Creativity can be encouraged in young people by recognising their voice and providing them with means of expression. As a teacher, over the last three years I have enjoyed encouraging creative talents of secondary students in writing and art. These pieces have been gathered into School Creativity ebooks for students and teachers to share with their families, friends and community.
Creative Writing for Schools and Young People
As a writer, reader and editor, I am often asked about the hands-on side of the writing process. I always seek to learn more from others too. Below are some links to articles I have written or which I have found most informative.
Three Questions to Ask Yourself When Writing a Book
Three fundamental questions, I suggest, each aspiring writer needs to ask as they work on their first book.
George Orwell Essay – Why I write
Read this excellent Orwell essay and delve into your motivation for writing. Use it to help decipher and decide your style, audience and content.
“The Book Thief” – five years for acclaimed author to understand what his own book was really about!
Markus Zusak’s book was an enormous success but often a writer might not fully understand why he wrote a story or what it was really about. “The Book Thief” was about words and the power of owning those words or wrestling back control of meaning.
“It took about five or six years [for me to realise] the book is about the idea that Hitler destroyed through words and propaganda. And this is the story of a girl who is stealing those words back.”
Virginia Woolf’s “Writer’s Diary” (edited and compiled from her lengthy diary volumes by her loyal and often overlooked husband, Leonard Woolf, after her suicide) is often recommended as a guide to writers. It’s certainly a valuable insight into the creative mind. However this short essay on keeping a writer’s notebook by Joan Didion, an acclaimed American journalist and writer who died in 2021 is also worth considering.
Stephen King’s “Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully – in Ten Minutes”
A great set of guidelines from a modern master. Incidentally, this is taken from the http://www.writersblog.co (sic) website which has a particularly good section on writing
Paul Martin Writer 