Sometimes we don’t know what it looks like to be an engaged listener and encourager of our young writers.

This winter I had the opportunity to listen in on some conversations between a middle schooler who is writing a short story and Chris, the author of A Pirate’s Guide t’ th’ Grammar of Story. I thought a series on what a conversation between a student and parent can look like would help all of us engage with our students better.

If you click on the category link (also above), you’ll find all the Overheard posts that we’ve got.

Sometimes we don’t know what it looks like to be an engaged listener and encourager of our young writers. This winter I had the opportunity to listen in on some conversations between a middle schooler who is writing a short story and Chris, the author of PGGS. I thought a series on what a conversation between a student and parent looks like would help all of us engage with our students better. Here’s the first installment:

Background: at this point, the student had come up with her story idea, the main characters, and the basic setting. She was on the fence with two ending options. This was the first time she’d shared the entire idea with someone outside her peers, and she was a bit nervous (especially knowing that Chris was an expert). Her main question - is my story ready to write?

As she shared, Chris listened. Where I might have interjected with ideas or encouragement, he simply listened, nodding to say he understood, but allowing her to share from start to finish all she had in mind. They hit a point where she wasn’t sure what the main character should do, and Chris merely asked a question. “What is the character’s problem?” In other words, defining the Act of Villainy - the conflict or problem that the character is trying to solve. As the student shared several things the main character might be trying to solve, he suggested that she try to define one meaningful thing, rather than having multiple things the character wants to do.

Together they brainstormed the different things the character could do, and what each one would be solving. Chris continued to ask her questions: “it sounds like the character is worried about x, or is it something else?” Each question allowed her to make choices and imagine other options, until she came to a place where she felt she could say, “yes, this is what my character’s problem is, and how they can solve it.”

Once she had that in place, she can write the story and create tension around the problem and its solution. Throughout the conversation, I heard Chris say things like “here’s how I see what you’ve described to me. You can always change this, but it is what I see.” This allowed her to hear what she’d been sharing from another’s perspective, while maintaining her right and ability to make changes, always keeping it her project.

When they reached the point of knowing what the problem was, and what the solution would likely be, the student is ready to move to the next step - writing a first draft. More on that in another “Overheard” post.

Chris is encouraging a student as she writes her first big short story assignment. They’ve talked through the basic idea of her story, choosing a main story problem and brainstorming ways to solve the problem, and it’s time to write a first draft.

Here is Chris’s advice to her as she sits down to write a first draft:

“Write as fast as you can - don’t worry about it, just write. It’ll most likely be completely thrown away, so write quickly, as long or short as you need to get the story down and done.”

And then?
“Put it away for a few days, then come back and ask yourself a few questions:
What did I learn from this?
What did I like about this?
How is this different from what I thought originally?

“As you answer the questions, you’ll see what was most interesting to you. You can ask, what is the real problem in the story? Is it what I thought, or is there something different? What is true for my story?”

Then you take all that information - the first draft, and what worked and what didn’t, and then you can put it into an outline, and begin writing again.

As you go through this process of drafts, revisions, and more drafts, you’ll find a process that works for you.”

So there you go. Advice for your student writers: Get your basic details in order, and then write your story quickly. Take a break from it, and then go back to it with fresh eyes, being open to seeing what works, what doesn’t, and what you find interesting. Reorder and plan your story, and then write again. You can do it!

Here’s a brief Overheard on choosing point of view:

As Chris and our student continued to talk about her first story, she wanted to know if writing her story in the first person was okay. How should she choose which point of view?

Writing in first person is generally easier than in third person. Most fiction is written in third person limited - it’s only describing what that character knows and sees. So even though it’s written in the third person, it’s limited, as though it were written in the first person.

Writing in the first person is easier because it forces you to stay consistent in the limited point of view. If you are in the third person, you’ll be tempted to break those limits and share more than you should. In first person, you are writing only what that character sees and feels and experiences, and this helps you stay focused.