write book reports[i hated that] And make whatever i wrote interesting.The rest didn't matter.You learn most about structure from reading.Also the less you restrict a child's imagination by providing a strict story line, the better.On the other hand telling them to write whatever they want,just ensures writer's block! My fifth grade English teacher had another interesting technique.When we were quietly writing our little stories in class,he would saunter around emitting high pitched shrieks and yells!For some reason this really fired my imagination!Can any one tell me why?Are you reading this Mr. Willcocks?!

Speaking as a thirteen year old, here are some ways I have been inspired to write: 1. Open the dictionary, read a random word, and use it as a title (that's how I wrote my piece "De Rigueur" which was cherry picked) 2. Think of as many words as you can to describe the taste of sherbert. 3. Begin by mimicing the style of another piece of writing, and let your own voice come through afterwards. PS. To Lara Lutz, Jamie and Shabnam - Thankyou for your comments - I can really identify with what you're saying. PPS. READ MY WORK ON ABCTALES AND GIVE FEEDBACK LEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well what's your username? babewithbrains. Good author title!!!