Help! My 7 year old wants to write a book.
My Junior Authors courses for kids (online and live) start at age 10. The absolute earliest that I will work with a young writer is age 9.
Until then, I encourage kids to simply keep writing and telling their stories, playing with imaginary friends, and reading to the best of their ability.
As for your daughter’s book, here are some steps you can take to make her “book” a reality:
1. Ask her to tell you the story she has in mind – just in words.
2. Encourage her to have just one main character who has one problem that takes place in one setting. Other minor characters should be limited to 2 or 3.
3. Make up a catchy title that really speaks to the main point of the story.
4. Have her dictate the story to you as you type it up in Word.
5. Read it together a few times to make sure she likes the plot.
6. Break the story up into logical scene chunks so that you just have a few sentences per page at the top or bottom.
7. Print the pages and have her do the illustrations on each page.
8. Take it all to a printer and have colour copies made, binding, too, if you like.
9. Get her to sell copies to friends and family for $5 each to raise money for charity or for her piggy bank.
If you need some guidance through this, I can work with you privately in my online classroom at $40 per hour. But you probably don’t need me…it’s all about you two having fun with it and keeping her love of words and storytelling going.
If she wants to “meet” me, I suggest that you watch my YouTube channel. http://www.youtube.com/AgentStory
Also, my audio CD “Tales from the Briefcase” may affirm her writing goals and inspire her to practice her storytelling skills. Shipping and taxes are included in the price ($16.99). Most of the material is interactive. http://www.agentstory.net/Agent-Story-CD.html
Thanks for your question!
