Encouraging a love of writing by Claire Musters

I was fascinated to read Deborah Jenkin’s post on teaching writing, because I’ve been thinking recently about how to instil a love of writing into the younger generation.

Often we think about the responsibility we have towards our readers, but what about to those too young to be our readers currently?

I have watched my children as they have grown and noted that it is the one who is an avid reader that loves to turn her hand to writing of all forms – journalling, creative writing – even reviews for magazines and websites I work for! 

Yet my son is bored by reading – and hates writing more than a few sentences. While he is at the top of his class in these subjects there is a notable difference in the level of engagement, and enjoyment, my children get from reading and writing.

I have been helping my son prepare for some upcoming tests, and groaned inwardly myself as he and I were both struggling with knowing if something is an ‘ordinal’ or ‘demonstrative determiner’. 

My daughter sauntered past and commented: ‘I don’t know what those are’. Well, me neither, and yet I did the same preparation for her when she faced the same tests, and she flew through them. But did knowing what a fronted adverbial, for instance, help with her writing? No, it actually hindered it for a while, as she became so worked up about ensuring she had examples of each type of grammatical phrase they were being tested on. And now, in secondary school, none of that terminology seems to matter and she feels much freer again – and has forgotten the things she hadto learn previously.

So what is the point of the specific grammar lessons and tests being carried out in primary schools currently? As a school literacy governor I remember sitting in SPAG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) training with teachers when the new curriculum came in – and the teachers were struggling with understanding terminology they would be teaching to the children the following week! That doesn’t seem to have changed – a teacher friend commented just last week on how a lot of teachers still struggle with it.

It seems a shame to teach in this way. I know it ticks boxes and can get children through the current tests, but it does seem to drain rather than inject life into writing. That is why I love to hear about authors going in to visit children in schools – and not just children’s writers but those who budding authors more interested in writing fantasy, crime, romantic novels or being reporters, for instance, can look up to.

I realise that it can be a challenge for some of us to go into schools, but can I encourage you to think outside of the box about how you could put together a short session to share what you do? Many of us are introverts, and we enjoy the solitary nature of our work, but classrooms are full of introverts too – perhaps hiding secret readers and writers who have no idea of the wealth of careers that could be open to them. I didn’t know that the world of publishing existed until I got to university, such was the lack in our careers department!

We may have to think laterally – and be prepared for awkward questions at times. The last time I was in my son’s class, for instance, talking about my work for careers’ week, one boy sent me into a bit of a panic. He saw my book Taking Off the Mask on the table, picked it up, then said: ‘My mum has this book [she had come to my book launch and kindly bought a copy]. What’s it about? Can I read it?’

As the opening chapter is about the difficulties in my marriage I certainly didn’t want to encourage him to read the book, particularly because my kids haven’t yet, so I was caught off guard. And yet the heart of the message in that book is about learning to be real and honest with one another, rather than feeling we have to pretend to be someone we are not in order to fit in. So, after I had gathered my thoughts, I managed to share a little of that with the class, which was in fact a great opportunity to get 10 and 11 year olds to think about whether they ever feel the pressure to conform.

While children may or may not be your target readership, why not think about how you can encourage your children, grandchildren and younger people in your church and community with their writing?

Claire is a freelance writer, speaker and editor, mum to two gorgeous children, pastor’s wife, worship leader and school governor. Her books include Taking off the mask: daring to be the person God created you to be, Cover to Cover: Ezekiel A prophet for all times, Cover to Cover: 1–3 John Walking in the truth, Cover to Cover: David: A man after God's own heart, Insight Into Managing Conflict, Insight Into Self-acceptance and Insight Into Burnout. Her latest edition to the Insight Guides series, An Insight into Shame, was published in May. She also writes Bible study notes and magazine articles. To find out more about her, please visit www.clairemusters.com  and @CMusters on Twitter.