Working Mom: The Write Path

It’s never too early – or too late – to sharpen your child’s writing skills

It’s a common scene these days: your child staring at a blank computer screen or paper, his brain unable to move his fingers to start and assigned essay or report. When he does churn out the final product, the tone is as dull as the Peter and Jane books of yesteryears – “See Jane run.” There is just no love for the craft. Their words lack clarity, coherence and cleverness, to say nothing of grammar.

Writing is a skill that doesn’t always comes naturally, but it’s one that your child can learn. In your child’s life, it will be important from grade school to college and throughout adulthood. He will need the skill to write term papers, thank you notes, job applications, articles and business letters. It may also be something he’ll actually do for a living.

A unique program

Even famous authors have to grapple with rough patches of bad writing and writer’s block every once in a while. But while professional writers may have the experience and techniques to bounce back, an inexperienced youth who is still trying to find his own style may often write himself into a corner and forever become discouraged.

Writing Coach Tweet Sering, a Carlos Palanca Memorial Awardee for Literature, put together “Put It in Writing”, a workshop that uses a unique curriculum mix of thought-provoking group discussions, practical journal and essay writing, and film showings to encourage kids to find their own voice and help them translate that voice into the written word.

She says, “Every writer, at some point, thinks they suck. Check out the websites and autobiographies of your favorite writers and you will inevitably come across that sentiment. But if they let that feeling stop them, they wouldn’t be your favorite writer.”

Tweet says the curriculum she follows isn’t used in many classrooms, but it was created based on her own experience as a writer. “I wanted to teach the writing class that I always wish I was taught. It took me a while to figure out how that writing class would go because I had to discover my own methods. And that took years.”

How to overcome the notion that only certain subjects deserve to be written about is one of the things that Sering tackles in her class. “People often say that they don’t know what to write. They somehow have this idea that there is a standard or “acceptable” subject to write about. But reacting to something like a movie and articulating that reaction on paper is a valid subject. By screening films and making it a jump-off point for an essay topic, I want to get across the idea that you can write about anything at all.”

What kids need

Tweet  says there are a number of pre-requisite skills children need to enable good writing.

The stillness to focus

For today’s “digital youth” who are used to getting information at high speed, it’s a challenge to keep still, waiting for ideas to start flowing, let alone, developing them. It’s especially tough when they’ve grown accustomed to Twittering about their day in 140 characters or less.

A basic element of actually starting to write is focusing. Tweet, who has given writing workshops to students aged 9 to 45 years old, says that focusing one’s attention is one of the hardest things to do.

“If you want to be coherent, if you want your thoughts to make sense on the page, you’re just going to have to find a way to focus. The teen years are a good time to seriously start cultivating this habit of focusing because it’s a transition period between being a carefree child and becoming a more responsible person.”, Tweet explains.

A fertile imagination

Someone once said that everything made by man started from a simple idea brought to life with imagination. In terms of writing, this couldn’t be more true.

“Imagination, from which all innovation stems, is going to be the most important currency in a world in which information is so readily available. Since anyone with access to the web can get almost any kind of information they need, it’s not information itself that becomes valuable but HOW we use this information. And that requires imagination–a very active, fertile, healthy imagination.” says Tweet.

Honesty

Even in fiction, writing honestly is important. Kids who have the interest and potential to write need to learn to use words that are there to express rather than impress. Pretension can be spotted a mile off and does little to draw readers in. Encourage your child to write candidly about things that are personal to him – friends, family, dreams and disappointments.

A reading habit

Practice will never make perfect if the writer is not a reader. This is a challenge in a culture of growing “a-literacy” – a world with people who can read and write, but don’t.

Tweet adds, “Writing tends to come more naturally when one is an avid reader. By reading widely on various topics, you’ll see that there are an infinite number of ways to write and that there is really no wrong or right way, only an individual style of writing. Reading gives you the confidence to figure out what your writing voice is.”

What you can do

Tweet offers other practical tips on how parents can encourage writing without the arm-twisting.

Provide the place and materials

A desk, good lighting, plenty of paper, pens, and crayons provide the best conditions to get your child started. There’s also nothing like a nice, blank notebook begging to be filled up. Name-drop cool people who wrote journals, like President Barack Obama, Albert Einstein, Kate Winslet, J.K. Rowling, to name a few.

Write together

Start writing yourself and genuinely find enjoyment in the craft. Get your child to help you write thank you letters. You can try a game in which one of you begins a story with a single sentence, and both of you continue it on paper. Exchange stories and compare notes. It could be fun.

Show an interest

Take the time to say something good and ask questions about anything your child draws or writes, even if it’s only a few sentences. Tell him if you think it’s thoughtful, descriptive, scary or funny. A positive approach and genuine interest in your child’s work will do wonders for his confidence.

No pushing and pulling

Never push your children to take up writing. It’s the best way to turn them off. It’s like when you push them to eat their veggies, it suddenly becomes unsavory. Whenever parents insist that you like or try something, that thing becomes suspect.

Books that make you want to write

“If You Want to Write” by Brenda Ueland

Originally published in 1938, this book on has timeless lessons on how write and practical lessons on how to live. Ueland’s book opens with the simple philosophy that “Everybody,is talented, original, and has something important to say.”

“The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life” by Julia Cameron

This compilation of Cameron’s more than 40 brief personal essays is about the joys of writing and how it is an essential part of life. It offers insights about making writing as much a part of one’s everyday life as breathing. Her advice for writer’s block?  “Anyone who has felt hampered by making a big deal out of writing “tends to make writing difficult. Keeping writing casual tends to keep it possible”.

Here are Tweet Sering’s all-time fiction favorites for ALL ages

“Forever” by Judy Blume

Blume’s empathy for adolescence is as always evident in her writing. Here, she tackles a critical point in a teen’s life:  going “all the way”.

In this story of first love, Katherine’s dilemma of losing her virginity to Michael is written with sensitivity, insightful candor and an understanding of what it’s really like to be a teenager.

“The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger

Sixteen year old Holden Caulfield talks about his first two days of being expelled from prep school with an irreverent sagacity. .Though first published in 1951, this book remains one a classic.

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

Kids may be tempted to watch the movie, but get them to pick up the books and get deep into the characters J.K. Rowling created when she first scribbled her ideas for this neo-classic on a napkin.

For more information on the “Put It In Writing Workshop”, log-on to

www.dothewritething.ph. You can also write to writingcoach@dothewritething.ph or send an SMS to 0908.488.0459