Creative Writing Skills for children

I’m thrilled to welcome Lexi Rees to my website today. Lexi is passionate about encouraging children to write – whatever their ability – and she has just published a brilliant new activity book to do just that. So, without further ado, I will hand you over to Lexi…

Thanks so much Isabel for inviting me onto your blog to chat about writing, and more specifically, the journey behind my creative writing workbook, Creative Writing Skills: over 70 fun activities for children.

This originally started out as a quick little project, just a few PDF documents knocked up on Canva that I would share when I ran creative writing workshops. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised there was a huge gap in the market for a structured approach to creative writing for children, and Creative Writing Skills was born. Oh, and it’s “over 70 fun activities” because every time I counted them, I got a different answer as some of the sections have multiple activities and I could never quite make up my mind on how best to treat them, so I gave up!

Like every author, I have shelves of “How to” guides which I’ve used to improve my writing skills. If you’re interested my personal favourites are Stephen King’s On Writing and Jessica Brody’s Save The Cat Writes A Novel, both of which I regularly recommend to other writers. But I couldn’t find an equivalent for children. Of course there were dozens of educational guides focussing on grammar or comprehension skills, and then there are a great selection of books packed from start to finish with story prompts, but there was nothing that gave a child-friendly structured approach to creative writing, as if they were writing a book. And given the world is full of budding young authors, this struck me as bizarre.

Once I started planning the book, the other thing that I really wanted to do was to make it accessible for the more reluctant writer too, so within each section there are drawing activities and games. These aren’t obviously about writing but they do still develop creative writing skills – I like to think of it as “stealth education”! Also, the activities build on each other and the final activity in each chapter is more challenging.

Whilst I’m based in the UK, I’ve had a great response internationally to the workbook, including from non-English speakers. Because the activities can be used for a wide range of writing abilities, they are perfectly suited to supporting students who are learning English, as well as native speakers.

I’ve had numerous requests for other versions, including a version for older children (actually several GCSE students have used the workbook as it is and found it helpful, but the illustrations and examples could be adapted to a YA audience) and also for a pocket-sized activity book for when children are out and about, plus I’m working on a few other ideas – watch this space!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the workbook as much as I enjoyed creating it, and happy writing everyone!

Lexi

Lexi is passionate about developing a love of reading and writing in children and, as well as her Creative Writing Skills workbook, she has an active programme of school visits and other events, is a Book PenPal for three primary schools, and runs a free online #kidsclub and newsletter, which includes book recommendations and creative writing activities.

In her spare time, she’s a keen crafter and spends a considerable amount of time trying not to fall off horses or boats.

And to celebrate the launch of her new workbook, Lexi is offering this fun giveaway – a chance to win a copy of Eternal Seas and Wild Sky, the action packed fantasy adventure books for 7-11 year olds. (UK – choice of signed paperbacks or ebooks) (International entrants – ebooks only) Only available from 24th November until 19th December -= so don’t delay! https://kingsumo.com/g/dpaovz/the-relic-hunters-giveaway

You can get in touch with Lexi via:

• her website 
• Facebook 
• Twitter 
• Instagram