Do it like Keith!

“Of course, who d’you think I wrote it for?” - Keith Richards

From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository

Keith Richards, guitarist for the Rolling Stones, was once asked if he listened to his own music. He looked confused, and then, after a moment’s thought, he replied:

“Of course, who d’you think I wrote it for?”

Genius!

This is the perfect way to think about your readership. Who are you writing for? You! You are writing a story you would like to read. The genius about this is that we live on a planet with 8 billion people. Your child might be ‘one in a million’, but that still means there are 8,000 versions of your child out there. Scary thought! Also, if you think about all of your children’s friends, the ones who share the same interests as them, then there might be as many as a hundred over their life so far. So 8,000 x 100 = 800,000. This means, at a minimum, if your child writes a story for themselves, they are actually writing for almost a million people. So, do it like Keith, keep it simple, get your child to write something they want to read and trust that if they like it, then hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of others will like it as well.

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HOW DO YOU DO THIS?

STEP 1: Discuss what your child likes

Talk to them about books, films and tv shows they are enjoying. Discuss what they like about them, and think about the characters, the plots, the twists and turns, and the overall tones or themes. If your child wants to talk about a book, film or tv show you consider high quality, then great, as you know they will want to create something of similar worth. However, if they are more inclined to the bonkers, silly realms of Walliam’s style joke books, then we will need to encourage them away from this, as we are trying to teach them how to engage the reader on a deeper level. That doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy reading those books, but on this occasion you will want to get them excited about a different kind of writing/story.

STEP 2: Start at the end

We all love a good ending. Children can get very excited about coming up with a clever ending to a piece of writing. Endings are dramatic. Take penalty shootouts. It seems such a cruel way to end a game of football (soccer for my American readers), but it's SO entertaining. And yet, if it’s so entertaining, then why do we bother with the other 90 minutes of normal time and 30 minutes of extra time? Why not just start with the penalty shootout? Well, if we did that then there would be no potential loss. What makes penalties so exciting is that there is 120 minutes worth of build up and hard work which will be worthless if you lose, and if it’s the World Cup final, then that means there is 4 years worth of build up and hard work. Without the potential of loss, we have nothing. So, as much as we all love a good ending, it’s actually the build up that makes them so remarkable.

This is really important when it comes to writing, as when children write for themselves, they are often so focused on the ending that they rush through the rest of the writing to get to it. Always remind them that the ending will only be effective if they have done the work building up to it.

STEP 3: Find the starting point

This might sound illogical, but the start should not be the beginning, but rather ‘the beginning of the end’. For example, if your child’s story ends with an escape from prison, then don’t let them start with their character’s life before they were arrested; don’t let them start with their character being wrongly accused; don’t let them start with the year their character has already spent in prison; get them to start with their character entering the tunnel they have dug as they begin their escape. This means they can cut down any complex back stories and focus on description. It will naturally bring a much better pace to their writing as well.

STEP 4: The plan

Using the Trinity Rule (link below), plan out this short form writing with your child. Make sure they start at ‘the beginning of the end’, not the beginning of everything. Take time to plan this out with them, as the clearer they are with their plan, the more energy they can put behind the creative and descriptive elements of their writing. Finally, as tempting as it will be to take over their story, don’t; if you do, then they won’t be writing this piece for themselves anymore, they will be writing for you.