13 Tips for Young Writers / Day Three: Collect Words

By Dr. K. Mark Hilliard

Day 3: Collect Words

Encourage your child to become a Word Collector or Phrase Collector. The journal will come in handy here.

Words are free. Tell your children to be on the lookout for ones they like. If they experience a word they like, they should write it down to use in their future stories. This can be words they hear or read.

If they see a short phrase they like, they should write it down in the journal as well. Or when they think of a phrase, sentence, or line—they should be writing these down so they don’t forget.

(Tell your children not to copy or steal from others writers and call it their own. To use single words that others have used, words that excited them, is wonderful! Being on the lookout for enchanting words is why word collecting is so fun. But to use groups of words or phrases or sentences the same way another writer did—that is plagiarizing. If they love the wording from another person and want to use it, they can quote other people, putting quotation marks and giving their name credit.)