Noting that too many children leave elementary school without developing the ability to use words imaginatively, this paper presents a teaching approach that uses literature to foster invention in children's writing. The approach described is part of a total composition program that structures writing experiences in which children observe settings, people, and occurrences and then write about them. The paper first presents a rationale for reading literature aloud to children, then offers six writing techniques that children can explore subsequent to listening to literature read aloud: (1) story retelling, (2) writing alphabet books with a story line, (3) writing a story for a wordless picture book, (4) writing endings for unfinished stories read aloud, (5) writing stories with a plot structure parallel to a story read aloud, and (6) rewriting stories with a different point of view. The paper includes samples of children's use of these techniques. (HTH)