December 3 Writing Challenge

Greetings! Let’s finish the writing semester with some fun writing exercises this month. Complete one of the following exercises. These seem easy, but try to put some thought into them. Think of an intended audience when you write. Also, try to be original and creative in your message.

Challenge 1:

In 30 words or less for each, create five original greetings for a holiday card. Make at least one card funny. Make at least one card serious, reflecting your religious beliefs around the holiday. (Describe what scene should decorate the card.) Consider making these cards for family and friends. 

Challenge 2:

Make a snow person come to life. If Frosty can do it, so can your snow creation. In 350 words or less, what two things would this snow person want to do while alive in your part of the world. Consider reading this story to a younger relative during the holidays. 

Challenge 3:

I am basing this challenge on tales from friends who are missionaries in Australia, where it is summer (and very hot) when they celebrate Christmas. Write a short tale about spending Christmas day on a hot beach. What would the meal be like? What gifts would work well (they say chocolate melts quickly)? Be descriptive and creative. This is a holiday tale, but in a different setting than most holiday stories.

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 12 Writing Challenge

Welcome back, writers! Hope you enjoy your weekly challenges. We have been working through projects that take you through the process of creative writing. These steps can also be applied to academic writing. We have looked at details to begin the writing process (brainstorming ideas). We have followed that with a few tools to help with writer’s block if you have trouble starting. We have also worked through assignments that help you add details such as descriptive scenes, consistent and strong characters and a setting right for the characters to develop. In academic writing you would include consistent details to support your ideas and strong descriptive language that adds a depth to your work.

Guidance can come to us a writer when we stop and listen. Can we hear our characters? Can you hear the author you are writing about for a language arts paper? We know what we believe and what our voice sounds like; but unless we are writing our autobiography, that voice is not enough. For example, in creative writing we may put a villain in our story--someone who attempts to stop the growth or progress of our main character. What motivates that villain? What motivates other support characters in your writing? What motivated Thoreau to write while living at Walden’s Pond? Can you hear their voices speaking to you as a writer? They have a voice that you are releasing through your own writing.

These challenges help us think through our listening skills--listening to ourselves and listening to our characters. Complete at least one of these challenges:

Challenge 1:

Everyone has wishes based on things we want, things we need, or things we think we need. Fill in these blanks five times, thinking about your own wishes:

If I had ______________, I could _____________________________.

Now fill in the blanks five times based on a fictional character you are writing or reading about.

Challenge 2:

Find a figurine or stuffed animal in your home. Bring this figurine or animal to life in 250 to 500 words. What would this character need? What would this character think about? What would this character do? Write this in first person from the perspective of the figurine or animal.

Challenge 3:

You get a strange letter in the mail. This letter is from an acquaintance that you knew many years ago. This person made horrible choices and is now in prison. This person writes to you to ask you for something that they think only you can provide. Write a letter from the perspective of the person in prison. What are they asking you for? Why did they choose you to send their request to? 

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: 

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Classroom in a Book By Adobe Systems (COR) (Google Affiliate Ad)

Adobe Illustrator CS5 Classroom in a Book By Adobe Systems (COR) (Google Affiliate Ad)

October 29 Creative Writing Challenge

Greetings! Welcome back for another creative writing challenge.  Some things to think about as you write: What inspires you? Do you write best after being in a quiet location or after an afternoon out with friends? Where do you write best? What do you do when you feel like you are stuck in a writing project with no direction? How do you handle writer’s block?

These are important questions to ask yourself if you are working on a paper or project that is challenging for you. Get to know your “writer” side. What conditions help you write freely? I write best to George Winston piano music playing on my computer as I write. Other writers prefer total silence. You have to find your own conditions that help you finish a writing project.

If you feel blocked, are you trying some writing exercises to help get the words flowing again? At times, you may need to walk away from writing for a moment to refresh your mind and regain your writing momentum. After that, if you still feel haunted by writer’s block, try free writing on your topic for 30 minutes or try a writing exercise not related to your topic. Also, don’t forget that just going outside and daydreaming can be useful. Creativity does not always mean you are producing something. Daydreaming about what you will produce can be a key part of the creative process.

