Writing

Reluctant Reader Meet Reluctant Writer

Young girl sitting at her desk with her head down in a book.

As educators, parents, and creatives, we are very familiar with the notion of the reluctant reader: young—and old—readers who dread picking up a book, yet alone finishing it! Educators struggle with recommending interesting stories to unmotivated readers. Parents struggle with unfinished library books that their children just HAD to have. Writers struggle with creating unique and binge-worthy tales for their audiences. While the concept of a reluctant reader is well known, its counterpart—the reluctant writer—may not be as popular. 

Some students may be labeled as reluctant writers because they have a deadly aversion to writing. Be it a short-answer response on their exams, or a creative story for an assignment, reluctant writers have zero desire to put their thoughts down on paper for whatever reason. This scenario happens to the best of us and I would proudly declare that I consider myself to be a reluctant writer. Even if I know I have amazing stories to tell, when it comes time to sit down and put pen to paper, my brain shuts down!

For many of us, the start of a new project is always exhilarating. It’s thrilling to sit up and think about new characters, new worlds, and new loves. The entire process is always exciting at the beginning. When you open up a fresh, blank document and start typing your first words, all of your ideas flow easily onto the page. The story starts off strong and your characters come to life while you document their trials and tribulations. Your plot thickens as you hit a groove and steadily add to your word count day after day after day. But then suddenly, it happens without warning ~ writer’s block. 

Clip art of a boy at his desk with his hand on this chin, staring into space.

Your ideas become stale, your writing stalls. Your blank pages stare back at you, judging your ineptitude. Your characters whisper behind your back and mock your inability to continue the story. Your world fades the longer you miss your streak and fail to add new words. Eventually, you stop opening the document and move on to a different project. Another manuscript sits in your folder, hoping to see the light of day again, but you both know that story is done. This vicious cycle of new stories, vigorous writing, stalled plotlines, and incomplete manuscripts lives at the heart of today’s truth. 

Writing is numbing. 

It’s extremely difficult to maintain a strict writing schedule when you have life coming at you from all sides. Plus, brilliance rarely strikes every day, so I believe it’s bad practice to force yourself to write every day. Burnout is real and so is the pain of being unable to complete your beloved manuscript. This pain becomes so numbing, you’re unable to do anything else. 

Yet knowing that inspiration comes when it wants, it’s very possible you’ll miss it if you don’t have a steady routine. I know this sounds very contradictory, but the writing process is not just about writing. There are so many other writing-related things you can do when you are caught in the middle of a creative drought. 

Learn to acknowledge the numbing feeling of writer’s block and look for ways to break free from it. Invention is the most difficult part of creation, regardless of the medium you work in. And it’s hard to find the right words to articulate the vision you have in your head. Oftentimes, the words don’t want to come or the scenes just don’t flow.

To trigger my creative side, I’ll take a break from forcing myself to write and wind down by reading or watching shows. Once inspiration hits, I’ll have a brainstorming session to help me get over my writer’s block. Nothing major or planned. Just a quick free write to jot possible ideas down on paper. Usually, this gives me a starting point for stalled manuscripts and I will feel ready to return to them.

Another helpful tip is having writer friends or accountability partners that understand what you’re going through and can pull you out of your self-inflicted misery. We all go through bouts of imposter syndrome, but it doesn’t mean you need to succumb to this malady. It’s important to acknowledge when we’re feeling this blockage and fight to find a way to step away from the numbing pain to seek another new beginning. 

Aerial shot of a group of writers sitting a table with their laptops, notepads, clipboard and drinks during a session.

The more you allow yourself to write without restraint, you’ll find the ideas flowing more freely. Eventually, you’ll find your creative groove and hopefully move away from being a reluctant writer to a productive one! Just know that we’ve all been there and if you ever need a positive push, my inbox is always open! Signing off from the trenches, I’m manifesting great writing sessions and envisioning everyone finding your voice and creating some amazing stories to inspire the next generation of reluctant readers and writers! 

Creative Writing Prompts for Young Authors

children writingEnjoy these prompts. Here are a few tips:

 

  • Don’t worry about being perfect
  • Let your imagination run wild
  • Write about things that excite you
  • Read your story out loud to catch fun details
  • Have fun with your writing!

 

Imagine…

  • You wake up one morning and discover you can talk to animals. What conversations do you have, and what adventures unfold?
  • You find a magical key that can open any lock in the world. What would you unlock, and what would you discover?
  • Write a story about a day in the life of your favorite toy when no one is looking.
  • You’ve been chosen to be the first kid to live on a space station. Describe your first week there.
  • A mysterious package arrives at your doorstep with no return address. What’s inside, and how does it change your day?

