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Tip #2: Keep it interesting



Image credit: Clear Light Bulb Placed on Chalkboard by Pixabay


When students are given choice in their writing, their existing knowledge and perspectives of the world become valued as cultural capital (Dutton et al, 2018), and this is highly motivating. High interest topics lead to effective expressive writing more than teacher-led topics and tasks (Britton, 1979, cited in Dutton et al, 2018, p.77). Proponents of participatory culture accept that young people:


- Have the ability to change the world around them

- Are active social agents

- Need space to pursue their legitimate interests




Harnessing these interests and taking student writers seriously is a key role of the facilitator of a student-led writing group.

Students may find inspiration in the ways that other writers have delved into high interest topics and genres, and teacher-librarians should seek to point out these ideas and locate mentor texts from which students might find a starting point to write (Findley, 2016) .

Two examples of genres that might spark student interest and serve as a repository for inspiring mentor texts are cli-fi (climate fiction) and multimedia (transmedia) fiction.


Case study 1: engage writers with important issue: case study in cli-fi



Image credit: Markus Spiske from Pexels

Far from being disconnected from current affairs as many would have us believe, young people are actually deeply connected with real world political issues such as climate change. Take for example the large crowds of students at recent climate protests, and the epic following young climate advocates have on social media (Great Thunberg and Dara MacAnulty).

Cli-fi refers to "any fictional work written about the effects of climate change and global warming" (Martin, 2018). The genre itself is not new, but it has only recently become popular. Cli-fi now “has a room of its own”: there is increasing reader appetite for cli-fi, there are courses about cli-fi writing, and students have started to study it at some schools (Bloom, 2015).

Popular YA fiction titles in my school library that fall within this genre include Bren MacDibble’s three novels, How to Bee, The Dog Runner and Across the Risen Sea (middle grades) and the Hive series by A.J Betts (mid-upper secondary). Changed climates and landscapes are not just part of the setting of the cli-fi novel; they form an integral part of the storyline and lived reality for the characters. Cli-fi “reconnects young readers with their environment, helping them to value it more, especially when today, a large amount of their time is spent in the virtual world” (Holding, 2015). For Bren MacDibble, writing about confronting issues facing humans is a positive thing. “Fictional problem-solving is always easier than real life problem-solving but it uses the same brain muscles and I think everyone needs to develop more problem-solving muscles.” (MacDibble, 2020).

For youth who are switched on to current issues, exploring their ideas via a future-focused genre is likely to provide a kind of high-interest topic that is personally relevant to the writer.

Case study 2: it’s not just about the print


Image credit: Markus Spiske from Pexels

While formal literacy education has largely focused on print-based literature, there are arguments for incorporating a new canon of multimedia or transmedia into mainstream literacy classrooms (Hovious, et al, 2020). Multimedia fiction is becoming increasingly popular with teenagers (Nguyenova, 2019), and this non-traditional format of storytelling may suit some of the writers in your writing group. As "the way we read and tell stories using digital media has been changing quickly in recent years" (Milam, 2015) , writing opportunities for our students should be diversifying as well. Multimedia storytelling makes use of media other than words to tell a story (Nguyenova, 2019). According to this definition, graphic novels would be defined as multimedia fiction, but a novel with a few illustrations would not. Multimodal fiction combines traditional texts with multimodal features such as photographs, artworks, videos, maps and music clips. Multimodal fiction may progress in non-linear ways and enables an element of interactivity (Stevens, 2020).

A variety of strong mentor texts for exist for budding writers of multimedia fiction. One popular dystopian/science-fiction series in my own school library is the Illuminae series cowritten by Jay Kristoff and Aimee Kauffman. The nail-biting plot and gritty characters emerge via myriad media and variations on the written form, such as interview transcripts, maps, blueprints, secret government files with sections blacked out and email chains between the two main protagonists. The result is an engaging multimedia format that conveys readers on a unique journey through the novel. Another example for a younger audience is the Inanimate Alice series, an interactive audio-visual story series designed to keep readers guessing and hypothesising about what exactly has happened, and how things will end, for the main character, Alice. News outlets are also increasingly using multimodal formats for their stories. Take for example this one, by ABC’s Stan Grant.

References and further reading:

Step by step advice from Berkley University on how to construct a multimedia story: https://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/starttofinish/

Site for publishing multimedia stories and seeking inspiration:


Bloom, D. (2015). Can “Cli-Fi” help keep our planet livable? https://medium.com/@clificentral/can-cli-fi-help-keep-our-planet-livable-8b053bd4aa35

Dutton, J., D’Warte, J., Rossbridge, J. & Rushton, K. (2018). Tell me your story: Confirming identity and engaging writers in the middle years. Primary English Teachers Association of Australia (PETAA).


Findley, J. (2016). How to get students excited about writing. https://jenniferfindley.com/get-students-excited-about-writing/

Grant, Stan. (9 September 2020). This is what it’s like to live in a society that doesn’t see you as human. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-13/stan-grant-black-lives-matter-four-corners/12429206?nw=0

Holding, S. (2015). What is cli-fi? Any why I write it. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/feb/06/what-is-cli-fi-sarah-holding

Hovious, A., Shinas, V.H. & Harper, I. (2020). ‘The Compelling Nature of Transmedia Storytelling: Empowering Twenty First-Century Readers and Writers Through Multimodality’. Tech Know Learn. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-020-09437-7

Jenkins, H. (2010). TEDxNYED – Henry Jenkins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFCLKa0XRlw


MacDibble, B. (2020). Bren MacDibble on Across the Risen Sea. https://alphabetsoup.net.au/2020/10/07/bren-macdibble-on-across-the-risen-sea/

Martin, E. (2018). What is cli-fi? A beginner’s guide to climate fiction. https://bookriot.com/climate-fiction/


Milam, W. (2015). 3 multimedia novels that could change the way we read. https://geekandsundry.com/3-multimedia-novels-that-could-change-the-way-we-read/


Nguyenova, A.T. (2019). Could multimedia storytelling work for you? https://blog.bookbaby.com/2019/09/could-multimedia-storytelling-work-for-you/


Stevens, J. (2020). Tutorial: Multimedia Storytelling: learn the secrets from the experts. Berkley Graduate School of Journalism Advanced Media Institute. https://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/starttofinish/

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