Writing Tip: Prewriting Strategy Tips for Young Writers
1) Write in Your Writer’s Notebook. A writer’s notebook gives you an easy, informal, no-pressure way to start thinking about a topic. Great for brand-new “seed ideas”.
2) Talk It Out. Sometimes I’ll get together with a friend to kick around an idea I’m thinking about. There’s a little danger here–if you talk too much you can talk the mystery out of an idea. I have found that a little talk goes a long way.
3) List Ideas. Lists are a great way to gather material. The idea is to generate ideas. Don’t worry if some ideas are better than others. And don’t worry too much about getting the ideas in the right order.
4) Make A Web. You may have done this before. Put the main idea in the center, and make a “spoke” for each connected idea.
5) Make A Simple Time-line. I find this idea very helpful for writing stories. Jot down when each important event happened. Now, where do you want to start the writing? At the beginning of the timeline? In the middle? At the end?
6) Three by Three by Three. Give yourself three minutes to write three ideas on three different topics. Great for generating ideas.
7) Free Write. Give yourself a short amount of time (five to seven minutes) to jot down ideas, words, fragments related to a topic. If you doing this right your pen should never leave the page. One friend of mine calls it “Hot-Penning”. Don’t think: write! Let your pen go wild. Later you can go back and circle any parts you want to use.
Important Note: I don’t use each one of these ideas each time I write! You will probably find that some of these ideas work better than others. You will have to try them out and see which ones work best for you.
By: Ralph Fletcher
