How to Teach Fiction Writing at Key Stage 2

Pie Corbett

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781138419995
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136779664
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

How to Teach Fiction Writing is a practical manual to help teachers of junior classes to focus on the key aspects of developing children's storywriting. The book presents a series of essential writing workshops full of creative ideas and fun activities. It also offers a range of advice including how to set up and run an effective workshop and how t

Capturing stories

Planning or discovering?

Writers approach planning in different ways. It is as if they are on a continuum, with planners at one extreme and discoverers at the other.

Planners like to jot down every detail. P. G. Wodehouse knew exactly what was going to happen in great detail. He planned paragraphs, even thinking up the jokes! This meant that by the time he came to write, the book was almost written and would need little revision. Philip Pullman says that he never writes a first draft. He always aims to write a final draft! For young writers, too much planning may kill the desire to write.

Discoverers like to launch in and see where the story takes them. They discover the tale as they go along. The problem with this approach is that it may involve wasting time going in a fruitless direction and often leads to many revisions, so that for these writers their stories do not get written but rewritten! For young writers, whilst launching in may be exciting, unless they have internalised a strong sense of structure the likelihood is that their story will ramble with inconsequential scenes. Too much revision can become tedious and turn children off!

Writers lean one way or another. Nico, aged 7, said to me that he liked stories because ‘you never know what's going to happen’. He enjoyed the sense of discovery through the act of writing. To some extent he wouldn't want to know what happens, in the same way that knowing the end of a good story can spoil it for the reader.

The answer perhaps lies in ensuring that young writers start writing once they are well prepared. It is helpful to have sorted out a basic idea and built up a background to the story. A simple structure can leave sufficient room for new scenes and ideas to be used, but will also provide enough structure to hold the tale together.

Knowing an ending is important. This is because narrative drives towards the problem and then on towards the resolution. With no ending in sight the tale may meander hopelessly. Young writers should work towards an ending but bear in mind that if a better idea crops up, as they near the ending, this may be worth pursuing. The key is to end with a well-shaped story, which does not include rambling events that slow the tale down and bear no real relation to the forwards movement of the plot.

Writing tips

• Knowing where you think you are going may mean that you are less likely to ramble or lose your way. But do not be afraid of moving away from the plan if something better comes along.
• Don't plan too rigidly or the story may sound false. Many writers find that once they get going, the story begins to tell itself. Sometimes you are writing so quickly that your wrist aches – and you can hear a voice in your head telling the story, and there you are trying to keep up. This helps the writing flow. So, allow yourself to make discoveries and be surprised (and have fun) as you travel along.

Seven ways to capture and structure plots

On the following pages are a small number of common strategies used by writers for planning a simple outline of their plot. Some lend themselves naturally to certain stories, e.g. journey stories, such as The Hobbit, lend themselves to story maps. Select with the class a planning technique to use before writing. When only a paragraph is being written little planning is needed. It may be sufficient to talk through the structure of the paragraph or list what might happen, e.g. character enters room, crosses room and leaves.

1. Draw a map of the events (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Story map for ‘Adventure of Mr Fox’

2. Use a time line to plot (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Time line for a ‘forgetting’ story

3. Fill in scenes on Post-its and move them around (Figure 3).

Figure 3 Moving scenes

4. List scenes and jot on connectives (Figure 4).

Figure 4 Scene list for a story based on a Roald Dahl character

5. Draw a storyboard (Figure 5).

Figure 5 Storyboard ‘Eddie and the puddle’

6. Write a flow chart (Figure 6).

Figure 6 How chart for a ‘Ghost bus’

7. Create a simple paragraph grid (Figure 7).

Figure 7 Paragraph grid for ‘The mistake’

Introduction to four basic workshops

The following four workshops provide strategies to select from that will help to develop the skill of planning and preparing before writing. These are approaches that will be used again and again, whenever children settle down to write whole stories.

• Basic workshop 1 – this provides ideas for generating a few possibilities, getting going.
• Basic workshop 2 – this workshop builds on workshop 1, in that it focuses upon helping children decide on the basic plot idea and a trigger to get the tale going.
• Basic workshop 3 – this workshop provides ideas for basing the plot upon a known tale.
• Basic workshop 4 – this workshop provides a few common story types that might be used or adapted to help provide structure.

Basic workshop 1 – techniques for creating story ideas

The ideas in this workshop can be used in many different ways and on many occasions. These are basic strategies for creating story ideas. Many children find writing narrative difficult because they have no story to tell. They do need to internalise a basic sense of the shape of narrative, and to have picked up a number of basic structures for writing stories.

Ask the class where they think writers get their ideas. Discuss the notion that writers are like thieves. They plunder each other's writing, often sparking new ideas from old stories – as well as raiding their own lives. Writers are constantly on the lookout for ideas – in everyday events, things they read, see on TV, hear on the radio. Here are a number of linked techniques that writers use.

Keeping a running list of ideas

Keep a running list of possible ideas for stories. This could be kept on several pages in a writing journal or on a wall poster. When a child (or the class) gets a new idea, they make a note of it.

Brainstorming ideas

Brainstorm ideas as a class or group, or individually. This consists of spending a short period of time just firing out possible ideas – rapidly jotting down any word, phrases, or ideas that spring to mind (Figure 8). ‘Some of my best ideas come from my imagination. If an idea appears in my head I quickly jot it down.’ (Alison, 11 years)

Useful starting points are:

supposing …

what if …

wishes

lies

secrets

dreams

unusual people

secret places

fears

problems

Figure 8 Organised brainstorm

Engaging in a memory quest

Use details from the memory. ‘Sometimes stories begin with real situations but after that I take off into the unknown.’ (Jenny Nimmo)

Sometimes the best stories come from taking something that has happened. This may well be a simple tale of the family huffing and puffing their way up a hill at the weekend! The idea is for the children to take a family ‘story’ and fictionalise it, giving the people different names and possibly throwing in some extra invented scenes. Keep it simple and clear. Possible starting points could include:

strange places

a fr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Capturing stories
• Characterisation
• Settings
• Openings
• Paragraphing
• Style
• Different types of story