Writer's Journey

 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! 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 missionari...

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 ...

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 ...

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. Allie...

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 perspectiv...

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 word...

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 f...

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. ...