Creative Writing Prompts Many creative writers use prompts to generate new material. Prompts can be challenges -- for example, write a story using only one syllable words or craft an alphabet story where the first sentence begins with the letter A, the next sentence B, and so on -- or themes provided by journals, or a poem to which an writer can respond. For example, the Sun lists prompts and deadlines every issue. To see responses, check out "Readers Write." For a list of up-to-date journal prompts, deadlines, and contest information, see the Writing Program's bulletin board in Jensen on the second floor. Creative Writing Exercises Compiled by Catherine Reid Creative writing exercises, like any kind of warm-up routine before playing a sport or a musical instrument, help loosen up your imagination while honing your writing muscles. Though the exercises are more fun done with two or more people, each can be done alone. The prompts: 3) Create a story using words of one-syllable only, beginning with a phrase such as:
Literature circles I use literature circles with every novel I teach. They're a great way to get students actively engaged in whatever we're reading, and really put the onus on them to identify key themes, passages, plot developments, connections, and literary devices. Literature circles allow students to smartly articulate the exchange that occurs between a reader and a text. In an academic age where high stakes bubble tests and formulaic, calculated responses to mundane prompts seem to trump creativity and self-expression, lit circles allow for authenticity and ownership while also reinforcing the higher-order habits of mind found in successful test takers. Click here for the literature circle assignment I use with my students. Nancy Patterson's literature circle role sheets are available here. * UPDATE * Click here for a newer post on literature circles, including six new jobs!
Writing Challenge Generator Challenges The story must involve a crown in it. During the story, a character finds out a dark secret. During the story, there is a fight. A character reveals their feelings. A character becomes furious during the story. The story ends during a jailbreak. The story must have a rabbit at the beginning. A character will send a package. During the story, a relative shows up. A character steals something, and the action has far better results than expected. The story must have a navigator in it. During the story, a famous person goes missing.
36 Writing Essays by Chuck Palahniuk 1: Establishing Your Authority Chuck teaches two principal methods for building a narrative voice your readers will believe in. Discover the Heart Method and the Head Method and how to employ each to greatest effect. 2: Developing a Theme At the core of Minimalism is focusing any piece of writing to support one or two major themes. Learn harvesting, listing, and other methods, after a fun excursion into the spooky side of Chuck's childhood. 3: Using “On-The-Body” Physical Sensation Great writing must reach both the mind and the heart of your reader, but to effectively suspend reality in favor of the fictional world, you must communicate on a physical level, as well. 4: Submerging the “I” First-person narration, for all its immediacy and power, becomes a liability if your reader can't identify with your narrator. 5: Nuts and Bolts: Hiding a Gun 6: Nuts and Bolts: “Thought” Verbs You've always heard the maxim, "Show, don't tell..." but almost no writing teacher ever explains...
WritingFix: prompts, lessons, and resources for writing classrooms Playfic Playing Games Cooper made an interactive tutorial for playing games on Playfic for newcomers to interactive fiction. If you write a better tutorial, let us know! This cheatsheet by Andrew Plotkin and Lea Albaugh is a handy guide to playing interactive fiction. Writing Games Writing Playfic games may look like English, but it can be confusing. Tutorials Playfic is a learning community, and one of the best ways to learn is by clicking the "View source" link on any game to see how it was made. Cooper made a handful of sample games showing how to do some very simple tasks: ObjectsDoorsDevicesNon-Player CharactersEnding and Winning Made something you want added? Documentation The official Inform 7 documentation is an essential guide. The Inform Recipe Book shows hundreds of examples, arranged by category, from the simple to very complex. Writing with Inform is the official manual, going over every aspect of the language. Aaron A. > What is Playfic? The best part? > How does Playfic work?
