Writing Process for Kids

Everyone has a different creative process, whether they are a young adult working on a painting, an older person composing a piece of music, or a child writing a story. The writing process for kids is likely to be very different than that for adults, something parents and teachers should keep in mind when coaching young writers. Adults tend to think in logical, sequential ways: event A is followed by event B, which leads to result C. But kids may start anywhere on this line and work backwards and forwards; or they may not work on a line at all. Kids may imagine a set of characters and their relationships, talk about them, and see how their story develops.

The writing process for kids is also likely to be more fragmented than that of adults, as children have shorter attention spans. A child may not write very much one day, having too much energy to sit for long and instead playing outside. On a colder day, or if the child is not that energetic, she may sit down and write for a long time. Her process may even include frequent breaks to play with other toys or take a nap. Perhaps the most important thing to remember about a kid’s writing process is that it will be unique to him and might not make any sense to an adult. Allowing a child to follow their own process, however strange it may seem, will let him create his own story in his own way, leading him to enjoy the process and look forward to starting it again.

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