Creative Writing For Kids

1) Choose effective verbs and adjectives to improve the impact of their writing

2) Create their own similes and, with a little imagination...

3) Develop their own characters, ready-made for an adventure to follow!

Vocabulary

• Verb: action words e.g. run, keep, feel.

• Adverb: words that describe an action e.g. quickly, lovingly, menacingly.

• Adjective: a word that describes a noun e.g. red, charming, huge

• Synonym: a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word e.g. angry and provoked.

• Similes: a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind e.g. 'She is as smart as Einstein'.

• Genre: a style or category of art, music, or literature e.g. Gothic.

• Character: a person in a novel, play, or film.

In creative writing, characters will need to convey what they see, what they say and what they do. Expanding the range of verbs used can easily add impact and make a great impression too.

Consider this sentence:

Frank walked into the room, looked at his watch and said, ‘I’m late.’

… and now, why not try tweaking the choice of verbs in order to add tension and pace?

Write a short story on based on this image

Visual Image

Prompt

One great way to prepare yourself for writing is to have some characters and scenes already ‘in stock’.

That means having a mental picture of them ready to put into a piece of writing, modifying them to the specific task.

Just going through this creative process in some detail, when there is no pressure, will make it quicker for future tasks!

Create a ‘pen picture’ for each one.

That means choosing your adjectives with care, and perhaps including some similes which describe their characteristics too.

• ​Suggested characters:

• A teenage girl

• A teenage boy

• A parent

• A favourite relative

• An enemy

• A person in authority

• A friend

• An other...

• Suggested places:

• A favourite room

• An outdoor place – park, beach, forest

• A town or city

• A school

• A scary place

• Lastly, but by no means least, read as much as you can. Try to notice that writers use a different word bank of vocabulary for different genres too.

Write a short story on based on this image

Visual Image

Prompt

Literary Devices/ Figurative Speech/ Poetic Devices