I know every mother thinks her kid is a genius, but mine really is.
Well, at least at writing stories.
If you’re writing a novel or taking part in NaNoWriMo this year, you might find some inspiration in my 7-year-old son’s most recent work of fiction, “The Transformer’s Battle.” He spent the last two days sitting at the computer typing this story by himself. Now that’s tenacity!
I haven’t touched the spelling or wording at all, but I’ve done a few format tweaks for the sake of readability (capitals, spacing, italics, and quotation marks). Other than that, this is first draft material.
Here’s the gripping drama in all its glory, followed by some writing tips we can all glean from it:
The Transformer’s Battle
by Micah, October 2009
Chapter 1
Long, long ago, in 1332, there was a child who had a big imagination. Every night he had a dream. Once he dreamt of transformers coming to life.
One bright and sunny morning the child heard a bristle in the trees. He looked out his bedroom window to see what was happening but he coud’nt see anything so he got back into bed but while he was in bed he heard a noise. It sounded like they were coming to his house.
By about 3 minutes later, the child noticed that his dream about transformers coming to life had came true! They had all gathered around his house and they were singing! They were singing this song: We are transformers, we want our food. We want our breakfast, lunch and tea. And they kept reapeating that and it was so annoying!
Chapter 2
The child’s father had become very, very angry with the transformers and so he thought of a plan to get rid of them. He said to his wife “ we should start a war, that would destroy them all. His wife said “Yes, but we can’t fight 1500 transformers in one day.”
Chapter 3
But the child’s father said “Trust me, just ask my son to dream about it tonight and it will come true. Then it won’t take us a day. It will only take 27 minutes. I’m sure it will work out in a good way. Except you might want to bring your earplugs.” His wife asked him why she needed to bring her earplugs. The child’s father said “ just to be civilised”.
“Just to be what-what-what?”
“CIVILISED!”
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?”
“CIVILISED! CIVILISED! CIVILISED!”
“SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! your going to wake up Fluffy the cat!”
Chapter 4
And sure enough, Fluffy was skipping down the hallway and puring. The child’s sister was riding on Fluffy. She had taken the child’s toy shield and sword and she was practicing for the coming battle. Fluffy was just about to jump onto the sofa when he saw a toy mouse running down the hallway so he went racing after it.
Chapter 5
It was 8:30 pm so Fluffy and the children all went to bed. The child dreamt about the next day. The next day was the day of the battle. While the child was in bed, he heard a noise. BANG! BANG! BANG! CLASH! BOOM! CRASH! BANG!
The transformers had been training.
Chapter 6
The next day, it was the battle. Before the battle had begun, the family practiced. First, they practiced punching dummies. Second,they practiced sword fighting. Third, they practiced kung fu. Then finally, fourth, they practiced there moves. They were now ready for the battle.
Chapter 7
The battle had just begun. There were 565465 665 65667 7654 56777765 678 78756 5674 560 transformers in the battle versing 4 people.
Buuuuuuuuuuuuut…
Chapter 8
When the family’s friends came along to join in with the battle there were 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
9999999999999999999999999999 people.
The people destroyed the transformers.
THE END
If you’ve ever read my About page, you’ll know ‘the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.’ I, too, started writing at a very young age.
I may be ever-so-slightly biased, but here are some of the immediate writing gems I took from reading my son’s story:
- Improve your writing habits. My son worked quickly on this story, typing it key by key, one finger at a time, over just 2 days. Unlike adult writers, he didn’t stop to critique himself along the way; he went with what felt right at the time.
- Make sure your characters face conflict. The characters in this story face an army of transformers–a terrifying thought for a child.
- Don’t forget story structure. The beginning of “The Transformer’s Battle” sets up the problem, the middle shows the characters preparing for attack, and the ending shows them defeat their enemies.
- Inject some comic relief. Fluffy the cat? The bit with the earplugs? Priceless! Remember to keep your story entertaining.
- Give it a fantastic title. It’s nothing fancy, but “The Transformer’s Battle” is straight and to the point. The reader knows exactly what this story will be about.
- Up the stakes at the story’s midpoint. We learn in ch. 5, “The Transformers had been training.” Our characters now know what they are up against–an army of robots who are ready for battle.
- Ensure your characters have a plan of action. We learn that “the child’s father had become very, very angry with the transformers and so he thought of a plan to get rid of them.” Then, we discover how they plan to achieve their goals. Ch.6 shows our characters training to fight in the battle.
- Use cliffhangers to build suspense. The last few chapters of this story leave the reader wondering what will happen next. Always great to keep them guessing.
- Bring your story to a logical conclusion. Good triumphs over evil in “The Transformer’s Battle,” because the family enlists the help of their friends to overcome their enemies.
- Use believable dialogue. I’m positive at some point my son must have witnessed a conversation between my husband and me regarding earplugs being civilized. In a child’s mind (and maybe in reality), parents are always arguing over petty things.
As far as I’m concerned, this is a pretty solid story, and I’m so proud of my son for how hard he worked on it.
If you have any words of encouragement for this budding writer, please leave a comment.
And keep an eye out for his name on the bestseller’s list (in about 20 years…)!