What grabs children can surprise

I used a model of a character description and then drew the character and talked about painting a picture in the mind.  Instead of getting my reluctant writers to draw their character first, I said that we would share our writing aloud and draw each other's pictures.  It was amazing.  Everyone wanted to share, and as we often drew what they did not expect, so it gave them excellent information for their editing.  This worked as an activity for the whole class in inspiring them, but maybe not so much with action research.  Still my reluctant writers were keen to write so everyone could draw their character. Sometimes, I get surprised at what inspires children.  I put the timer on to get my kids to write quickly.