My Absolutely Crummy First Draft: The Trials and Triumphs of Motivating the Adolescent Writer

This article serves to highlight the importance of educating adolescent writers around the origins of writing, the importance of carefully identifying word choice, the revision process, and developing one’s voice as a writer. Working toward having students understand that writing is hard work is half the battle. But building upon this knowledge foundation by incorporating the creative writing process, students become not only strong writers, but writers who enjoy and look forward to crafting text, regardless of the genre. They begin to understand that writing matters. A number of creative writing activities and strategies are included throughout along with examples of student work.