Easy On The Ink – The Joys Of Minimal Writing
Try Steve Bowkett᾿s ideas for minimal writing and see how a focus on quality, not quantity, can persuade children to cherish writing, rather than view it as a chore…
Motivating ‘reluctant writers’ is not the easiest of jobs. One problem is that many children, including those who actually quite enjoy writing, find it difficult to generate and develop ideas.
The danger here is that they will just snatch at any idea that pops into mind, and resort to making the story up as they go along. Another issue is the physical effort involved in putting pen to paper and concentrating for long periods of time. An effective solution can be what I call ‘minimal writing’, where the number of words you ask for is limited, with the proviso that, as far as possible, these have to be the right words.
This links to the criteria that you want the children to build into their work – highlight for them that their writing is effective if they can justify their word choices, and how their sentences have been constructed. Also point out that high-quality writing is often succinct, yet evokes vivid images in the reader’s mind and comes with an emotional impact. To give you a better idea of how this works in practice, here᾿s a selection of minimal writing techniques you might like to try.
1. Link ideas together
Present a selection of objects to the class. These might be physical items, pictures or just a list of words. So, for example: a compass, keys, a map, glasses, jigsaw pieces, a mobile phone, a magnifying glass, a ball, an amulet, a book, money, a butterfly, a torch, a pen, a memory stick. Say to the children, “If you were going to use two of these things in a story, what would the story be about? Try and tell me in one sentence.” So a child might respond, “I choose the map and jigsaw pieces. My story is about a man who is trying to solve the puzzle of where hidden treasure is buried.” A simple connection like this provides a ‘doorway’ into the story that can now be developed further. Increase the challenge by adding more abstract concepts to the list: ambition, justice, identity, life and death, loyalty, etc. These can be the themes around which a story is built. Ask children to pick two items plus one concept and put the three together in a sentence that outlines their story.
2. Toss a coin
This is a very effective and fun way of developing narratives. The idea is for children to ask closed questions about a story-in-the-making and to flip a coin to get yes or no answers. The technique takes away the ‘fear of the wrong answer’ and allows children to explore trains of thought they might not otherwise have had. Take a one-sentence outline such as those produced by the linking game. Ask children to think of relevant questions that open up the story quickly – so questions about characters, motivations, events and locations work well.
3. Write a ‘Myku’
This means ‘my haiku’. The idea came out of a haiku workshop I ran, where some children were struggling with the 5-7-5 syllable layout of the writing, so we simplified it to 2-3-4 syllables. Using a picture as a stimulus, ask children to notice and tell you about any details they see. (I like to use a black and white image and invite children to imagine colours, sounds and textures). This task helps them to concentrate for longer on their own stream of thought. Show them some example myku – here are a few written by Y5 children, based on a picture of a cat caught out on a rainy night.
Old cat, stormy night – Will she get home?
No moon. What shadow’s behind the wall?
Longing for hearthfire. November chill.
Because children have so few words / syllables to play with, they think hard about making every word count. For instance, the young author of the first myku originally wrote –
A cat. Stormy night – Will it get home?
She then realised that ‘old’ and ‘she’ gave the reader more information and so were better choices. She also needed to think about altering the punctuation to make the new version work.
4. Bare bones writing
Begin with a single sentence such as, ‘The boy walked along the street.’ In order to understand this, children will create many more details in their imaginations. Present the class with a series of instructions that help them to access this information:
• “As you imagine the boy, notice three interesting things about him and write them down.” • “Now notice what’s around him and jot down your observations.” • “The boy has a conversation on his mobile phone. Describe the tone of his voice and what he is talking about.” This activity values the children’s thinking, helps to give them a sense of ownership over their ideas and allows them to gather information over a number of short ‘visualisation sessions’. Extend the activity by showing the class a series of loosely linked statements. Have children write each sentence on a large sheet of paper and make notes around it as they imagine in more detail what’s going on:
‘The boy walked along the street. He met a friend. They saw a car speeding by. The car skidded and overturned. Two people scrambled out and ran. The boy and his friend gave chase…‘ Again, each statement can be worked on over time. Such note making sessions are best kept brief, and because the writing in each session is minimal, the overall task is not onerous.
5 things that turn kids off writing
If you want to get the creative juices flowing, avoid the following…
1. Fear of the blank page Even experienced authors can suffer from this! There are many techniques for generating ideas (hopefully a few useful ones are in this article). Once children have a toolbox of ‘how to’ ways of thinking prior to writing, they will no longer be trying to ‘make it up as they go along’, which is a very frustrating experience.
2. Being overwhelmed Trying to remember all the rules as children write inhibits the creative flow. My feeling is that we should encourage an enjoyment of writing; cultivating the experience of making words work. The more analytical skill of checking for spelling, punctuation and whether children have used a fronted adverbial should come later. A robust strategy for effective writing is think-write-check.
3. Feeling rushed Adequate time should always be given for children to think / plan and then enjoy the experience of writing. The skills required even for writing stories and poems are vital for other written forms and in subjects across the curriculum. Allow time for children to evolve as writers.
4. Redrafting Use minimal writing techniques to help children develop their ideas so that they won’t feel they are ‘writing the story again’ when they compose it. Also, if sufficient thinking time is built into the process, correcting a first draft will itself be minimal, a number of minor tweaks, rather than a major rewrite.
5. Fear of judgement Unfortunately, children’s learning takes place within a system of competition and comparison. If children think they will fail, they may not even try. Highlight the distinction between attainment and achievement. Point out that while you are required to give them an attainment mark, their achievement lies in the effort they put into their writing and the fact that they have brought something new and unique into the world with their story or poem.
Steve Bowkett taught English for 20 years, before becoming a full-time author before going on to write fiction for children of all ages and numerous books for teachers; for more information and find out more about his creative workshops, visit www.stevebowkett.co.uk
