Free Writing Friday

Are you a writer as well as a reader? Bestselling author Cressida Cowell is launching a new campaign called 'Free Writing Friday' to get more children to write for pleasure.

There is lots of research to show that creative writing can help you do better in your exams so Free Writing Friday aims to help you write more. Cressida Cowell wants schools to give children free time to write, every Friday, in a special notebook which is off limits to teachers and parents. So you can write whatever and however you want. Cressida is as passionate about children's writing for pleasure as she is about children's reading. She says the idea for Free Writing Friday came from the questions she gets from hundreds of teachers, parents and children who ask her how to encourage creative thinking. "My answer always is: every child should have one notebook that no one corrects, in which the child writes and draws purely for the joy of it," she says. "Children are naturally creative and imaginative thinkers, but can get put off writing by the corrective red pen. "In this one notebook, spelling, grammar and neatness should be completely irrelevant - what's important should be the ideas, and that it's fun. Whatever your path in life, creative thinking is integral to success." The campaign is being supported by Hachette Children's Group and the National Literacy Trust.