Writer's Journey

Greetings! How's your writing coming along? Are you working daily to strengthen your writing skills? Hopefully, you are also having a bit of fun (and success) with your writing projects. Here's something new to think about as you write:  The goal of writing is communication. As writers, however, sometimes we say a whole lot of nothing. We use too many words or “empty” words that sound impressive but don’t tell the readers much. We also tend to overuse words. For example, if I am telling you about a product or describing a person and I use the word “special,” what does that really mean to you if you are not be familiar with that product or that person? The word “special” has been used so much that it really doesn’t always mean a lot to the reader (unless you’re telling a friend or relative that they are special, then that can mean a lot!). You have to tell us what is extraordinary about your product, person, or belief rather than say they are special or extraordinary. Example of...

  Nonfiction is a literary genre that has a strong field of books and talented authors that have captivated readers since the beginning of publishing. Nonfiction can be a form of historical or academic writing, but it is also so much more than that. The genre encompasses a wide variety of educational writings, historical research, and coverage of current events and thoughts. But beyond just recording history or teaching people, many nonfiction writers also write to entertain the reader and draw you into their book through the stories that can flow as beautifully as a well-written work of fiction.  Many nonfiction writers use literary devices that are common in fictional pieces. For example, writers of both fiction and nonfiction use the idea of “show, but don’t tell” to engage the senses of the readers and give them a deeper connection to the story being told. The authors use recurrent imagery, dialogue, and vivid descriptions of the setting including textures and smells to co...

 Greetings! Ready to write yourself into a story? My dog Mitz has a challenge for you:  Write about yourself as though you were in a television show based on your life. In 500 words or less, answer the following questions, adding some details that are fictional, but would be interesting to the story: 1. What would the title of the TV show be? 2. What type of setting would your character live in? 3. What would your signature clothing be? A leather jacket? Jeans? A bonnet? Rainbow high tops? A Minecraft hoodie?  4. How would the show always end? With music you play? With your favorite quote? With a joke? With a phrase you say daily? 5. What two things should we know about your character in the show? If you have trouble answering these questions, think of TV shows that have been popular and entertaining in the past—maybe an older Disney show like Liv and Maddie , Cory in the House , Jessie, or That’s So Raven . You can also think of characters in movies such as Star Wars . ...

 Greetings! Ready for a short but fun writing challenge? This writing prompt gives you five words that you probably use quite often—just not together. You will have to tie these words together in a short story. The catch? You only have four minutes to complete this challenge.      Why would I ask you to do this? First, because it forces you to think outside the boxes you are used to working within. It opens you up to new levels of creativity. Second, it helps you break writing habits that can make your work predictable.  So, set a timer for four minutes and start writing. Don't worry about perfecting grammar or spelling mistakes. The goal is to get one or two paragraphs written (depending on your speed) that are a rough draft. I use this type of writing prompt with all of my students weekly. You can use these words in any order you choose to. They should not be forced into just one sentence.  Words:  garbage can mustard helmet Alaska carpet Have fun wr...

 Greetings! Are you ready for another writing challenge? I like to mix up these writing prompts to give you a chance to think outside the box with your creativity. When we always write in the same genre, we get into patterns that repeat sentence structures and word choices. We often don't even realize the habits we have found ourselves stuck in.  Changing genres for writing prompts helps writers refresh our writing styles. We push ourselves to change up our normal sentence structures and vocabulary. This doesn't mean that we have to change what genres we write in for our own writing projects. It does mean that we can approach them with fresh ideas and new options to keep our writing exciting and relatable for our readers.  For students, this applies to nonfiction and academic writing as well. We don't want everything we write to be predictable and lackluster.  The Knitting Snowman Snowballs  Can you guess what genre I am going to ask you to write in today by the...

 Greetings! Are you ready for another writing prompt? Today's challenge involves writing dialogue. Using this photo, write a scene with these two people. The scene should be 85 percent dialogue. What are these two people talking about?  You can choose the genre (realistic, mystery, horror, action, humor, romance). That means you're choosing the tone that matches the genre. The 15 percent of the scene that's not dialogue should be descriptive writing that reveals the setting and the actions or positioning of the characters.  Dialogue reminder:  Each line of dialogue starts a new paragraph so it’s clear to the reader when the speaker changes.  “Mom, can I have a snack now?” Alex asked. “I’m ready to eat.” “Not right now. Dinner will be ready soon,” she answered as she took something out of the oven. “But I’m hungry.” He reached into the cabinet to grab some chips, but Mom shut the cabinet door before he could get anything out. He sighed and walked out of the kitch...

 Greetings! I hope all of your writing projects are going well! If you need a creativity boost or are struggling with writers block, try this writing prompt to help you put some words down on paper. Sometimes we need a writing challenge to help us break out of our predictable writing patterns and restart our projects with a fresh voice and new energy.  This writing prompt has multiple challenges involving the lake pictured above. Complete as many as you can even if you work on these over several days instead of in one sitting. (And remember, you are just writing a first draft. Don't stress about spelling or grammar with these writing prompts. You can go back and edit later if you decide to use something you wrote in one of your own writing projects or for a writing contest.) Challenge one: In at least 500 words (or try for 1000 minimum), write a short story about two brothers who grow up vacationing on or living near this lake. Tone: positive, lighthearted, joyful. This story ...

