Mmm, words.

[elisi]

How To Be A Writer (or: What should you do to help your child pursue her dreams of becoming a writer?) by M. Molly Backes.

Read this. Especially if you have a child that wants to write. A snippet:

First of all, let her be bored. Let her have long afternoons with absolutely nothing to do. Limit her TV-watching time and her internet-playing time and take away her cell phone. Give her a whole summer of lazy mornings and dreamy afternoons. Make sure she has a library card and a comfy corner where she can curl up with a book. Give her a notebook and five bucks so she can pick out a great pen.
[...]
Let her fail. Let her write pages and pages of painful poetry and terrible prose. Let her write painfully bad fan fiction. Don’t freak out when she shows you stories about Bella Swan making out with Draco Malfoy. Never take her writing personally or assume it has anything to do with you, even if she only writes stories about dead mothers and orphans.

(Miss M has poached our old typewriter. And today announced that for her birthday she wants typewriter ribbon and a laminator. I'll never not cherish the randomness of children.)

Comments

[independence1776]

That is an awesome link. It's something I needed to read today, even though I don't have kids (nor do I want them).

[spikewriter]

This. So much of this my mother did for me -- though she didn't limit my TV time (no internet in those days). Instead, we watched films together and snarked. And one day, when I snarked that I could do better than what we were watching, she told me to try. I did. It was dreadful, but it was a try.

She didn't ask to read my work -- though I found out as an adult she and my father both did when I wasn't looking. (It's not that they went digging for notebooks, but anything left lying around they considered fair game.) She steered me toward films that I look back in amazement that she let me see. I sat through Lawrence of Arabia when I was nine, Gone With the Wind when I was ten -- and when a local SF con ran Casablanca, she insisted I sit through it. She made me sit through The Godfather the first time it aired on television so I could see the baptism scene. These were seminal influences and I am forever grateful.

I love that Miss M has poached your old typewriter. May she have much joy with it.

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

Hee! Mis M rocks.

And the great pen is a particularly good idea. Purple sparkly gel, even!

[green-maia.livejournal.com]

I LOVE this.

[elisi]

My pleasure. And it really is good advice all round, whether you have kids or not. :)

[elisi]

This. So much of this my mother did for me
Funnily enough, my mother did the same. Kinda. We didn't have a TV, and since she read a lot, I picked up on that. I can't remember a time when either she wasn't reading to me or I was reading something myself. And although I didn't properly start writing until LJ, I remember enjoying writing essays and stuff for school - I knew how turn a phrase, how to manipulate my writing to get a good grade. Ahem.

I love that Miss M has poached your old typewriter. May she have much joy with it.
She has her own library (more or less) as do the other girls, and she's filled untold note books with stories. She does have an old laptop, but it's VERY slow, so she prefers the typewriter. :)

[elisi]

Hee! Mis M rocks.
Yes. Yes she does. Mostly. *is proud mother*

And the great pen is a particularly good idea. Purple sparkly gel, even!
Oh god they have so many pens I am DROWNING in them, help me!

[elisi]

♥

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

Fountain pens. They're so much more fun! And you can change ink colors...

[elisi]

You come across the ocean and clean up the mess...