My child loves writing. How can I encourage this?

Mio Debnam replies: It’s lovely to hear of a child who loves to write and has a good imagination! I think that having the enthusiasm and the drive to write are two of the most important things to being a writer, so he is well on his way.

I’d like my child to develop his love of writing further. How can I do this? He is 9 years old, and likes to write ‘imaginary’ stories. He is very creative!

One thing I would encourage you do is to push him to read lots of different genres and authors. It’s by reading and reading and reading some more, that all of us (adults and kids alike) get the ‘feel’ for good story telling. You can learn about voice, plotting and character development by reading lots of good stories.

The other important thing he should do is to keep on writing – all sorts of things. I’d encourage him to carry around a little notebook – to write down ideas as they occur to him, or keep a diary. Tell him to listen to conversations and really take note of how people talk or how they look, or of any scene he encounters that really strike his fancy.

To develop craft, he has to learn to be discerning about his work, learn how to self edit, and to be open to constructive criticism. Perhaps you and he can read his stories together and you can help him to tighten them. If you do this with your child though, remember that you’re not his teacher, and he’s not doing this as a compulsory assignment – he’s writing for fun, so that’s what these editing sessions should be too – fun! He should feel excited and proud that he’s polishing his story into something really good.

That isn’t to say that you can’t deconstruct the story together – figure out which bits are a bit slow or don’t really make sense, or sound out of place… but always pick out the great bits to celebrate too – like a particularly thrilling plot point, or a great description or even the perfect word. If there are lots of grammar or spelling mistakes, don’t get too bogged down with them at first – concentrate on perfecting the story first, before running the grammar and spell check on the whole story.

Once you have a great story, what do you do with it? Well, he can look for places where he might be able to get his words into print. The Daily10 for example occasionally publishes short stories (write tand ask them if they would consider it), and there are many writing competitions for kids throughout the year, both in HK and abroad, where he may be able to submit the story. But even if you don’t do that, perhaps you could print out a few copies (with illustrations?!) and distribute it to friends and family members who would be interested – as the next best thing to writing a brilliant story, is having people read it!