November 26 Writing Challenge

Welcome back! Today we want to look at a few things we can think about when editing our work. In my opinion, writers should never try to complete a perfect work on the first draft. Drafts are designed for getting thoughts down on paper. In our first (and even second or third) drafts, we need to get a general plot down on paper and have strong characters forming. As we edit, we need to clean up the details and focus on adding or deleting information as needed.

Sounds easy, right? Wrong! Editing can be quite challenging. How do you know what needs to be added or deleted? Here are a few tips:

What does the reader need to know that we might not have included? In our minds, we may know that the main character has a fear of heights. If we don’t tell the reader, however, a scene may not make sense when a character faces a challenge and backs down because it involves a tall ladder or a steep climb. Make sure you give readers enough information.

Does the order of the writing make sense? Can readers follow your timeline? It is fine to jump back and forth in time as long as the readers can follow your changes.

Have you used strong descriptive language? Have you used enough action verbs? What can you do to make your words come alive for the readers?

Can you take out bits of information that are unnecessary to the work? Do you have too much conversation or too many details in a scene? Don’t add words just to lengthen your story or poem. All words must strengthen the writing or be removed.

When you are editing, get readers to help you. Ask someone to read part of your work and give you feedback. Have someone read the work aloud to you so you can see how it sounds and flows.

Complete at least one challenge:

Challenge 1:

Write 350-450 words (poem or short story) about a Christmas card that was mailed but never received. When you are done, edit the piece so that it is only 300 words long.

Challenge 2:

Write a short story or poem from the point of view of a fish in a bowl on a desk. When you are done, edit the piece as needed.

Challenge 3:

Find an online article that you can cut and paste into a Word document. Edit the piece, making it half of the original length. Tell why you chose to cut what you took out.

November 5 Writing Challenge

Greetings! Welcome back to another week of writing challenges. Here are some questions to make you think: Are you setting aside time to write daily if you have big projects you are working on? Are you reading daily? Are you writing in a setting that works well for you? Are you willing to revise what you write?

Here’s a challenge for you to consider: Set aside one writing project you are working on for at least a full day. When you read through your writing after the day has passed, try to look at the piece with fresh eyes. Do you think your piece still flows well? Do you see edits that need to be made?

Now, back to other business…This week, let’s talk about secondary or minor characters in a book. All books start with main characters that readers can sympathize with or relate to. Books and stories also need the supporting cast, however. These can be friends or enemies of the main character. Consider allies, enemies and mentors to be the supporting characters in a story. Allies assist main characters in reaching their goal or overcoming challenges. Enemies or villains attempt to block characters from obtaining success or become obstacles to a goal. Mentors offer wisdom to characters along their journey.

Characters can move among the various roles. A secondary character in one scene can become a main character later in a story. A villain can have a change of heart.  A mentor can fail at times. Transitions like these, however, have to be believable to the readers. A mean villain needs to have an enlightening moment that the readers can follow if the villain is to become an ally.

Complete at least one of the following challenges:

Challenge 1:

Write a scene (250 to 500 words) in which an ally (a friend or close relative) talks a main character through a challenge. The characters are facing a “person versus nature” challenge (bad weather, earthquake, extreme heat or cold, etc.). You can use dialogue here as well as using strong descriptive language to set the scene. Write this in first person from the main character’s perspective.

Challenge 2:

Write the same scene (250 to 500 words) except have the main character in the same setting with a villain that is complicating the journey rather than helping him/her complete it. Again, you can use dialogue here as well as using strong descriptive language to set the scene. Write this in first person from the main character’s perspective.

Challenge 3:

Write a letter from a mentor to a young traveler. Have the mentor advise the young traveler about some upcoming obstacles he/she may face on the trip. Use your imagination. The details are up to you. Remember--use active verbs and descriptive language.

Just a note: Here's an interesting writing guide if you want to write your autobiography: You Are Next In Line: Everyone's Guide forWriting Your Autobiography by Armiger Jagoe. 

