My favorite 7-year-old writer is Maggie Jacobson,
daughter of my colleague Kelly McBride. Maggie has written and illustrated a book
titled "My Seventh Birthday!!" Her energetic prose style demonstrates my favorite
writing tool: "Order words for
emphasis." [Listen to a podcast of this tool.]
Here's the beginning of her story (after a bit of editing for spelling):
On my seventh birthday I had a sleepover. I invited my friend Julia and Blaire. I had my birthday with Jessica. It was a blast!
First we had a water balloon fight. Then we got out the hoses.
Second we ate dinner.
We had fruit. It was yummy!
Third we played outside.
We played hula girls.
We watched Happy Feet.
It was funny!
Then my Mom read us a story.
Then we went to bed.
Maggie gives us six more pages
of details, but you get the idea. What I
find striking is Maggie's intuitive understanding that the
most emphatic and interesting words go at the end of a sentence, and especially
at the end of a paragraph.
Look at the words she chooses to emphasize: sleepover, blast, balloon fight, hoses,
yummy, hula girls, Happy Feet, funny, story, bed.
No one taught Maggie to put cool language right before the
period. She learned it from talking and
listening and reading and being read to.
I have argued that this tool (which is #2 in the book "Writing Tools") will improve your writing in a hurry -- overnight. Just take a pencil and circle the words near
the ends of your sentences, and especially the ends of paragraphs. Then ask yourself: "Are these the words and images I want to
emphasize in my story?"
Maggie shows that even a kid can do it. So get to it.
And have a blast!
