The creative process

[Clodfobble]

Minifob's been doing writing exercises with me before school each morning, to try to catch him up on his abysmal fine motor skills. At first it was just rote letter formation, working on correcting some really weird-ass ways he made up of forming letters (for example, to make a lower-case f, he would first draw a plus, then add a hook to the top of it; or to make a 9, he would draw a clockwise circle, then draw a line up from the bottom to meet it.) Anyway, he's got that part down when he's concentrating on it; now we're working on making sure the bad habits don't creep back in while he's busy thinking about the words he's actually writing.

In order to keep coming up with things to write about, I resorted to an "Iron Chef" style challenge where I name a random thing, and he has to make up a little story that somehow involves that thing. Yesterday's thing was "a birthday cake in the middle of the road" (this inspiration for which was actually this book that I read as a teenager for some reason.) Minifobette got jealous, and decided to participate in the challenge as well.

Here is Minifob's story:

One time in a town called Surck, it was a good day until... cakes fell out of the sky! Cakes were on the road. Cakes were everywhere, even on the people! So they all ate the cake. The End

And here is Minifobette's:

Once upon a time there was a girl named Emma. her family and her friends from school were going on a trip on a train but when they're almost to the park one family was haveing cake on the road!!!! Oh my gosh!!!!! said the conductor. How do we get to the park?!?! the family are in the road!!!!

and they had an idea. They're going to go around the picnic. We made it!!!! said Everybody that went to the park. and they lived happily ever after. The End

She is two years younger than her brother.

Of course her handwriting is way better as well, which I actually tend to see as a cause rather than an effect--when writing always hurts and takes a lot of effort, no one is going to want to write down sweeping epic narratives even if they can form them in their mind.

But it's not so much a comparison of skill, rather one of style. Minifobette's story is all about the people, while Minifob's is about the cakes.

This morning I upped the ante and had him try to use the same challenge but make up a different story about it. This is what he wrote:

In a cake factory the workers made 100 cakes. But 1 of the cakes fell out when they were takeing the cakes and delevering them. The cake rotted on the road. Someone ate the cake and got sick. The End

[lumberjim]

I was just telling my kids about that book on Sunday. I couldn't remember if it had been an assignment in a writing class or something I had read. I still can't.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Minifob's got it. We know the who is cake, so lets cut the bullshit and get to the what, when, why, and how.

[Griff]

Interesting stuff.

[footfootfoot]

Wow. Very cool.

I wonder how much is a first child/second child - boy/girl effect.

[/plane on a treadmill]


The mm has to do writing exercises that involve her narrating and me writing, then me narrating and her writing. Her brother does something else in class.