A common challenge for students and teachers is how to develop a great idea for a piece of writing. Too often students struggle with the process of finding inspiration for their writing. They have a vague idea for the story they hope to tell, but all too quickly it transforms into a list of events with little or no detail. The goal here is to provide our students with a process to use during the planning process. The hope is that by identifying the type of thinking required during the early phases of ideation and to focus their attention on details, that the stories our students subsequently compose will be more enjoyable to read.
We begin with a reminder of some of the fundamental structures of good story writing. Students will often attempt to write their entire story as a single paragraph. The result is something like this:
There was this Hobbit called Bilbo and he met a Wizard called Gandalf and he had some friends who were Dwarves. The Dwarves asked Bilbo to help them steal their gold back from the Dragon Smaug. They went off together and fought Trolls and Goblins. Bilbo found a ring. They sneak into the dragon’s cave and scare him out. The people in the village are attacked but a lucky archer kills the Dragon. They have a big battle and in the end, all agree to share the gold.
All of the information is there. All the ideas that make the Hobbit a great story are present, but what is missing is detail. Writers include the exact amount of detail required to bring you into the story. A few pages to describe Bilbo, a few more to describe his house. Several Chapters for the meetings before they head off on their journey, even more as they head off on the road. Details of every character and every location and then details of every event that happens along the way. The detail is what makes the reader care about the characters, picture the scenes in their head and become involved in the action. Our students undervalue their ideas. If they routinely took each idea they have and dedicated at least a paragraph to it their writing would be much better.
The next step is to consider the structure of those paragraphs. A simple plan is that it should in its opening sentence give the reader a sense of what the paragraph is about. It needs to contain detail in terms of characters, action, emotion and setting. It should bring these pieces together and point onwards to what comes next.
We are going to use an image from the book “The Most Magnificent Thing” by Ashley Spires. You could substitute any image that is abundant in detail and points towards a possible story. The illustrations of Shaun Tan are inspiring. There are innumerable artworks which would fit the purpose of inspiring a writers imagination. Photos of city streets, remote wild places, images capturing human interactions and emotions are all great possibilities.
With an image in mind, we want to maximise the value of this. We want the students to slow down and look closely. We want them to engage deliberately in a process of slow-looking.
The definition of slow looking is straightforward. It simply means taking the time to carefully observe more than meets the eye at first glance. . . slow looking is a way of gaining knowledge about the world. It helps us discern complexities that can’t be grasped quickly, and it involves a distinctive set of skills and dispositions that have a different center of gravity than those involved in other modes of learning. (Slow Looking: The art and practice of learning through observation by Shari Tishman)
We will scaffold this “slow looking” through the use of a number of thinking routines. We will begin with “Looking Ten Times Two”. Our aim here is to notice the details in the image or prompt. At first look, much of the fine detail is likely to be missed. We are trained to read images quickly and indeed it can be argued that there is a genetic imperative for this. If you do not spot the approaching predator quickly you are likely to become lunch. On first examination, we list ten words or phrases that come to mind as we absorb the image for the first time. We then repeat the process and on this second looking, we see more details. Our list of words and phrases is expanded. We can repeat these steps as often as we feel is needed. We stop when we feel we have exhausted all possibilities.
From our “Looking Ten Times Two” we have a list of words and phrases that will incorporate into our story. We have started the writing process and routinely engaging in this process builds a bank of ideas we can use time and time again. Some of these words and phrases will be great, others will be good but need improvement. This is the next step and we are going to encourage our students to engage in some reflection on their thinking. They begin by reviewing the list of words and phrases they have listed. They highlight in a positive colour the ones that they feel are “great”, the ones that they connect with. The look now to the ones which are not quite there yet. Maybe they can find a more descriptive or emotive word. Maybe they can rewrite the phrase so that it is more effective. Dictionaries, thesauruses, word-banks and the internet can be a great help here. It must be noted here that students who read prolifically will find this process much easier.
The next step is all about the possible characters. In the image we have chosen there are a number of possibilities. We are going to use the thinking routine “Perceive, Know, Care About” to explore some of the possibilities for each character. We use three guiding questions for the process and capture our thinking in a way that makes sense to us.
What can the person or thing perceive?
What might the person or thing know about or believe?
What might the person or thing care about?
Now we move to the location or other elements of the image or perhaps the events depicted. We will use the “Explanation Game” routine for this. We begin by identifying something interesting in the image. We use the script “I notice that . . “ and then follow this with questions like “Why is it this way?” or “Why might it happen this way?” Our goal is to identify possibilities in the stimulus. In this image, we might wonder what happened to make the girl in the red dress angry or what are the items scattered around her and did something break? I might wonder why the lady in purple seems to be pointing and laughing and why does the man in the blue shirt have a quizzical expression?
By this point, I have a good idea about what is going on here. I have developed some words and phrases to use. I have reflected on my initial thinking and made efforts to enhance the quality of my expression. I have considered aspects of the characters inspired by the stimulus and thought about elements of action and setting. Now I am going to step back and consider what the story might be. I am now beginning to pull all of the threads together and develop a unifying idea for how the characters came to be in this place and this context at this point in my story. I am going to use the thinking routine "Generate, Sort, Connect, Elaborate" to do this.
I begin by Generating a list of story ideas that come to mind when you look at this image and your list of words and phrases. I am going to organise this as a mind map. I am going to keep them simple. I am not planning to write a sequel to "War & Peace”. Next, I sort my ideas according to how central or important they are. For example, explaining how the girl in red came to be looking so angry is important, but explaining why the lady in the striped top is wearing a scarf today isn’t. I might use colour and size to make these ideas stand out, doing this is easy if I am using software like LucidChart or Inspiration to organise my ideas on a device. I am going to connect my ideas by drawing connecting lines between them. Start to think about the order that events happen in. Now I elaborate on any of the ideas/thoughts you have written that seem very important by adding new ideas that expand, extend, or add to your initial ideas.
The final step before I start writing is to share my idea with someone I trust to provide me with honest and valuable feedback about my story. Before this can happen I need to share my story in a way that will allow my trusted reviewer to understand the idea without being tedious or overly focused on the details. The details are important, but they will be enjoyed by my audience as they read the final drafts. I am going to use the idea of an "Elevator Pitch" for this. Imagine you hop into an elevator and realise that you are alone with a famous film director. You know your idea is the perfect story for this person's next film. You also know you have a very short time to share your idea and convince this director to take on your story. This is the idea behind the elevator pitch. Your task is to develop a short and simple explanation of what the story is about and why it is worth telling. Your description needs to be compelling and easy to understand. This can be a great test of your understanding of what the story is about. If you can’t describe it in simple terms and briefly, you might need to rethink your understanding. Share your elevator pitch in a way that makes sense to you. You might want to dramatise this and present the dialogue you would have with a famous director.
Finally, I am ready to begin writing. I utilise all of my planning. I have this spread out around me as I begin to write. The time spent on this planning should make the process easier but I will continue to call on my imagination as I write and once I have a draft ready I will edit and make changes and revision. The process of thinking about my piece of writing will continue and as it does my story will evolve. In the end, I hope to have something that an audience will enjoy reading.
This process has been tested on small groups of students across ages in primary settings. The results have been pleasing and the students have enjoyed the process and felt empowered as writers. It does require a number of lessons and some familiarity with the use of thinking routines to scaffold particular thinking moves helps. Thinking is best when it is built into the culture of a learning environment. Hopefully, you will have the same results. I would love to hear how it works for you and what changes you might make to suit your needs and context.
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By Nigel Coutts