 

About You…

  • Describe your perfect day from start to finish. What makes it so special?
  • If you could have any superpower, what would it be? How would you use it to help others?
  • Write about a time when you felt proud of yourself and why.
  • Imagine you could trade places with an adult for a day. Who would you choose, and what would you do?
  • What is the most important lesson you’ve learned from a friend or family member?

 

Explore…

  • ]You discover a hidden door in your school that leads to a completely different world. What does this world look like?
  • Write a story about a friendship between two completely different creatures.
  • If trees could talk, what stories would they tell about the world they’ve seen?
  • Create a new invention that would make life easier for kids your age. How does it work?
  • Describe a magical creature that no one has ever seen before. What are its special abilities?

 

Connect with Others…

  • Write about a time when you helped someone and how it made you feel.
  • Imagine you could solve one problem in your community. What would it be, and how would you fix it?
  • Describe a moment when you acted brave, even though you were scared.
  • If you could send a message to kids around the world, what would you say?
  • Write about a time when you learned something new about yourself.

 

Have Fun…

  • You’ve been chosen to design a new holiday. What would it celebrate, and how would people celebrate it?
  • Write a story about what happens in your classroom after everyone goes home.
  • Imagine you can shrink to the size of an ant for a day. What adventures would you have?
  • If your favorite food could talk, what would it say about being eaten?
  • Create a story about a day when everything goes wrong but turns out amazing in the end.

 

Hope you enjoyed stretching your imagination and coming up with new ideas. Why not share your stories with a favorite teacher or some of your friends?

Do you have any suggestions for story prompts? Feel free to share them in the comments below.

Interview with James Ponti, bestselling author of City Spies: London Calling!

Cover of CITY SPIES: LONDON CALLING by James Ponti

Fresh off the release of his stellar THE SHERLOCK SOCIETY, James Ponti is back with the highly anticipated next thriller in the CITY SPIES series: LONDON CALLING. As always, the book is filled with action, adventure, humor, and heart. James was kind enough to speak with From the Mixed Up Files of Middle Grade Authors about his new novel, his approach to writing distinct characters, and a favorite book (with an ironic twist!).

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

London Calling takes a storyline that’s been building in the background of the first five books – with Mother and Clementine and Cairo and Annie – and brings it to the forefront. What was it like to tackle that storyline head-on?

There’s a couple things going into play with that. I know there are going to be at least eight books in the series, and there might be more. I thought – I have these ongoing stories, and I thought about readers – maybe some who’ve been with me the whole time, and they’re aging into different books. Perhaps I need to give them some resolution. But I don’t want to make the series feel like it’s over either. So what was interesting was trying to figure out how to wrap up some things and answer some big questions and at the same time create some new questions. So we have kind of a fresh start in the next book.

Everywhere I went where people were into the books, they would always ask me – is Clementine good or bad? And I told them, you know…I haven’t really fully decided – because what I didn’t want was for it to be an obvious one way or the other kind of thing. But I thought they deserved to have an answer to that question.

So in the last year, when I went out for either MISSSION MANHATTAN or if I was out for THE SHERLOCK SOCIETY, when kids would ask that I’d say, you’re going to find out in February!

I was drawn into the book from the get-go. The first chapter has such a great action sequence with Annie her best friend, but you also did such an incredible job revealing her character. How do you make sure you’re doing both of those things?

That was for me a really big challenge. I knew I wanted the book to start with [Annie] because we haven’t met her, and we don’t know what we think about her – although we have no reason to think she’s bad. Unlike Clementine, she’s never done anything to make you question her goodness or badness or which side she’s on – she’s just a character we don’t know about. And I wanted to get to know her, but also – I like to start the books with a big…I want them to suck you in. Hopefully!

One time I went on Goodreads, which is a mistake [laughs]. And this kid wrote – and I thank this kid a lot – because this kid wrote about the first book: I really like this book, but boy did it take forever to get started. And that gnawed at me for years. So the next book starts with like, hijackers landing on the ship about to take it hostage. I wrote that and I’m like, is that soon enough for you? Like talking to this kid out loud at my computer [laughs]. So you know, I like the book to really start with like something that’s going to grab you, hopefully.

The challenge is: how do we have that and not have it be empty action? How do we get to know this character during the action? …[T]he only way I’m going to get to know her character is if she has a friend to talk to. That became key.

