Much later in my life, I wrote a poem of which I was quite proud. I sent it to my older sister for her enjoyment. By return mail, I received my opus, with her suggestions for its correction and “improvements” in red ink. I was so traumatized by this that I did not write any more poetry for two years. I know I over-reacted, but the point is, when you are dealing with a fledgling writer, it is important to nurture the creativity and imagination. Too much criticism can stifle that.

Ben, What a kind and gracious and wise adult that man is. I love knowing you wanted in on the action, and that it was literary in nature. (I didn’t know that booger shows up in Catcher in the Rye. Sounds like something I must re-read.)

Yes, Smithereens, I’m sure she had a slighly older audience in mind. Still, if it works it works.

Fencer, It certainly is innovative. After a stunned moment, I realized he was spelling swear that way because it rhymes with square, a word he was using in math that week.

Hello Jess — Let’s hear it for the cool gadgets! And the very technical weapons! Yay boys (and any girls who care to join in the mayhem)!

Reading this post, I am reminded of one of the most important moments in my spiritual and intellectual development. I was thirteen or so when I went into the tiny library in my small hometown to check out Catcher in the Rye. I had it on good authority that the book contained lots of suarewords and that the word “booger” made an appearance in the first chapter. I wanted in on the action. But I was horrified to find that the volunteer behind the checkout counter was none other than my church’s stated clerk (the stated clerk is the top lay-leader in a Presbyterian Congregation). I was sure he would disapprove of me for wanting to read suarewords. I considered ditching the book and bolting for the door. Instead he took the book from me, did all of the stamping that they used to do in libraries, and gave the book back to me saying, “Ben, I’m glad you’re reading this book. Someday soon this book will be recognized as one of the greatest novels ever written.” God bless him.

Regards

Thanks for such a great post!

Ann — I love your newsboy suggestion — in fact, that sounds like a wonderful story in itself.

I have been thinking about that Virginia Tech guy, and whether there’s anything about him that might matter to us. My response has been to decide that I don’t want anything about him — his actions, his clearly unbalanced mind, his story, his history — to come near my house. I think that children know quite early on the difference between real violence and the violence they play at. It is only when something goes terribly wrong that they get that mixed up.

Hello OP — Yes, writing up a storm over here in BloglilyLand.

When I was in the first grade I wrote a story about a girl who had a brain full of worms which made her, excuse me here, a bit slow. I brought in a sketchy surgeon who chopped her head open and removed HALF of the worms ( the surgery was too tricky to remove all of them) makign her, thus, only partially slow. The end. The school psycologist was called and every one freaked out on me. My parents told themall to stuff it and said I just had a good imagination, and here I am. I think its best to let him write what he writes what he writes, while perhaps leading him to great writers as is age appropriate…maybe some hemingway short stories in the next several years, some Jack London, etc.
I think William is going to be a master writer!

We in the journalism profession might be a crude lot of ink-stained wretches, yet we adhere to strict set of rules of ethics; no swearing, no hurting, no lying.

There must be a story out there about newsboys back around the turn of the century that might deal with this topic? Maybe showing him a little bit of how much the Va. Tech shooter hurt people might help him understand that shooting isn’t like it looks in the video games and movies.

of course getting paid for the real words may not be exactly what you have in mind.

(this makes 3 writers in your house, yes?)

twinkle.