Writing Exercises and Prompts for Journaling, Prose, Poetry and Memoirs These Writing Exercises are a collection of prompts originally published in The Journal Newsletter. The prompts include journaling prompts, prose prompts, poetry prompts, free writing prompts, and memoir prompts. Jump to the exercises you would like to see: Prompts Copyright © by Susan Michael and David Michael. Journaling Prompts Journaling Prompt - Imagine yourself in a place you like to be (not necessarily someplace you like to *go*). Journaling Prompt - Pretend that you see yourself walking into a room. Journaling Prompt - Create a list of images that symbolize the following: toughness, cruelty toughness, strength Journaling Prompt - Close your eyes for a minute and imagine you are skydiving. Journaling Prompt - Sit yourself in a favorite spot, or imagine an ideal place and describe it as an expanding bubble or sphere. Journaling Prompt - Hold your hands out in front of you, palms down. Journaling Prompt - By what do you measure your value as a person? Free Writing Prompts Poetry Prompts
Creative Writing Courses and Ideas: An Online Resource for Writers Thirteen Writing Prompts. [Originally published May 4, 2006.] Write a scene showing a man and a woman arguing over the man’s friendship with a former girlfriend. Do not mention the girlfriend, the man, the woman, or the argument. Write a short scene set at a lake, with trees and shit. Choose your favorite historical figure and imagine if he/she had been led to greatness by the promptings of an invisible imp living behind his or her right ear. Write a story that ends with the following sentence: Debra brushed the sand from her blouse, took a last, wistful look at the now putrefying horse, and stepped into the hot-air balloon. A wasp called the tarantula hawk reproduces by paralyzing tarantulas and laying its eggs into their bodies. Imagine if your favorite character from 19th-century fiction had been born without thumbs. Write a story that begins with a man throwing handfuls of $100 bills from a speeding car, and ends with a young girl urinating into a tin bucket.
English Essay Writing: YouTube Series I have been out of the classroom 3/5 days this term and I will continue to be out of the classroom 3/5 days next term. It’s been an interesting experience so far. My classes have happily continued with their projects (OK, except for Year 8 who just wanna have me there to clown around with them) and are communicating with me via edmodo frequently. One of the things I have found difficult is not being their for my ‘I am the expert’ lessons – you know, where I spend part of a lesson being a ‘teacher’ at the front of the room and doing some whole class interactive instruction. This stuff is important when you set extended writing tasks, like writing an English essay. It’s taken me a few weeks but I’ve finally managed to get the time to create some videos to help my students to write English essays. 1. 2. 3. 4. And here is the finished product: Like this: Like Loading...
The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do. Writing is a muscle. Smaller than a hamstring and slightly bigger than a bicep, and it needs to be exercised to get stronger. Think of your words as reps, your paragraphs as sets, your pages as daily workouts. Procrastination is an alluring siren taunting you to google the country where Balki from Perfect Strangers was from, and to arrange sticky notes on your dog in the shape of hilarious dog shorts. The blank white page. Mark Twain once said, “Show, don’t tell.” Finding a really good muse these days isn’t easy, so plan on going through quite a few before landing on a winner. There are two things more difficult than writing. It’s so easy to hide in your little bubble, typing your little words with your little fingers on your little laptop from the comfort of your tiny chair in your miniature little house. It’s no secret that great writers are great readers, and that if you can’t read, your writing will often suffer. Available in print withThe Best of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency
8 Signs That You Were Meant to Be a Writer Are you meant to be a writer? Do you ever wonder if you were truly meant to be a writer? Deep down you sense that it might just be so. But then doubt creeps in, and you just aren’t sure. You look at your writing. A great writer would be further along by now, right? Wrong. If you’re reading this, chances are you were meant to be a writer. Here are 8 signs that you were meant to be a word wizard. 1. You secretly dream about writing. And if you already write, you dream about doing something bigger, like writing a novel, or scoring that big freelancing client. You dream about more, bigger, better. Deep inside you know you can do it, but that pesky little voice stops you. 2. Yes, doubt is a sign that you were meant to be a writer. If you didn’t have anything to say, you wouldn’t even think about writing, but you do have something to say, and you know it. But doubt stops you. However, doubt is just a thought popping up. Why keep moving forward? Because you were meant to be a writer. 3. Embrace this. 4. 5.
About a little thing called 750 Words