Other options for creative people: 

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October 15 Writing Challenge

Greetings again, young writers! Hope you enjoyed writing your short stories or your thoughts for a novel. We are moving through this semester course quickly. Keep reviewing notes from what we have discussed in previews weeks. Remember--if you get stuck and hit that writer’s block where no words are coming, first step away for a bit. If you come back to your work and still have writer’s block, try some of the free writing exercises.

Let’s look this week at connecting feelings to your characters in short stories or future novels. Characters cannot be flat, emotionless creations. To have strong writings, your characters need depth--they need to feel and to think. When we begin as young writers, we often tell our audience exactly what our characters feel. We simply say things like, “He was sad when he heard of her death.” Consider how much stronger this statement is, however: “He wept uncontrollably as he ran from the house, feeling as if the walls were falling around him as the words of her death filled the room.” This statement draws the reader into the emotion and paints a picture of grief.

Your creative thoughts may be expressions of your own emotions. If you are celebrating a joy or struggling with a challenging emotion such as grief or anger, paint a picture of what you are feeling. You can turn your thoughts into a blog helpful to others experiencing similar thoughts or create a short story giving your emotions to a third-person character.

For now, let’s focus on expressing emotion for a character in your writings. First, get the emotion needed in the story down on paper. Is he feeling grief or anger? Is she experiencing joy? Second, ask yourself how deeply this character would experience this emotion. Is this a deep pain or joy? Is this a shallow, passing emotion? The answer to this question will give you clues to the language you need to choose to express the emotion. For example, a character would not run from the house in grief over the news of the death of a distant acquaintance. Your emotions expressed in a story need to be consistent with the characters and storyline. A rude, heartless employer would react differently than a loving new parent.

Once you get the first emotion on paper, then find ways to improve the presentation. Consider the overall picture you are painting for your audience. Improve your overall sentence structure and strengthen your imagery.

For the week, complete two of the following assignments:

Challenge 1:

Let’s work on getting some emotions down on paper. Write down three quick sentences that describe your feelings about each of the following phrases or words:

*fall leaves

*summer vacations

*burned dinner

*loose tooth

*brown sculpting clay in your hands

Challenge 2:

Now look back over what you wrote for Challenge 1. Do you think other people would share your thoughts on these common subjects? Could you incorporate these thoughts into a story if you improved your sentence structure and imagery? You may have expressed surprise or grief or joy or anger in connection with these words. Images trigger different responses based on personal experiences in life. Characters in a book may cry over fall leaves because it was the last image shared with a loved one. Other characters may delight in the beauty of the scene and walk through fall leaves to bring back memories of past joys.

Take one of your emotions shared above and write a scene (300 words or less) that describes a fictional character experiencing your emotion.

Challenge 3:

Write a poem expressing a strong emotion of any type (joy, grief, anger, etc…). You can choose the length and the style of poetry. Use strong imagery throughout your poem.

Challenge 4:

If you want to continue planning for a future novel, write a character sketch for two of your main characters. In this sketch, discuss how their emotions may run throughout the book. Will these characters express strong emotions throughout the book? Will the emotions change as the characters develop throughout the story? Will the characters hide their emotions from others or be overly emotional in a crowd?

Remember--to improve your creative writing skills, write something every day. Write in a journal, blog, write a poem, or just get some thoughts down on paper by using a variety of writing exercises. 

October 8 Writing Challenge

Many students will be relaxing for fall break this week, so we will have no assignment posted that you need to turn in. Look back over some of our past assignments and complete any parts you left undone in previous weeks. Also, take some time to journal this week if you don’t already do so. Journaling is an excellent way to get your thoughts down on paper. A journal can be a place to explore senses and emotions in depth. These emotions don’t even have to be your own. You can journal about the anger you saw in a driver on the street or the pain of someone you saw as you past a funeral.

