Writing Workshop

It's been a real joy to see my boys finally enjoy writing. They have both always had active imaginations. They are also fabulous story tellers. But they didn't see the connection between those two things and writing. Now, it seems that something has clicked.

This morning we may have gotten to the genre for which they were waiting! I always thought they both loved fantasy, but we started talking about historical fiction and...boom! They were excited.

It's interesting to me that both want to write a mystery. I don't know why it should be. I love mysteries. But I didn't lead them that direction. After explaining what historical fiction was and asking them to point out some examples in our home library, none of which were mysteries, I asked for their ideas. I was really surprised that they made that leap.

Super is working on a mystery about King Tut's "murder". His plot is that Tut's wife Ankesenamen suspects that Tutankhamun was murdered by his successor (and her new husband) Ay. While she is investigating his murder, she is discovered, she is also killed but she is able to leave behind evidence. But Ay is able to destroy it before anybody else finds out. Happy ending, huh? A little too much Discovery Channel, I think.

Tutone is writing a mystery involving a death in Windsor Castle to be solved by a friend of King Edward III. They are so excited that when that class ended and they had to start Math, they were devastated. Both swore that they were going to work on their stories at lunchtime instead of playing a game. Wow!