Creative Writing Instruction: Online Resources and Tools

Writing Activities from Let's Get Creative

Let's Get Creative offers interactive storytelling activities for 1st through 6th graders. Students can choose from several story starters to begin writing their story. With the help of the 'What-If' genie, kids make up their own stories by answering questions. In another story starter activity, 'Story Kitchen', kids pick a hero, place and villain from a list and a story is started for them. They finish it on their own.

A Web activity designed to help create characters is 'Mug Shots'. Kids click on images of interesting-looking characters and answer questions about the character's background, which they use to write a story of their own.

Create Comics with MakeBeliefsComix.com

Make Beliefs Comix is an online, interactive creative writing tool that helps kids create comic strips. It is fun for all ages, but requires a 4th grade reading level. Kids learn about writing stories by creating their own comic strip. They select characters and are prompted to create dialogue and plots, which appear on a comic strip so they can see their work as they go along.

Your child can even print out the comic she's made through a free program that can be downloaded from the website. She can also e-mail the comic to a friend, and save her work to create an ongoing comic strip. This site is easy for children to use because there are explanations and examples for each step.

Writing Stories with WriteSF.com

WriteSF.com is a fun way for middle and high school students to learn about creative writing while writing their own stories. Your child can use the in-depth explanations or jump right in with the 'quick launch' option, where he will learn the five basic elements of a story step by step. Examples and explanations are available all along the way. There's also advice for getting published and a list of resources for students interested in advancing with their writing.