When a child retires the toys of his imaginary world, as C.S. Lewis and his brother Warren did with their imaginary world of Boxen, and when he has finished drawing pictures that go along with it, as J.R.R. Tolkien did with the world of Middle Earth, it is time to take out a piece of paper and a pencil. Now, instead of playing with toys and crayons, the child will play with words.
The most straightforward approach a child could take is to write one of the stories he’s come up with from beginning to end. While that may be straightforward, it’s not at all simple—even for a developed writer. After having imagined so much, getting all of it down on paper is really hard. It’s not that the child forgets what he wants to say; it’s that it takes so very long to write it all out. Put differently, what took minutes to tell might take hours to write. And so the child may skimp on imagery, shorten scenes, cut characters, or simply give up altogether.
Writing a story is a weighty undertaking!
With that in mind, I am going to share some of my favorite storytelling exercises that are more limited in scope and possible to finish in one sitting. These are not shortcuts to writing a whole story. Rather, they are ways in which a child might learn the art of writing stories in small chunks over a prolonged period of time. Here is the list of exercises.
The rule of thumb I use with my students is one scene per sitting, meaning a child should write one scene, and one scene only, but with as much development as possible. That being the case, a full story could unfold over many days. But even if the exercise only ever produces a single scene, it is still well worthwhile for the aspiring storyteller because it affords ample space to develop his writing style and voice.
I’ll post each exercise over the coming days, and this introduction will serve as the table of contents. Whether you are a child aspiring to become a storyteller or a parent or teacher guiding a child along the way, this series is for you. And remember, it’s not how much you write but how beautifully.
Image Credit: The Little Student by Julian Alden Weir (1890)
So excited for this blog series to roll out! My students writing skills will flourish this year as they experiment with these strategies. I’m eager to deepen our immersion in fairy tales beyond just reading to writing.