Story writing

It is so interesting how removing just one single impediment to the production process can really open the floodgates.

Madison had a project for Brownies, to get her "Her-story" badge: She had to write and illustrate a fractured fairy tale, set in modern times. This was assigned three weeks ago, to be completed for last night's meeting.

The resistance was amazing, and this from my little story writer. For "writer," though, you should probably substitute "composer," because the mechanics of writing and spelling absolutely still get in the way of her being able to say what she wants to say. It all ends up being an extremely frustrating experience.

So I had her do the first page one day for cursive handwriting practice -- this was considerably before my revelation the other day about how she was holding the pencil incorrectly -- but it really was only a small fraction of what she wanted to say.

So at the beginning of the week, with the deadline looming, I asked her if she actually wanted to do this. Remember, a badge is involved. She said yes, then no, then changed her mind to yes. That competitive, measurement-oriented child really loves the badges. So I set her up with her computer.

So here's the thing: After working at it (not without enjoyment) for an hour, she came down and showed me what she'd done. And then she told me the rest of the story. I realized that we were either in for 10 hours of painstaking typing and spell-checking, or I could type it for her.

So she narrated "The Real Story of Cinderella." I typed. It's on 15 pages, with about 3-4 sentences per page, and it's FUNNY. Cinderella had an attitude, she never applied herself to anything except her nails and her TV shows. Her mother was worried that if she went to the ball, she'd end up married to the king's son, who was an equal space cadet, and then the kingdom would be in trouble. She thought the ball would be boring, but after everyone left of course THEN it became appealing, so she peremptorily summoned her fairy godmother out of retirement and got a carriage. The prince wasn't handsome enough for her, so she ran away from him, but fortunately found her perfect match, a man who was both rich AND handsome.

Then she illustrated each page, and was very proud of the result.

She read it out loud at the Brownie meeting last night, apparently to great acclaim. She told me in the car that she intends to write some sequels, and when we got home, she tried to sequester herself in the attic room where her computer is so she could do just that. But it was bedtime.

Guess what she'll be doing for school, today.