Advice for Encouraging Creative Writing in Children

I think it's important to have two kinds of writing lessons. The first is where you focus on sentence structure and correct grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, punctuation, capitalization, etc. The second is where you let a child focus on the creative side and run free, with plenty of space without adult supervision or correction, only encouragement. It's important that a child know which kind of lesson to expect.

As a professional writer, I have learned over many years to turn off my editorial brain when I am doing first drafts of a novel or even redrafting a scene in a rewrite.  The editorial part of my brain is vital to my success in writing, but if I let it take over, I'm not sure I would ever get more than a couple of sentences out, because that side would be turning over every sentence and asking--is this really the right word? Is this really the right sentence? So I turn that part off, let the creative side of me feel safe enough to make mistakes, and I write as fast as I can in a drafting stage.

It's important to my self-esteem and ability to continue writing to believe that this first draft is good, and so I sometimes will offer it to early readers whose main job it is to give me encouragement. I suspect that parents are mostly needed to do for children who are interested in writing. They just point to the best parts they can find and clap. When I go into schools, I make a promise to kids that I won't correct grammar on their stories on the first draft. I only say what I like. In fact, I have a serious problem as a writer--if I get only criticism from an editor or from my agent, I tend to throw the whole novel out and start over again from scratch. If you don't tel me what you like, I assume you didn't like anything. A lot of kids are like this, I suspect.

But of course, a first draft isn't a final draft and every student needs to learn to use that editorial side, too. But you wait until you feel secure enough in what you've done well before you can move on to a finished product. But it's clear to me these two sides need to operate independently, and most writers agree--though not all. There are some who write very slowly, and every sentence is perfect. I am not sure whether I hate or admire them.