Writer's Journey

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? 

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...