Dear Writopia parents,

Many parents have asked us how they can best support their writers alongside us, so we put together a list of tips for you. The keys to supporting your writer are 1) trust-building, 2) celebration, and 3) deep engagement.

TRUST-BUILDING  

• Be positive!
  • Writing can make us feel both gratified and vulnerable at the same time, so whether you are discussing your child’s creative or analytical writing, as parents, always approach a piece first and foremost based on its strengths. This will help your writer develop the confidence needed to keep writing, try new things in their work, and most importantly, share with you more often. Regardless of how silly, serious, or sparse the writing might be, tell your child what it made you imagine, think, and feel.
    • Let us offer the constructive feedback: During workshop, we start by offering strengths-based feedback. Then we work rigorously to help each writer grow as writers and thinkers. Since our instructors are not related to the writers, writers often embrace constructive feedback openly from them. Instructors offer insights and suggestions to writers on everything from character and story development, to literary style and tool usage, to sentence structure. We spend the first half of the week on story development, and then we integrate mechanics/grammar/spelling into our conversations toward the second half of the week.    
  • Don’t fear your writer’s work, no matter the content! “Fiction is a powerful and ancient virtual reality technology that simulates the big dilemmas of human life,” suggests evolutionary psychologist, Jonathan Gottschall. He points out that the typical plotlines of children’s playtime— barbies and superheros alike —  feature rambunctious conflict and struggle. Therein lies the essential value of fiction, he argues. “The constant firing of our neurons in response to fictional stimuli strengthens and refines the neural pathways that lead to skillful navigation of life’s problems. From this point of view, we are attracted to fiction not because of an evolutionary glitch, but because fiction is, on the whole, good for us. This is because human life, especially social life, is intensely complicated and the stakes are high. Fiction allows our brains to practice reacting to the kinds of challenges that are, and always were, most crucial to our success as a species…” In other words, writers help themselves, and all of humanity around them, process fears, decompress, and prepare for life’s challenges often without even knowing it. In very rare circumstances, we will reach out to parents if we are concerned by story content. Read more about our approach here! Main takeaway: celebrate, rather than fear, your children’s zany, sometimes darkly dramatic, and wonderful imaginations. They are a gift to us all. 
  • Young writers (ages 6-8) are often excited to share their work with you when they get home and/or ask you to continue typing for them as they narrate. Cherish this beautiful moment by typing every single word they dictate with as little editing as possible and with absolutely no criticizing. If you do this, they are more likely to continue to share with you as they get older.
  • If your writer is hesitant to share a piece with you:
    • Ask them to show you ONE line that they’re especially proud of--and, most importantly, LOVE THAT LINE! This shows your writers that they can trust you to be positive and “get” them and their stories. 
  • If your writer won’t share their work with you,
    • Don’t fret; it’s very common. Writing can feel quite personal to them. It sometimes takes a lot before writers feel comfortable enough to share their work with the people they love most.  
    • Please know that if you have questions or concerns, or haven’t yet and would like to read a piece, you can reach out to us at any time. 
  • Email us! At Writopia, we’re happy to discuss any questions you have about your writer’s stories, process them with you, and integrate your insights in the most productive way into workshop. This way, you remain a source of positivity to your writer while we take the lead as rigorous workshop instructors. Email us anytime with your thoughts or questions.

CELEBRATION

• Take note of your writer’s goals.
  • Celebrate all the good humor or drama and literary style that defines your writer’s piece. Encourage your writer to share his/her/their work at readings and/or through submissions. As writers, we cherish the affirmation that comes from recognition, especially from the ones closest to us. Keep in mind, though, that because writing is such a personal experience, if your writer feels pressured to submit or read by you or anyone else, and that they aren’t in charge of setting their own goals, they may lose interest in the entire process and close up. If your writer isn’t ready to send out work, let them know that there’s no pressure to submit. We will work with them to get there over days, weeks, months, or years of time. 
  • Let your writer know how proud you are of them for working through the writer’s process. It’s both gratifying and challenging to collect one’s innermost thoughts and put them down in words.

DEEP ENGAGEMENT

• Ask questions about your writer’s work.
  • In addition to or rather than asking, “How was workshop today?” or, “What did you learn today?” try the questions like these with more dynamic answers in mind:
    • Who is your main character? 
    • What point of view is it written in? Is there an “I” narrator?
    • What does s/he want?
    • What is your favorite obstacle that s/he’s facing?
    • What scene did you write today?
    • What part of your story did you share today with the group?
    • Teach me the writing game you played!

• Be a role model.
  • Reading, writing, taking risks, and supporting literacy and literary growth yourself are all crucial to supporting your writer’s own work. 
  • Talk to your writers about books, TV shows, movies, and video games that they enjoy, you enjoy, or you both enjoy. Having positive discussions about stories that aren’t theirs is a great way to deepen their literacy and show them how important writing and intellectual discourse is to you and to our society as a whole.

We look forward to continuing to work with your writers as they grow in Writopia! Please do not hesitate to reach out to either of us anytime.

Warmly,
Rebecca Wallace-Segall, Founder & CEO
Yael Schick, Executive Director
Writopia Lab