  As academic and/or creative writers, we need to strengthen our skills daily. Often we have projects with deadlines that we need meet, so those writing assignments become our priority. When we only focus on one style of writing, however, our work can become predictable and dull. We stop growing as writers. In order to grow, we need challenges that push us to think outside of our normal patterns. Here's a writing prompt to help you challenge yourself a bit:  Write a scene at least 400 words long (longer if possible) that highlights the thoughts of two characters. One character is on a train coming to meet the other character. Both characters' thoughts need to be shared with the reader. You can define how these characters know each other (friends, family, classmates, peers through work or a project).  You can also define their relationship with the tone of their thoughts: are they angry with each other, in love, trying to forgive each other, starting life together, about t...

This writing exercise can be an interesting challenge for writers who need to have a little creative fun or for students hoping to hone their writing skills. The more we write, the better writers we become.  Writing can be fun! Not every student agrees because sometimes we create stress for students by introducing them to academic writing before we teach them to write creatively. We ask them to write academic paragraphs that have perfect grammar and spelling on the first draft. Any mistakes bring down their grade. Instead, build writing skills with fun writing exercises that can be edited the next day (or the next week) without any negativity associated with the editing process. Even professional writers never produce a perfect first draft.  Here’s a fun exercise:  Finish this sentence: One day, fifty flying fish_________________________________. Now use that sentence as the start of a short story that must be at least two paragraphs long (or six sentences for younger stu...

Looking for some fun writing exercises to boost your creativity or enjoy with your kids? Here's a fun writing prompt to sharpen your writing skills and strengthen your creativity. Finish the following sentences and then keep writing. Use each prompt as the first sentence in a paragraph (at least five sentences long). You can keep the story going with several paragraphs if you're having fun. Each writing prompt should start a new paragraph/story.  The ___________________ ate all of the _______________I had in my kitchen.  The yellow ____________________ scared me when I saw it.  The airplane carrying_________________ flew to ______________.  When I opened the door, I smelled the _____________________ my Mom was cooking.  Bonus challenge:  Choose one sentence and turn it into a 750 to 1000-word short story. Make the sentence you choose your opening sentence for the story. Slowly add in your characters and any backstory that the readers need to know.  Rem...

The more we write, the better writers we become. That's what I tell all of my students. Sometimes we need a break from our writing projects required for school or for our career. Writing prompts can help us refresh our creativity while honing our writing skills.  For a fun activity, try this writing prompt:  Write at least a 500-word story that uses this information:  You (or your character) have to live on an island for one entire summer with just one friend. You can’t leave the island until the summer is over, and you won’t have any visitors. You will be the lighthouse operator.  The owner of the lighthouse will ship over three months’ worth of food. What food would you have shipped over that is easy to cook?  What would you plant in the garden that you could eat? What eight items (besides clothes) would you take with you?  You have to do something productive and also something fun each day. What would you do to stay busy? 

You often hear writing coaches tell students to use the "show, don't tell" technique when writing. This technique means to let the readers experience an emotion or visualize a setting with descriptive wording rather than just a blunt information dump. When we walk into a cold room, we might wrap our arms around ourselves or grab a sweater. If we have a warm drink such as hot cocoa or coffee, we might wrap both hands around the cup to get our fingers warm. Describing those actions draws the reader into our story more than saying, "It was cold in the room." Readers can picture the actions of trying to get warm. Nothing particular comes to mind with just writing that it was cold. There's nothing to visualize for the reader.  Writing Prompt:  Use dialogue or descriptive language to show the readers what is happening instead of telling them. Example: He was cold. (telling) He stepped out and felt the bitter wind hit his cheeks. He immediately stepped back in and ...

Nothing gets us in trouble more as a writer than misusing punctuation. A misplaced comma can change the meaning of what we are saying. To help you understand the basic rules, I am going to keep the sample sentences very basic. First rule: Any part of a sentence that can be deleted without changing the basic meaning of the sentence should have commas before and after that word, clause, or phrase. Example:  Oslo, who is my smallest dog, is learning how to sit. Identify the core sentence: Oslo is learning how to sit. The fact that he is my smallest dog is a clause that can be deleted without changing that core sentence. This additional information is just a bonus for the reader. The clause needs to be separated by commas. If the wording being removed changes the meaning of the sentence, no commas are needed. Example:  Dogs who are afraid of water wouldn’t like to swim in my lake. No commas should be put around who are afraid of water because that is key to the sentence. Without t...

I remember discovering the music of the Beach Boys as a middle school student. The group had been around since before I was born, but I had never paid any attention their music until I heard a friend playing "California Girls" one day. I immediately saved up for their Sounds of Summer vinyl. The songs about the beach and surfing made me want to live in a perpetual summer season. Played at the right moment, beach music makes us feel willing to accept the extreme heat of the season so we can have some fun.  Life in the South seemed different in the summer when I was growing up. We could stay outside later, swim in a lake, vacation at the beach, and spend all day in a bathing suit. If things got hot and we couldn't go anywhere, we sprayed each other with the garden hose. If we were lucky, we also had music playing somewhere. Some people had record players. Others had boom boxes and eventually cassette players. My family even had an eight-track cassette player. We all had a s...