CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP: ENTER THE MAGICAL WORLD OF KIDS

“He was in the bathroom when he saw his shadow; except, it wasn’t his shadow, but Marilyn’s. Marilyn was the family’s trusted nanny when he was a baby. She now works for his grandmother, she remains trusted.

There really should be nothing to be afraid of in seeing Marilyn’s shadow, and Pablo knew that, but he also knew that Marilyn was not present and her shadow should not be there.

He ran out of the bathroom and into the bedroom but found that it had turned into a giant maze. He didn’t know where to go. He knew that his dad and his two brothers were there but all he could see around him were mascots with huge grinning heads, looming over him. He was frightened. He asked out loud, “who is the real May?” He was looking for his mother. A voice from behind him asnswered, “it’s me” and he turned, and it was indeed his mother!”

The paragraph above was a dream that my son, Pablo had last night and relayed to me. The sequence is just as he told me, and I wrote the scene the closest to how he had described it. The only thing I changed was the person— instead of using the first person (I, me, mine) point of view, I wrote it from a third person’s (He, his, him) point of view. I also added the following line– Marilyn was the family’s trusted nanny when he was a baby. She now works for his grandmother, they still trust her – as a brief explanation of who Marilyn was.

I just tweaked a few words. For example, I changed “were above” (which were the words used by my 7-year old) to “looming over” for a more accurate description, and add a dash of thrill to the picture .  I also changed “and it was you!” to “it was indeed his mother!” adding the word “indeed” for emphasis.

Kids have the greatest, wildest of imaginations that can run amok even in their dreams! We can juice so much stories out of them, and all it takes is for us to listen to the tales and stories that they tell. The beauty of their stories is that they allow no limitations; as far as possibilities are concerned, sky is the limit!

If you want to write a story and is stumped for ideas, tap one of literature’s greatest resource — listen to a kid and jump off from there. **