Kids are born storytellers. Their imagination is on fire and they’re often hilarious without trying to be funny. They’re also fearless, which makes them fabulous writing partners.  Since they are kids, that annoying little inner voice that that says things like “what are you doing? You aren’t good enough.” hasn’t come in yet.  They just create.

My son, Bennet, used to come home from kindergarten with drawings that looked like chaos on the page. When I asked him to explain his drawings to me, I realized that his drawings were actually layers of stories. His invented superhero, Bennetman, fought crime, dodged explosions and battled supervillains in one single picture. So, we started to write his stories down. We folded up printer paper into books and he started making books. He drew and drew, and told me the stories in his drawings. I wrote them down. We had so much fun making books and even though he’s now in 5th grade and can type perfectly well, we still like writing books together. We’ve written dozens of stories together and I’ve learned a few things along the way.

Writing with Kids: Tips to Keep it Fun

• Kids are filled with stories. Every time they pick up a stuffed animal, a doll or action figure, they are coming up with stories. If you want to write with kids, especially little kids, your job is to pull those stories out and give them structure. It’s not to teach them how to write. That is a happy side effect.
• Ask questions.  When my son was little, he was too young to write words for his stories. He drew pictures. So, I asked him to tell me about his pictures and to add more detail, I asked him specific questions. Why did the character do that? What was he feeling? Where did he go next? He has a full scene playing out in his imagination. So, asking basic questions helped pull out those details.
• Don’t worry about grammar. Just get the story out. When my son got older, we moved to the computer. He grabs the keyboard from me and just starts typing wildly, often with no punctuation and many misspellings. There is a part of me that wants to grab the keyboard and fix all those grammar errors. Don’t do it. Nothing kills a writing streak and sucks the joy out of writing faster that someone pointing out your grammatical mistakes. Let them go. Get the story out. You can always go back and edit it.

Writing with Kids: Ideas to get Started

• Inject them into their favorite book series, movie or tv show.
• Tag team stories: This works great for older kids. One of you starts a story and then hands it off to the other, who writes a little more and then hands it back. Keep writing and handing it back and forth until it’s done. It’s a lot of fun to see what twists and turns your story takes.
• Start with a “what if…”. Ex. What if we got a pet alligator? What if you suddenly got a super power?
• Need more prompts? Check this out. 

 

Do you like writing with kids? What tips and tricks do you have for making it fun? Comment below and let me know.

Check out Superhero Kick Team: Pencils Down, which Bennet and I wrote together.