MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Developing Talent -- how do you encourage children?

twowheels · 01-31-2011, 06:56 PM

My 12 year old daughter (6th grade) has a passion for reading that exceeds most her age. What I've never fully appreciated, until this weekend, was that she also loves writing -- not only does she love it, but she's GOOD at it! I've seen her at the computer "writing a book" a number of times, but she never shared her work, so I only saw her school work, which felt uninspired and childish. Friday night I was finally introduced to her writing, and it blew me away. I sat dumbfounded. I searched Google, looking for some hint that the work wasn't original, I just couldn't believe that the words that I was reading came from a child. She had a number of books in progress of varying lengths (the longest, a trilogy, was an obvious fanfic spinoff of the Twilight series -- not her best work; the shortest was one page that was full of punch and left me wanting to read more).

I don't have her permission to share her work (she didn't even want to share it with me, said it was no good), so I don't want to post any examples right now, but the character development and storylines were amazing. She writes far better than I did at that age, far better than I could now (no matter how I tried), and IMO better than many published authors (though perhaps that's the bias of a father :-) ).

So, my question is, "What do I do now?" She has a talent that I don't think that I should ignore. She's not proud of her work, thinks that it's not very good. I'm afraid to pressure her and turn something that she loves into a chore, but at the same time I think back to how happy I would have been to have a mentor in my own quest for knowledge when I was young -- I remember pestering anybody that I could to learn more about computer programming.

Looking around I found that there is a local writer's club. I'm thinking about contacting them, but perhaps an adult oriented group might not accept her, and she might feel out of place. Another thought was to contact the local university and ask around at the English department to see if any of the professors agree with my assessment and know of any summer programs or other such activities that she might enjoy.

Any other ideas?

01-31-2011, 06:56 PM	#1
twowheels Wizard Posts: 1,854 Karma: 13432974 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Kobo Clara HD, iPad Pro 10", iPhone 15 Pro, Boox Note Max	Developing Talent -- how do you encourage children? My 12 year old daughter (6th grade) has a passion for reading that exceeds most her age. What I've never fully appreciated, until this weekend, was that she also loves writing -- not only does she love it, but she's GOOD at it! I've seen her at the computer "writing a book" a number of times, but she never shared her work, so I only saw her school work, which felt uninspired and childish. Friday night I was finally introduced to her writing, and it blew me away. I sat dumbfounded. I searched Google, looking for some hint that the work wasn't original, I just couldn't believe that the words that I was reading came from a child. She had a number of books in progress of varying lengths (the longest, a trilogy, was an obvious fanfic spinoff of the Twilight series -- not her best work; the shortest was one page that was full of punch and left me wanting to read more). I don't have her permission to share her work (she didn't even want to share it with me, said it was no good), so I don't want to post any examples right now, but the character development and storylines were amazing. She writes far better than I did at that age, far better than I could now (no matter how I tried), and IMO better than many published authors (though perhaps that's the bias of a father :-) ). So, my question is, "What do I do now?" She has a talent that I don't think that I should ignore. She's not proud of her work, thinks that it's not very good. I'm afraid to pressure her and turn something that she loves into a chore, but at the same time I think back to how happy I would have been to have a mentor in my own quest for knowledge when I was young -- I remember pestering anybody that I could to learn more about computer programming. Looking around I found that there is a local writer's club. I'm thinking about contacting them, but perhaps an adult oriented group might not accept her, and she might feel out of place. Another thought was to contact the local university and ask around at the English department to see if any of the professors agree with my assessment and know of any summer programs or other such activities that she might enjoy. Any other ideas?