Most parents are told the same thing: read with your child as much as possible. And that advice is sound. But there is a companion skill that receives far less attention, one that quietly turbocharges reading ability at the same time. That skill is writing — and not the handwriting-practice, copy-this-sentence kind. We mean genuine, creative writing: making things up, telling stories, putting ideas onto a page in your own words.
If your child struggles to enjoy books, reads reluctantly, or finds comprehension tricky, encouraging them to write their own stories may help more than another trip to the library. Here is why.
Reading and writing are two sides of the same coin
It is tempting to think of reading and writing as separate skills — one for taking information in, the other for putting it out. In fact, they share almost all of the same foundations. Both rely on phonics, vocabulary, grammar, an understanding of how sentences are built, and a feel for how stories or arguments are structured. When a child strengthens any of these through writing, they bring that stronger understanding to every page they read.
Think of it this way. A child who has never tried to write a sentence has no reason to notice how a published author has constructed theirs. But a child who has wrestled with how to describe a dragon, or how to show that their character is scared without simply writing "she was scared," starts to read with a different kind of attention. They notice craft. And noticing craft makes reading richer, more engaging, and more comprehensible.
What writing teaches that reading alone cannot
How words actually work
Reading exposes children to vocabulary passively. They may encounter the word "anxious" dozens of times without fully absorbing it. But the moment a child tries to use "anxious" in their own sentence — to describe their villain's mood before the final battle — they have to understand it properly. They have to know what it feels like, what it does in a sentence, and whether it is the right word or whether they actually mean "nervous" or "dread." That active engagement with language locks words into memory in a way that passive reading rarely does.
Why sentences are shaped the way they are
Children who write regularly begin to understand sentence structure from the inside. They discover, through trial and error, that short sentences can feel urgent. That a long, winding sentence with several clauses can slow a reader down and create a sense of something building. They learn this not because a teacher told them, but because they felt it in their own work. When they then encounter these techniques in a book, they recognise them — and comprehension follows naturally.
Story structure and prediction
One of the core reading skills tested at every stage of primary school — from Year 1 SATs to Year 6 — is the ability to predict what might happen next, or to explain why a character made a particular choice. Children who have built their own plots understand instinctively that stories have shape: a problem that gets worse before it gets better, a character who wants something and faces obstacles, a moment of change. That structural awareness makes them far better at following and interpreting the stories they read.
Empathy and character
Writing a character — deciding how they speak, what they fear, what makes them laugh — requires a child to inhabit another person's point of view. This is exactly the imaginative work that reading asks of them in return. Children who write their own characters find it easier to understand characters in books, which in turn makes reading more enjoyable and comprehension scores higher.
The motivation problem — and how writing solves it
Many children are not reluctant readers because they cannot read. They are reluctant because reading feels like something that happens to them rather than something they are part of. They are handed a book, assessed on it, and told to practise. Writing flips this entirely. When a child is the author — when the story belongs to them — books stop being a school exercise and start being a creative act.
This shift in ownership matters enormously. A child who has written their own story, with their name on the cover, wants to read it. They want someone else to read it. They start to see themselves as a person who makes books, not just a person who is supposed to get through them. That identity — "I am a writer, I am a reader" — is often the single biggest lever in building a lasting reading habit.
This is precisely why tools like Storywizard, where a child invents their own story and receives it back as a professionally illustrated, printed paperback or hardback with their name on the cover as the author, tend to work well for children who have previously switched off from books. The book becomes proof of their own creative ability, and that proof is motivating in a way that a reading scheme rarely is.
Writing is particularly powerful for children who find reading difficult
For children with dyslexia, ADHD, or other learning differences, the standard advice — more reading practice — can feel like asking someone with a sprained ankle to go for a run. It addresses the problem by repeatedly exposing the difficulty, which can knock confidence rather than build it.
Writing, approached in the right way, offers a different route. When the focus is on ideas and storytelling rather than spelling and presentation, children who struggle with decoding often discover that they are excellent thinkers, inventive plotters, and vivid describers. Success in those areas builds the confidence that makes tackling the harder mechanics of literacy feel worthwhile. Many teachers working with children who have SEN report that giving a child genuine authorship — letting them be the expert on their own story — changes their relationship with language in ways that conventional practice does not.
Practical ways to encourage your child to write at home
You do not need a structured curriculum or specialist resources. The aim is simply to make writing feel like play rather than homework.
- Start with telling, not writing. Ask your child to tell you a story out loud. Record it on your phone if they like. The act of narrating a plot is the cognitive work — putting it onto paper can come later.
- Give them story seeds, not full prompts. "A door appears in your bedroom wall" is more useful than "write a story about an adventure." The vaguer prompt leaves room for their imagination to work.
- Make the audience real. Stories gain power when someone else reads them. Let your child read their story to a grandparent, a sibling, or a friend. A real audience is a real reason to write.
- Ignore spelling in first drafts. Stopping to correct spelling mid-flow kills creative momentum. Let the ideas come first. Tidying up can happen afterwards, if at all.
- Write alongside them. You do not need to be a confident writer yourself. Sitting down and attempting your own short story — however silly — shows your child that writing is something adults value and find worthwhile.
- Let them illustrate. Drawing scenes from a story is not a distraction from writing; it is part of the same imaginative process. Many children find that sketching a character helps them find the words for them.
- Celebrate the story, not the technical execution. "That bit where the robot forgot his own name was brilliant" lands better than "good handwriting." Focus on what the story did, not how correctly it was produced.
What age does this apply to?
Earlier than you might think. Children in Reception and Year 1 who cannot yet write independently can still dictate stories, draw story maps, or arrange picture cards into a sequence. These are all forms of narrative thinking, and they build the same underlying skills. The physical act of writing can come in when it is ready; the storytelling instinct can be nurtured from the moment a child can talk.
At the other end, children in upper Key Stage 2 who already read confidently can use writing to deepen their comprehension. Asking a Year 5 child to rewrite the ending of a book they have just read, or to write a scene from a minor character's point of view, develops analytical thinking skills that are directly tested in secondary school English.
A note on screens and typing
There is sometimes anxiety about whether typing counts as "proper" writing, or whether children should be encouraged to write by hand. The honest answer is that both have value, and the medium matters far less than the habit. If your child will write enthusiastically on a tablet but refuses to pick up a pencil, let them type. The cognitive and linguistic benefits are largely the same. Handwriting has its own developmental advantages — particularly in early years — but it is not the point of creative writing, and it should not become a barrier to it.
The short version
If you want your child to read better, help them write more. Not grammar exercises, not copying — but genuine, self-directed storytelling. It builds vocabulary, sentence sense, structural awareness, empathy, and above all, the sense that they belong in the world of books. If you are looking for a concrete starting point, help your child create their own book and see what happens when they hold something they made in their own hands.