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An alien reading the stories of our elementary school children would be very confused. Did the human parents starve their offspring – all the little human children ever seemed to write about was food? Obviously, traveling was a great excitement for people as well. Bus and car journeys appeared frequently in the writings of the little man. While beds in human civilization clearly had a mystical quality – at least half of little people’s stories began with “I woke up…” and ended with “And then I went home to bed”.

Obviously the aliens would be wrong. But why do our children always want to fill their stories with the small details of life?

It’s called a “warm up”. People start with what is safe and familiar. Professional writers know this and are wary of it. Some authors even plan on skipping the first few chapters so their book will move faster and jump right into the action.

Young children have often not learned to forgo writing to warm up. Do these sound familiar to you?

• Food Fetishes: At Luna Park we all rode roller coasters and then had lunch. We ate hamburgers with fries and a thick milkshake. Mum even gave me a second lemonade and dad shared an apple pie with lots of cream with me.
• Bedroom antics (the uh… boring kind!): I woke up that morning and jumped out of bed. I hurried to put on jeans and sweater, then I brushed my teeth and put on my shoes…
• Caught While Traveling: We all got in the car and headed to school. We waved at the cars along the way and sang songs about Mr. Tracey. Mark and I sat in the back and ate lots of twisties and fries…
• Fanatical about friends: Ms. Ceniton asked me to help organize the stage for the school concert. So Andy and Jane and Phillip and I did all the backgrounds. Tina and Pete and Malcolm did the lighting. Pam and Mandy have…

Putting all of that together doesn’t leave much room to tell the really interesting parts of the story. Sometimes we learn more about what the kids ate on the way to the zoo than what happened when the lion escaped!

See how this story improves dramatically when you swipe writing to warm up. It’s much livelier because now the author has something interesting to write about.

Before: I got up that morning and put on my tracksuit and was really excited and scared. After all, today’s training was the state competition. We had to leave at 7am so Mum and Dad and everyone downed their breakfast and ran out the door. My sister Jackie and I sat in the back and ate lots of chips and chocolate. Then she had this sticky drink spilling all over her. It was a long journey. We finally got to the competition and everyone crowded and went to the gym…

To: “Look at these Queensland kids,” Jackie said. ‘Man, they’re good.’

I watched as a girl ran onto the vault at full speed, soared high into the air in a half twist double front somersault – and then nailed the landing perfectly. She didn’t even look like she was out of breath.

I groaned and pulled my top tighter around me. It was cold in the gym. Or maybe it was just me that was cold. My sister Jackie and I have been training for the state championships all year and today was the grand final. Suddenly my legs felt like lead.

So how can we help our children to write more actively? Try this:

1. Just tell them to cut out all the boring bits. Ban them if you have to. No beds, no bus rides, no boring friends or food lists. (Show them the list above.)

2. Get them to “start when the action starts” – and not at the beginning of the day.

eg In the gym, NOT in the car on the way to the gym.

3. Give them the starting line.B. “That’s a huge lion,” I said. We went to the zoo and…

So ban the boring—and help get the most out of your child’s writing.

© Jen McVeity, National Literacy Champion.

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