Have you ever written a “sensory journal?” Twice a day (and this can be brief if you are busy), sit down and try to capture in words the sights, sounds, smells and tastes you have experienced since your last writing. You don’t have to explain the situation around each of the senses if you don’t want to, but write about the smells from the bakery you passed or the odor from the cat litter box or fumes from a bus. Write about the taste of the fresh apple from the market or the feel of the dirt from your garden.

A journal can also be a place to sketch out your hopes as an artist. What are your goals? What are you doing to prepare yourself to reach them? What blocks you from reaching them? The blank page on a journal can be a free space to explore many aspects of being a creative person.

Also, explore other forms of creativity. Buy or create some pottery, read a book or watch a live performance. Not only will you be supporting other artists when you do so, but you will be giving your own creativity some new forms of expression to explore.

Our thought for the week:

To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, if to have kept your soul alive. --Robert Louis Stevenson

October 1 Creative Writing Assignment

Again, great job! I am enjoying working with such a talented group of writers. It is fun to see how you are strengthening your skills. I can tell that some of you are stronger in using your creativity in the marketing and journalism field, while others of you are going to be part of the next generation of novelists. And of course, you can always do both! Never limit yourself as a writer.

Now, on to work…did you notice how each assignment had you use fewer and fewer words? Last week we were down to mere taglines and slogans. No, it wasn't because I didn't want to grade a lot of papers! I am trying to show you how each word matters. Even if you are writing a novel, a misused word can affect how the readers feel about your book. I picked up a book by a new author this week, but I never got past chapter two. For me, the descriptions were weak and uninteresting. I was not drawn into the story enough to relate to or care about the character. The images fell flat.

Similarly, someone recommended a book to me that I checked out at the library. For me the downfall of that book was the foul language. The story and images drew me in instantly, but then I kept coming up to a word that strongly offended me (and caused me to quit reading the book). The story could have been just as powerful without the foul language.  You can express anger, pain, frustration, loss or grief through strong, well-chosen words without using words that may be offensive to your readers.

If you are a Christian author, you are not limited to what types of books you write. You can write wonderful mysteries, love stories, family dramas or espionage tales if you choose fiction.  You can choose to write historical fiction or nonfiction also. Whatever path you take, the words you choose become your identifying style to your readers.

David McCullough’s nonfiction books become best sellers quickly. If you read through the NY Times fiction and nonfiction best seller list every weekend on their website, you will soon recognize author’s names that have a large following. Either their book stays on the best seller list for weeks, or they publish books quickly with each one hitting the best seller list as it is released. That’s not to say you need to imitate their styles. You have your own voice that you need to stay true to. But you can see that they have a consistent style that draws their readers back again and again. You can also see what is already selling if you want to study the writing market.

Now I’m going to ask you to think about your own writing style. Pablo Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain as artist once he grows up.” Here are some questions I want you to answer just for yourself. Do you consider yourself an artist or a writer now? Do you think you will be an artist in five years? Ten years?

Not all of you will answer these questions the same. Many people who go into other professional fields as a career still enjoy keeping alive their creative hobbies such as painting or writing. Others of you have expressed an interest in pursuing a career in writing. I am going to give two assignments for the next few weeks. You can choose which assignment will nurture your writing goals the most. Read both assignments to get a feel for your options.

Assignment 1:

Well, since this is October…Make a list of three “monsters” that kill your creativity the most (example: the time “monster” because it eats up your spare time and you never have time to write creatively; the blocked mind “monster” because your mind becomes blocked and the ideas and words just don’t flow like you want them to; the ink “monster” because you don’t have any supplies when you want to write or the sleepy “monster” because you think of your best ideas when you are trying to go to sleep and can’t write). Choose one of these “monsters” and write a story for children (about 300-800 words or so) that portrays this “monster.” How does the other character in the story defeat the monster? How does creativity win out? This can be somewhat scary or can be just funny.

