Fiction Tips – Teach Fiction Writing to Home School Students – Pt II

A Sticky Wicket

In Part I of this article series I acknowledged that it can be a sticky wicket for home schooling parents to have a student who loves to write fiction. There is a dilemma as to how to teach that student the basic foundations of fiction structure and story form.

This is not only true for home schooling families, but language arts instructors in public schools face this problem as well. Even trained instructors many be very fuzzy on understanding the basic concepts of fiction writing.

Reading Aloud

Young people today have advantages that I did not have growing up. First of all, I was not reared in a book-loving family. I had no overflowing bookshelves in my childhood years. (I certainly saw to it that my children did. And now I’m filling bookshelves for four grandchildren!) Secondly, I did not have understanding parents to nurture me. Else, I believe I would have been writing more productively at a much younger age.

However, by the grace of God, I was privileged to sit under elementary teachers who read aloud to the class. From first grade through my sixth grade year, every teacher I had read fiction to us the first thing every morning. I remember Uncle Wiggily, Boxcar Children, Little House in the Big Woods, Mary Poppins, and so many others.

I believe these incidences of repeatedly being read to aloud gave me an appreciation for the rhythm and cadences that words make on paper!

Soul-Stirring

It was in Miss White’s sixth grade class (her name was, no kidding, Pearl White) when she read The Secret Garden that a transformation took place. That book changed my life. It was as powerful as the moment Helen Keller recognized that the signing Annie Sullivan made into her palm truly represented the substance called “water.” As our spinster teacher, Miss White, read The Secret Garden, suddenly I wanted to make a beautiful garden come alive on paper as this author had done. Let me clarify that this wasn’t a conscious thought, but rather some strange stirring deep within my soul.

First Byline

It was the following year, in the spring of seventh grade that I wrote a story about Easter and submitted it to the children’s page of the “big city” newspaper near our little town. To my everlasting joy, I opened the Sunday paper that Easter to find my story published. And then, adding to my joy, my hometown paper reprinted it for all to see.

Well, I was hooked. Ink now flowed in my veins! The sad thing is, it would be many (read that MANY) long, dry, frustrating years before I ever saw my byline again. And that is simply due to lack of encouragement, and lack of good instruction.

But here I am many years later with over 50 published books to my credit in addition to hundreds of short stories and published articles. Which I consider a total miracle. I am very thankful.

In Part III, we’ll discuss the writer’s temperament. Please come join me.