Try at least one of these writing challenges for the week:

Challenge 1:

Write about the following situation using no more than 300 words: Your character buys a wooden chest at a garage sale. He/she wants to use it as a prop for a school play. When he/she gets home and opens it, he/she finds four surprise objects. Describe what your character finds using complete sentences.

Challenge 2:

Write a poem or story or scene for a book (no more than 250 words) that uses all of the following words: orange, potato, rabbit, cornfield, west, river, fair, and computer.

Challenge 3:

In 250 words or less, write about one of your favorite holidays from the perspective a child between the ages of two and six. Rewrite the same scene from the perspective of a person older than 70 years old.

Challenge 4:

If you are working on a longer writing project, write a letter from a person that you imagine has just read your finished published work. Using 100 to 150 words, what would you like a reader to say about your work? 

October 22 Writing Challenge

Greetings! Hope you are beginning a wonderful week. This week I am borrowing some information from the Book Genome Project. According to their website (http://bookgenome.com/), this project “was created to identify, track, measure, and study the multitude of features that make up a book. Components such as language, character, and theme are mined and analyzed in order to sift, organize, categorize and ultimately separate one book from another in a crowded and complex ‘bookosphere.’” Basically, they research the content and make-up of books. Another website (http://booklamp.org/), uses the information from the Book Genome Project to help connect readers with books the will enjoy.

I’m borrowing some of their research for you to see:

Many writers want to know how many words a publisher expects a book to be. This chart gives you an overview of the length of the average book in the Book Genome Project. The second chart on the page shows you the most common perspective (first or third person) for each book genre. Of course, you do not need to modify your style based on this information. This information can guide you, however, if you want to see what readers will expect from your book if you are writing in a particular genre.

Take a look at some of the books you are reading. Which genre do they fall into? Do the books seem to follow the average length of other books in the genre (of course, unless you look up the stats on the book somehow, you will have to guess at word count)? Do the books follow the most common perspective for the genre? This is just something fun to think about for readers and writers.

Here’s what writers have to think about when they know a word count expected of them: If you know that you need to write an article for a website or magazine that requires 600 to 850 words, can you write that many words (or that few words) about the topic or person you are considering? Some interviews or topics need more than that to be written about well. Some topics (or people interviewed) can’t fill that many words. Same thing for a novel--if you are considering a story line  can you carry it for at least 40,000 words as an average minimum for a book? Should you write a short story instead? What perspective should you write from? (By the way, we will talk more about interviewing in a future lesson.)

I have three projects for you to choose from this week:

Challenge one:

Write a 250-500 word story about two people traveling to a place new to both people. The travel can be for business or for a vacation. You can decide who the people are and where they are going. You can also decide if the characters are just in the planning stages of the trip, if they are at location, or if they both plan and travel in your story. All of the details are up to you. Write this story in third person (he, she, they). Then write the exact same story in first person (I, we, me, us). Tell me briefly which story you think is the strongest/best and why.

Challenge two:

If you want to try your hand at a novel or short story, write about the setting for your storyline. Where will the book take place? A fictional city or a real one? A rural or urban area? What time periods will the book cover? Have you researched this time period and this location? Give me at least 250 words that answer these questions.

Challenge three:

Write a book review (250 to 500 words) of a book you have read within the last three months that you enjoyed reading. Write this as if it will be published in a local paper or in an online newspaper.  This differs from an academic book report. I don’t want to know academic details about the imagery in the book, etc. I want you to tell other readers about this book. What did you like about it? Why should a reader want to read it? Who would like the book--teens, women, a particular religious group? Don’t retell the book (and never give away the ending). Do give a description and a critical analysis. What was the author’s goal (entertain, educate, inform, persuade)? Did the author achieve that goal? How did this book affect you? Do you recommend it?

Enjoy your challenges! Have a great week!

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. 

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.

Writing Challenge: Baskets, Buckets and Boxes

In our house, we sort things by categories so my children know where they go when it is time to clean. For example, we have an art bucket for art supplies, a Barbie box for all Barbie related items, a bucket for toy cars (and anything else with wheels), and so on. I picked up this idea from a parenting book when my first child was starting to accumulate toys. We stuck with it through the years.