Assignment 2:

Write a summary of a book you seriously want to write. Make the summary about 500 words. Think of this as if you are writing a book proposal to an editor. A good book proposal includes a brief overview of the book, like a summary that you would read on a back cover. It should be interesting with strong words (remember your last assignments) and informative. Tell the editor what the book is about and who your audience is. Break your audience down by gender and by age group. Make sure that you are clear what genre this book will fall into--is it a mystery, science fiction, historical fiction, etc.? Tell me why you want to write this book and why you think someone would want to read this book.

September 24 Creative Writing Assignment

Great job so far! I had some really good results from last week’s assignment. I’m enjoying reading your works. Remember: editing is never personal. If you work in any field that requires writing, someone will edit your work. Also, my one middle school student has been able to keep up with the high school assignments, so I am only going to post high school assignments each week.

Quotes from last week:

“…a healthy option for a kid’s favorite meal…”

“…stringy cheese covering up all the delicious noodles…”

“Stop worrying if you have time to make something …”

“…the smell of cinnamon and sugar mixed together floated up to my room…”

We are building up to a couple of longer writing assignments that I think you will enjoy. For a couple of more weeks, however, I want us to continue working on some fundamentals that will lay the foundation for your longer pieces. We have worked on descriptive language--text that paints a picture of a product or object. This week we are going to work on communication that relates more to underlying messages or feelings.

In business, this comes through what is known as the tagline or slogan. With taglines, an image is put into words. These words shape how people feel about a product, a company or a service. Example: Hallmark: When you care enough to send the very best. These few words convey a lot to an audience. Who doesn’t want to care enough to send the best? Why not make sure you buy the best? This is a special time or a sad time in life--someone needs a card--I need to make sure it is the best.

Why doesn’t Hallmark say, “You’re on a budget, so buy an affordable card,” instead of using their slogan? That is not consistent with who Hallmark is. They aren’t Dollar Tree offering cheaper cards. Their cards and gifts cost a little more. So you have to justify to someone why they should come spend a little more.

This goes hand in hand with what we talked about last week: using a few memorable words to say a lot. A tagline or branding slogan is a phrase that sums up the feelings about a company, product or service. Sounds easy coming up with one, but it can be really hard work.

For a product, you need a phrase that is easy to remember and sets your product apart from other similar products. You have to convey feelings that help a consumer desire or need your product over another. Your words have to be credible--you can’t imply you have family-friendly prices if you know your product costs more than others. People will lose trust in you.

Effective business slogans (some of these are older slogans):

Allstate: You’re in good hands (implies that they may not be the cheapest, but they care about you and are going to take care of you--they are dependable)

Coca-Cola: It’s the real thing.

Disney: The happiest place on earth.

FedEx: When it absolutely has to be there on time.

Ford: Built for the road ahead.

Kodak: Share moments. Share life.

Nike: Just do it.

Raid: Kills bugs dead.

Skittles: Taste the rainbow.

Dell Computer: Get more out of now.

General Mills: The company of champions.

Wheaties: The breakfast of champions.

Target: Expect more. Pay less.

Staples: That was easy.

Nestle: Good food. Good life.

Home Depot: More saving. More doing.

Dunkin’ Donuts: America runs on Dunkin’.

If you are writing or producing a movie, you won’t necessarily have a slogan or tagline. You will, however, want one really good memorable line to represent your film. People remember “just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water” from Jaws 2 or “to boldly go where no man has gone before” from Star Trek. I’m sure you can think of a memorable line from your favorite movie that was used for advertising.

With books, authors want short quotes from readers and reviewers on the back cover. Turn over a paperback book you have at home and see if you can find examples of short quotes from people (other than the author) used to sum up the feeling and purpose of the book. Teen and adult books have this more than children’s books. Here are a few examples I found here at home:

“…abounds with tales of motherly wit and wisdom…”

“… she has not only packed a lot of useful information in this book, but she’s also an entertaining writer…”

“…spirited and humorous…”

“…real kids in real places…”

“…a thrilling story of disaster and incredible heroism…”

“…her fans won’t be disappointed…”

Books also have longer plot summaries and reviews on the cover or inside pages, but they know that readers often just take a quick glance in a store before deciding to read more, buy a book or walk on.

