Stick Figure

What can you do for your pre-nursery school children to give them an edge in reading and writing skills for the rest of their lives? What about something less expensive than sending them to an exclusive preschool in Vermont for $30,000 a year?

Encourage them to draw. Writing, like drawing, comes from the mind. Before something can be written, it must first be visualized. When children draw, they strengthen their,

• Logical thinking

• Visualization skills

• Mental organization

• Communication skills

• Hand-eye coordination

Drawing pictures encourages your child to think. The child must first concentrate on the emerging picture before drawing a picture. Drawing gives your child more time to think of one concept at a time, which helps extend her attention span. Is this not a good thing?

Your daughter's drawings are her rewards for her thoughts. They are her accomplishments.

"Mommy, look what I drew!"

Unfortunately, schools are increasingly deemphasizing children’s arts. Too often, children are permitted to draw only after they "get their real work done."

The older I get, the more I realize that the people running things in this world don't know what they're doing.

Drawing vs. writing

Here’s a question for you. Which is easier to do: drawing or writing? Would you believe they’re equally difficult?

“But anyone can write a sentence,” you say.

Don’t confuse writing with writing well. The percentage of people who can draw well is the same percentage of people who can write well. It is actually very difficult to write proficiently, clearly, and persuasively. It's not any easier than drawing, painting, or sculpting.

Drawing

Does a child’s first recognizable drawing look something like this?

Clearly, this is a picture of Mommy, especially if she has brown hair and purple eyes.

What about this next drawing?

We know quite a bit about what is going on in this picture. We know the direction the butterfly is flying. We even have an idea of its disposition. Notice that the patterns on the two wings match each other. I think that's a nice touch.

How would you judge the quality of the following drawing?

The artist probably only tried to lay out the subject’s position and proportions. Or perhaps she was bored during an office meeting.

This next drawing is simple but effective. In the literary world, it might be considered a short story.

A professional artist likely drew this drawing. I believe this because,

1. The artist used the correct selection of details.

2. The artist used the correct physical proportions for the chosen style.

3. The artist added a flower, an attentive cat, and a brick wall to frame the subject.

The bricks are drawn as if viewed through a fish-eyed lens, making it appear that we are close to the young girl. Because the cat is interested in what is going on, we also want to know what is going on.

A stick figure vs. a fully-rendered drawing

Everything so far in this post applies equally to writing.

Like the artist’s picture, what makes a story satisfying is the correct choice and arrangement of details. The writer’s task is to create a fully rendered story that provides depth, emotion, and contrast, all framed within a relatable scene while using only a reasonable amount of words.

Writing well is like filling in the muscles and skin over the stick figure. Drawing and writing employ the same principles. They’re just given different names:

Some say a picture is worth a thousand words. I say a good story is worth a thousand pictures.