[lenswyf]

Ds (almost 12) has always been a reluctant writer. Part of it has been his dysgraphia, which we didn't recognize until a couple of years ago.

He has this huge Lego set up in his room called "Lego Planet." It has characters and he makes up adventures. There's a long history that he's created over time. Periodically, he comes and tells me what is happening. Recently, he told me he was trying to figure out how Character x will come into the story, and gave me a couple of scenarios. When he was done, I said, "You know, ds, what you do with Lego Planet is exactly what author's do when they are writing books. They have to figure out who the characters will be, how they fit into the story, what will happen, develop a conflict and then resolve it. I think you should write a book about Lego Planet. I'd let you do that for your writing for school, and you could do it on the computer."

He looked at me with such amazement! And immediately went off to begin writing. He hasn't gotten very far; he hasn't really had time. But the prologue is written.