…[T]hose [story] necessities led to me try to think: what’s her personality like? What kind of relationship does she have with her mother? And then – where I can break up the action with dialogue or with her thinking of an internal monologue to try to show her personality?

This is Book Six, and all the main characters have established traits about each of them, but you’re still revealing new things. How do you find that balance?

The first thing about the characters is – I started with five of them, and now there’s six – and what I did is: I took my five biggest problems as a middle schooler, and I gave each kid one of those problems. So that in a way, they would be five variations of me in middle school. And why I wanted to do that was because I wanted to never favor one over the other. I never wanted to be more vested or identify more with one of the other, and so I started with that. Then there’s other thing that is really backward… So I’m going to give you longer answer you want but hopefully it all makes sense. [laughs]

I went to see the DEAD POET’S SOCIETY with my mom back when that movie came out. I don’t know you’re familiar with it, but halfway through the movie, those kids – even though a lot of them now become actors we recognize – were all unknowns. All the kids have basically the same haircut, and they all wore matching uniforms. And halfway through the movie, my mom turned to me and she says: I can’t tell them apart. I don’t know who’s who. And that’s stuck with me forever as a writer thinking – how frustrating for a reader. To get confused with characters.

And I knew – here, I’m going throw five kids at you. And how am I going to make it work so you’re going to be able to keep track of them well? And that’s why I came with the idea, if I named them after the cities from – that gives you a little more tangible hold. It’s not Tom and Bob and Larry. It’s Paris. Oh, he’s the one for France – so I know his backstory instantly every time I see Paris, if I remember [he’s] the one that came from France.

So I made a list of 150 cities that I thought would be good character names. And I just scanned that list, and I said, I want one from each continent. So I had the names of the characters first.

You also have the profiles in the back of the book, so if you’re reading you can always flip back-and-forth. I think that is fantastic. How did those come about?

I’m not smart enough to come up with that. [laughs]. Actually, I got a call from my editor for the first book who said – someone in the sales meeting asked, wouldn’t it be neat if we had [character profiles]? I said, that would be great. You could go back and you could check.

And it was great – we got the artist to do solo shots of them all so they felt a little more real. Because it wasn’t just the ones on the cover. It’s like they each have their own yearbook picture. So I had to spend a lot of time trying come up with those. That’s actually the hardest part of the book to me is writing the dust in the back. Then they wanted to run the same one [for the second book]. I said no, we have to change it.

It forces us to really flesh them out – and also, I want to change how we do it. So one is them by themselves. In one of them they write about each other.

One of my favorite sections of the book is where the villain, Le Fantôme, quotes from The Little Prince that, “all grown-ups were once children, but only a few of them remember it.” He then says that he reads that book every year. To close, do you have a book that you find yourself re-reading like Le Fantôme?

…I was the worst reader growing up. I was terrible at it and was a really slow reader. Very frustrated by it, which is why I first started in television writing. I never thought I could write a book because it was such a struggle for me to get through. Ironically, the one book that got through to me is FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER.

It is my North Star, and I love it. There’s a funny story about it – so it’s the book that for whatever reason I got hooked on.

I grew up in a beach town in Florida outside of Jacksonville. We’re talking 30,000 people in four communities side by side. And when my first book came out, I said – I want to send a copy to Elaine Konigsburg and say to her: thank you for writing your book because without your book I know I would not have written this book. And so I tried to track down where she lived, and it turned out my whole life, she lived in my hometown. I had no idea.

I wish I knew that as a kid because I think [writing] would’ve seemed more attainable if I thought someone who lived here did it as opposed to – oh, you have to be in New York in Chicago or Los Angeles you have to have it you know XY&Z kind of things to check off the boxes…so the closest thing would be From the Mixed-Up Files!

James Ponti is the New York Times bestselling author of four middle grade book series: The Sherlock Society following a group of young detectives; City Spies, about an unlikely squad of five kids from around the world who form an elite MI6 Spy Team; the Edgar Award–winning Framed! series, about a pair of tweens who solve mysteries in Washington, DC; and the Dead City trilogy, about a secret society that polices the undead living beneath Manhattan. His books have appeared on more than fifteen different state award lists, and he is the founder of a writers group known as the Renegades of Middle Grade. James is also an Emmy–nominated television writer and producer who has worked for many networks including Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, PBS, History, and Spike TV, as well as NBC Sports. He lives with his family in Orlando, Florida. Find out more at JamesPonti.com.

 

CITY SPIES: LONDON CALLING releases February 4 and is available at bookstores everywhere.

You can see more purchase options at: Simon & Schuster.