What if kids just wrote for fun?
One of the most interesting results of widespread Internet access has the appearance of “fan fiction” websites. These sites showcase stories (often by students) that are based on or inspired by popular movies, books, or television shows. They contain tens of thousands of stories, and allow for feedback to the author. More sophisticated sites include sorting stories by author, topic, and even movie-style ratings. Check out
http://www.fanfiction.net to see a popular example.
The folks that run this website have actually created a new, companion website for original writing other than fan fiction. It hosts fiction and poetry for over 65,000 registered contributors, with almost 100,000 stories and over 180,000 pieces of poetry. As with the fan fiction site, a large proportion of the contributors are young people. The site is at http://www.fictionpress.com.
So, what can we do to get kids this enthusiastic about writing in school?