Why Creative Writing is Important for Children
Creative Writing Is Empowering.
Writing calls upon us to shape experiences and feelings into something another person can read and understand. That need to feel understood, to know that what you think or feel matters and can be shared, is universal.
Many children view the whole process of writing as mysterious and inaccessible. The good news is: anyone can learn to write and every writer has their own unique process. It’s a vehicle for communication, connection and creativity. It’s an opportunity to learn and grow, have fun and sharpen your senses.
Studies show that children who practice creative writing more often are generally better in other subjects too like math, science, and languages. The challenge of coming up with creative thoughts and solutions to narrative problems helps builds the confidence and discipline students need to succeed in other areas of life.
Writing stories can be a safe way to explore strong emotions. It can help your child to understand change, as well as new or frightening events. In their writing children can have adventures they could never have in the real world.
Albert Einstein once said, ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’. Creative writing helps kids to channel their emotions and harness their imaginations into self-expression. It stimulates them to think inventively and find alternatives to the usual answers. The more practice they get, the stronger these imagination muscles become.
Writing gives children opportunities to assert themselves and their opinions and develop their own ‘voice’. These developments can really strengthen self-confidence. Story writing increases self-esteem. With the greatest risk comes the greatest sense of achievement. Writing a story and then sharing it in front of a group creates a sense of group cohesion and being a part of a shared experience. Sharing your story can build confidence which lingers and spills over into other aspects of life.
Creative writing also helps with the development of a wide range of problem solving skills, from planning plots, to understanding the complex motivations of characters, to emotional learning by an engagement through vicarious experience. A well-written piece involves a lot of thought, planning, organization, and the use of language to get a point across. It also involves anticipating an audience and the different ways they might react.
Through storytelling, kids explore their moral compasses, and tap into their understanding of the world around them. Whether their stories feature mermaids or unicorns, presidents, pilots or talking bums, exploring their character's journey through plot helps them to deal with issues and themes that the can relate to the world around them. It also provides a kind of scaffolding for extending their knowledge.
In creative writing workshops kids have to work independently and in a group. They commune with themselves to get ideas, but they also collaborate and entertain. They also learn the etiquette of giving and receiving feedback. Unlike some arts or sports activities, creative writing can involve all youngsters regardless of ability level. Children often surprise teachers, parents, other kids, and themselves with their storytelling skills. Many teachers have also remarked about how a storytelling project improves class cooperation.
It’s fun! You get to make something that never existed until you thought it up. You get to pretend to be other people. Or animals. You can travel in time. You can be the boss of the world.
Story writing increases self-esteem. With the greatest risk comes the greatest sense of achievement. Writing a story and then sharing it in front of a group creates a sense of group cohesion and being a part of a shared experience. Sharing your story can build confidence which lingers and spills over into other aspects of life.
Creative writing unlike some arts or sports activities, can involve all youngsters regardless of ability level. Children often surprise teachers, parents, other kids, and themselves with their storytelling skills. Children often gain respect for others whom they thought weren't as capable as them. Many teachers have also remarked about how a storytelling project improves class cooperation.
The pure pleasure children experience while listening to stories helps them to associate listening with enjoyment. During a classroom storytelling project, students learn to listen respectfully to their peers and how to coach one another in a constructive way.
Plotting a story and writing character journeys uses many skills such as planning, using rhythm, suspension and tension. Comprehension skills must be used in order to learn a story and tell it well. Telling stories improves and reinforces other language skills such as vocabulary, story recall, and reading aloud with expression and confidence.
Writing instils a love of words and language in children and motivates them to read.
We need creative writing so that children don’t only work on other people’s texts, they create and build their own. They don’t read a text looking for the prescribed analysis, the expected reaction in the test tube in the lab – they are out there in the field, experimenting with new texts, questioning old texts and long held beliefs if only for the reason that they can.