We homeschool 3 of our children (Grade 10, Grade 7, and Grade 3). It’s pretty rewarding, but it has its challenges sometimes.
One challenge is that inevitably each of our children has struggled with writing. That can be discouraging for me, a writer, but I try to help them through it. They always seem to have a hard time deciding what to write, so I try to ignite their imagination by asking them some questions about their topic.
Here’s what a conversation about this might look like:
Me: What is your story about?
Child: A cat.
Me: What about that cat?
Child: I don’t know.
M: Okay, well, what colour is the cat?
C: Black.
M: Completely black?
C: Well, I think it has white paws.
M: Does it have a name?
C: Mittens.
M: How old is Mittens?
C: Just a couple of months old, so I guess he’s a kitten.
M: Mittens the Kitten, eh? Where is Mittens?
C: In the living room.
M: Where in the living room?
C: On the floor.
M: Is he lying down?
C: She. And no, she’s crouched down, ready to pounce.
M: Pounce on what?
C: A mouse.
M: Does she catch it?
C: No.
M: Why not?
C: It ran behind the chair and into a hole.
M: Now what does Mittens do?
C: Runs after a fly.
M: Now put it all together for your story.
C: Mittens is a two-month-old kitten. She’s black all over except for her paws. She’s in the living room, crouched down waiting to pounce on a mouse. She pounces, but the mouse barely got away by running behind the chair and into a hole in the wall. Mittens notices a fly go by, so she runs after it.
You can do the same thing when you’re writing. When you’re stuck while trying to write a blog post, novel chapter, advertising copy, or a magazine article, ask yourself some questions. Before you know it, you’ll have your own story.
