Writing with Your Kids

My daughter and I like to write stories together. Nothing long and involved, just short fun
stories that we can turn into a play or a puppet show. It’s a great way to get
the mind working and encourage creativity.

We ask ourselves, “Who’s the main character?” Usually it’s a girl (no surprise), but
often it’s an animal, like a frog or a dragon.

Then we decide on the setting. Maybe it’s something exotic like a castle in Ireland, a pirate
ship on the ocean, or a spaceship on Mars. But it could be something closer to
the everyday, like an elementary school or a baseball field.

“Once upon a time, there was a girl who lived in a castle in Ireland.”

We take turns. One of us suggests a sentence, and the other adds a sentence to it.

“She dreamed of becoming a knight, but everyone in her village said only boys could do that. She didn’t believe them. Every day she practiced riding her horse and fighting with a sword that her grandfather had given her before he died. She was good at riding and fighting. She was so good that none of the boys in her village would practice with her.”

We ask ourselves, “What’s going to happen next?”, “What will be the conflict?”, “How
will the story end?”

I enjoy seeing what we can create together. And I hope she’s gaining a love of storytelling.

Interactive eBook Expands Possibilities

Push Pop Press is a new ebook platform that will change how people read and write books. With all the possibilities for multi-touch interactivity—infographics, audio, and video—writers will be able to deliver a more powerful and engaging message. The first ebook of this kind—designed for the iPad and iPhone—is Our Choice by Al Gore. I especially love the interactive windmill: you blow into your device’s microphone to make the windmill move. See a demo of the ebook on TED.com.

An Artist’s Life

How do you look at the world? Where do you get your inspiration? Michael Wolff, brand visionary and co-founder of Wolff Olins Agency, describes the importance of curiosity, appreciation, and imagination.

The Opening—and Beyond

My daughter’s bookshelf is full of books that she hasn’t finished.

They seemed great when we saw them in the bookstore or Scholastic magazine. But after she started reading, she got bored during the first chapter. If the words don’t grab her right away—and keep her attention page after page, it’s over. She’ll put the book down and won’t touch it again.

It’s a reminder to me about the importance of not only a great opening scene, but great writing throughout a book. It’s not enough to grab the reader’s attention in the first page. You need to keep that connection going. One way to do this is by using “gold coins.”

Writer and teacher Roy Peter Clark of the renowned Poynter Institute talked about “gold coins” during a journalism conference I attended years ago. He also mentions this strategy in Fifty Writing Tools: Quick List | Poynter and his book Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer. What he said can apply to fiction as well.

He described reporters who spend all their energy crafting a fantastic opening—and then write the rest of the story by just tossing in whatever else they have in their notebook. His answer to this was “gold coins.” If you’re walking through the forest and see a gold coin on the ground, what are you going to do? Pick it up and continue walking. He says to place “gold coins” along the path of your story so you delight your readers and make them
want to see what will happen next.

If you write engaging copy with vivid characters and scenes throughout the book, the reader will want to keep reading.

Time to Play

What’s with all the rushing around? Parents and their kids seem to always be rushing to or from something—soccer games, dance lessons, birthday parties. When do kids have time to play? To think? To create?

Looking back on my childhood, I realize I was lucky to have a lot of time to myself. Being the youngest of six, with parents who took a largely hands-off approach, I came up
with my own ways to have fun. I’d create stories about my brown teddy bears,
Clyde and Clara, going on adventures. I’d draw pictures of houses of all shapes
and colors with my pastel crayons. And I’d play around with words―writing my own poems and crossword puzzles in tiny spiral notepads.

Now that I’m a mom, I try to keep that rush-rush to a minimum: one soccer/softball/basketball game a weekend for my daughter, then time to hang out and play. Like all kids, she loves to play “house.” Instead of the baby, she’s usually the cat―or the dog. The storyline typically goes like this: I buy her at the pet store and take her
home, and then all sorts of shenanigans ensue. We’ve played this game hundreds
of times, and she manages to come up with new pet characters and scenes every
time.

She’s never bored. And I love that she’s using her mind to create
something fun and uniquely her.

A Love of Storytelling

For more than 20 years, I’ve been a nonfiction writer―first in journalism and then in
marketing. I always thought, “What could be better than writing a powerful
story about something that really happened?”

Now I find myself imagining all sorts of fictional stories. I’ve turned two of them into manuscripts for chapter books:

Hannah and the Stolen Treasure
When nine-year-old Hannah finds a necklace on the beach near her house, she sets off
with her dog, Rosie, and her best friend, Pedro, to return it to the rightful
owner. The trio’s journey turns dangerous when the necklace is identified as deep-sea
treasure that was found by archaeologists and then stolen by pirates. With the
pirates closing in on them, the children must use their smarts and instincts to
get the necklace to a safe place.

Hannah and the Haunted Mansion
All the kids in the neighborhood knew about the Bleeker mansion—it was haunted, or
so they thought. Are there really ghosts in the house, or is something else going
on? Hannah and her best friend, Pedro, decide to solve the mystery. With their
trusted companion, Hannah’s dog Rosie, they set off on another adventure. They’ll
spend a night in the mansion—just the three of them. They’ve brought all the supplies
they need: a camera, a notebook, a flashlight—and plenty of courage.

The world of fiction has been thrilling. Now when I write, I’m excited to see where my stories will go.