So if I’m working with a really large group, I will encourage them to go back to their classrooms and write either the story that we just did, or if they wanted the story to go a different way, to write that story, or to write a brand new story of their own. I
If I’m in a classroom with a writing workshop, we will write on the spot, so I will have students get out their writer’s notebooks. I will get out my writer’s notebook, and we’ll start with a very simple three-step process. First, write down your character. Write down what your character wants. Write down your obstacle, and write down the win. Three sentences. That’s it.
That is really what teachers call pre-writing. That’s what you do before you’re really writing the story, and it’s a nice way of liberating yourself from having to think on the spot. Once you have those three sentences written down, then I ask students to close their eyes, to not look at the blank paper, and to imagine that story, and to have fun imagining that story. Writing is a lot like acting. You get to feel things from the inside out.
As soon as they’ve had some time, some quiet time to imagine the story then we open our eyes, and we write the story, and for a lot of students, it’s the first time that they really feel a flow in their writing. That’s what we’re always hoping for, is that the writing flows. This helps the student to have a sense of things before they’re actually beginning that first sentence.