This week, my youngest daughter wanted to fill one of our large buckets with water so she could sit in it and pretend we had a pool. She dumped the contents out on the floor and headed outside to begin her swimming adventure. Later, of course, we had to refill the buckets with the toys. We decided to look at each toy and decide if we still used it (or if we needed to donate it). It was fun to watch my daughter rediscover some fun items she had forgotten about.

Write about a basket, a box or a bucket in your home that holds treasured items or accumulated odds and ends. In 600 words or less, describe the container and its contents without describing a person looking at them. See if you think of the items in a new way or if you rediscover your fondness for a forgotten item.

 (OK--sometimes our cats take over the boxes. Marshmallow likes our homeschool boxes.) 

Writing Challenge: Senses and Such

Because my oldest daughter was born with a sensory disorder, I am reading a book about our senses and how they develop from birth through adulthood. I realize that I take my senses for granted. Because I have not lost my sight, my hearing or my other senses, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about them in my own life. Because my father has lost his hearing and my daughter faces difficulties related to all of her senses, however, I do know how disrupted life can be when we face challenges related to our senses.  

So here’s my writing challenge:

In at least 500 words, describe a scene that involves sight, taste, smell, hearing and touch. The descriptive words have to let us as the readers know what is being seen, heard, smelled, tasted and touched by a character. Don’t go over 1,000 words.

Follow this challenge by describing how a person reacts to the same scene or setting when they have lost three of their senses. They must encounter the same place or situation but without the same abilities. You can choose which senses the person has lost (sight, hearing, etc.). 

Writing challenge: Insignificant

I chuckle at the way we define ourselves in this world. We often feel obligated to answer key questions about our career, our marital status or our investments as if proving ourselves to someone. I enjoy listening to conversations in malls, on trains, in offices…there’s that old joke about “be careful or you will end up in my novel.” But I listen to people as they get to know each other. There are “significant things” people want to know depending upon the person. Where are you from? What denomination are you? Where did you graduate from? How long have you worked there? Who’s your broker? Have you volunteered there long?

But I like to look deeper. The “insignificant” things make us unique and really define who we are. Take my girls, for instance. I can answer the “significant” things about each one of the. Yes, my daughters make good grades, play musical instruments, have a strong faith and are really good kids overall. I feel confident that they will be prepared for the future, whatever that holds. I know that education and strong roots are important. But I love the little things about them that you see only when you really get to know them, the things that others may see as insignificant.

One daughter refuses to let people make negative comments about others. She reminds those near her not to gossip, but to always find the positive in a person. One daughter sees the small things in life. She can find a ladybug or a tiny flower that I overlooked. She sees the rays of the sun before I do. Both daughters enjoy a good conversation. My daughters love mismatched socks. They draw hearts on their hands. They like cheese melted on saltine crackers. They fall asleep to music--one to contemporary Christian and one to country music. Both like history. One eats peanut butter on a spoon. One cuts her own hair. One can’t whistle.

Writer’s challenge: Create a character for a short story based only on “insignificant” aspects of life. Don’t identify a career or a school major or financial status. Try to write at from 500 to 1000 words about this character using only small details of life. 

A Writing Challenge: Atavistic

Here’s a word I have been thinking a lot about lately: atavistic. Many people consider the word to have a negative connotation. Atavism means to revert to an ancestral type. People often use this in the sense of going backwards or reverting to an out-dated way of being or thinking. The word can be used to imply that something or someone is flawed or primitive by today’s standards.

However, I like to think of the word in a different sense. I like to think that the reappearance of a characteristic from an ancestor could be strength for some of us. For instance, I have discovered letters written by my grandmother and her sisters that contain beautiful imagery and are written in a unique writing style. A few people have commented that I get my writing talents from some of my ancestors on my maternal grandmother’s side of the family. Other people wonder where their musical talents come from only to discover that their great-grandfather was noted in his area for his musical ability. Some gifts can skip generations and reappear in the family line years later.

Your writing challenge for the week: think of an atavistic influence in your life. Do you have a talent that you wonder where it first appeared in your family line? Are you the only chef, musician, painter or writer in your generation? Through poetry or in a descriptive paragraph, write about your talents and passions. If you can trace them through your family heritage, do so this week. If you can’t, imagine how an ancestor may have used your talents and passions based on what you do know about your family history. If you know nothing about your biological family roots, create a poem or short story based on someone living years earlier with your talents.

See where this word of the week leads you…