Do at least two of the following options. If you have time, feel free to submit answers for all of them:

Assignment 1:

Take two of the company taglines above and tell me in 200 words or less why you think these are effective and what they would mean to you as a customer. I gave you a short hint of how to do this with the Allstate slogan. Why did the writer choose the words they did? How do the words make you feel about the product or company?

Assignment 2:

Think of the meal you wrote about last week. Give me three possible slogans you could use for the meal if you packaged it to sell (or you could create taglines for a restaurant that would sell your type of meal).

Assignment 3:

Let’s sell homeschooling! You can think of the umbrella school you are registered under or homeschooling in general. Let’s think of slogans that we can put on an ad in a magazine that covers traditional schools and education in general. (Go to a few school websites if you want to see their slogans. My college alma mater uses: Dreamers. Thinkers. Doers. ) Write at least two taglines that would go with a picture of students who homeschool or pictures of homeschool books (or any other picture that represented homeschooling).

Assignment 4:

Create an original quote that could be put on the back of your favorite book you are currently reading (or have just finished). Do this for three of your favorite books. Look at the examples above to see that these have to be short, but still say a lot. These entice the reader to find out more.

What’s the point of this assignment? To help students see how specific word choices bring about specific feelings with people. Every word matters when you write. If I say something is “cheap,” some people will immediately put it down because it implies to some people that it is lower quality or not up to their standards. Restaurants are trying to get consumers to stop thinking of “fast” as unhealthy. In the past, if you told me you were going to pick up fast food on the way home, I wouldn’t picture anything healthy. So if your audience reads health-food ads, you would never want to imply that your product was “fast food.” Words make people feel a certain way. The trick is to put together the right combination of words to make your audience understand what you are trying to tell them.

Homeschool Creative Writing Course

Homeschool Creative Writing Course

Greetings! Let me introduce myself to you and tell you about an online course I am offering this upcoming school year. My name is Chris Pepple. I am an author and a homeschooling Mom of two daughters. Here’s my official bio:

Chris Pepple is a freelance writer with three TCPRA awards for outstanding feature articles. Her articles have appeared in The New Social Worker, Tennessee Conservationist and other state and national publications. She has two published books: Look to See Me: A Collection of Reflections (2006) and Reflections on Suffering: Defining Our Crosses and Letting Go of Pain (2012). For more than four years, she served as the writer on staff at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn. Along with teaching and speaking in churches and homeschooling her daughters, Chris also  continues to work on her next books and writes for Southern Writers Magazine. She received her Master of Divinity degree from Emory University.

Course info:

This school year, I will be offering a creative writing course online for homeschool middle school and high school students. Each Monday, beginning September 10, I will e-mail assignments to enrolled students and post them on my website. Each student will see one creative writing assignment for high school students and one for middle school students (all information will be provided online--no textbooks needed). The writing assignment will be due back to me via e-mail by that Friday. I will personally read each assignment and return personalized comments by the following Friday. I will occasionally post samples of the work with only the student’s first name and no other personal information given. You can opt out of allowing students’ works to be posted. This will not be a grammar course, as such. This course is intended to strengthen the creative writing style and creative thinking process of the student. This should supplement other language arts material you are using.

Cost: $10 per student per month with a guaranteed three lessons per month (though most months will have four). Each semester will be limited to 20 students. 

You are under no obligation to continue from month to month. You may begin at any point and drop the course as needed. However, you must be paid for the month before receiving assignments or feedback. You can mail a check to my home or pay by PayPal. For more information contact me via e-mail at chrisp1616@gmail.com.