Encourage Excellent Writing Habits One Measure at a Time

Did you know Zizzle Literary has a blog known as “The Zizzling Pan”? There you can find some great articles about writing and reading…for adults and children.

Melissa Ostrom contributed “One Measure at a Time” to this last June and this would be something great to do to help channel your children’s energy into something creative and possibly fun. Flash fiction is a genre that has definitely seen a rise in recent years. I think the shortest pieces I ever read or studied in school were honest short stories. It was more so after college that I came around myself to see flash fiction.

This is something Ostrom also recalls in her article: “Though I write flash fiction regularly these days, a decade ago, I didn’t even know the form existed. I regret this. Had I been familiar with flash when I was still teaching high school English, I would have incorporated the reading and writing of it into my instruction.” I especially like how Ostrom says she used to believe more was better in terms of writing, but how flash could have suited her teaching purposes just as well.

Ostrom talks about 500 words being an average length for flash fiction. How about setting that as a challenge for your child? Read some great flash pieces for inspiration and have them try their own hand at writing and editing their own attempt down. A fun exercise to do over time to help them learn and grow “measure by measure.”