As we speak with parents and students, we are often asked if the end result of A Pirate’s Guide t’ th’ Grammar of Story is, in fact, a story. Well, the short answer is … no. This curriculum is preparing and priming them to write a story from their strengths. This workbook as a whole is not focused on creating an actual final product in terms of a story or novel or screenplay. However, every few chapters there is a section where they are given the opportunity to write a story themselves. They can use the things that they came up with in their workbook exercises - looking at what they brainstormed, finding what interests them, connecting it with some character they brainstormed in another exercise, grabbing another detail from another exercise, and then write a short story.

The goal of A Pirate’s Guide is, in one sense, to simply teach students the elements of a story so that they are primed for writing. But another purpose is to open them up - so storytelling is not intimidating. So sharing their ideas is not intimidating. It’s also giving them a foundation so they are able to write stories from strengths.

If you just give a child a blank page to write a story, they can do that, but once they begin, it becomes difficult. Often they can start, but their story will fall apart because it’s overwhelming, or they are missing an element and the story doesn’t seem to progress. This is really frustrating to them. In teaching A Pirate’s Guide, I’ve found that there are certain pieces that are incomplete or missing and then stories don’t function and aren’t whole. It’s different for different people - one student’s strengths might be another’s weakness. The point of A Pirate’s Guide is to lay that foundation so that you student has all these elements without it feeling like work at all.

Then, with their knowledge of the various elements in place, their practice with how to create and connect these elements, and their experience that creativity can be fun, they can sit down and write a story with strong creativity muscles. If they get stuck, they can go back to their workbook like its a sourcebook, full of ideas and connections and ways to move their story forward. A Pirate’s Guide is a powerful tool in developing creative writing muscles!