Write a Magazine Poem

A very fun way to write a poem is to use magazines. Here's what you do:

First, find one or two magazines (make sure everyone is done reading them first).

Second, get a pair of scissors (ask an adult for help if you need it).

Third, flip through the pages of the magazines, and cut sentences out at random.

Okay, now you should have a pile of cut-out sentences or phrases. The more the better!

On a sheet of paper or in your writing journal, try arranging your sentences. Pick out the ones you like--the words, a phrase, or the meaning. Recycle the ones you don't like. Can you see a theme? Does one of the sentences make a good title? Is your poem silly or serious? Is it nonsensical? Does it rhyme? (It doesn't have to!)

After you arrange the cut-out sentences to form a poem you like, glue them onto the paper. Congratulations! You have written a magazine poem!

A Rose Is A Rose...

I teach a class for adults called "Creativity for Writers." In this class, I encourage my students to have a "creativity date" each week.

What is a creativity date? It's one half hour you spend by yourself, either writing, drawing, listening to music, or doing something else creative. It's important that you do your creativity date by yourself. Why? When we're with our family and friends, we enjoy talking to them and goofing around. Nothing wrong with that. But when we're by ourselves and open to ideas, that's when the creative bug is most likely to bite.

Last week I went on a creativity date by myself. I biked to a neighborhood pond with my notebook. It's my creativity notebook, which has big white pages and no lines. I also brought a box of colored pencils.

I saw this flower and decided to draw it. I looked at the flower carefully and put in as much detail as I could. When I finished, I thought I had included a lot of detail. Then I took a photo of the flower. When I saw the photo, I was shocked. I missed a lot of details, like the little dots on the leaves and the way the sun hit the red petals.

If you have access to a camera, try this. Choose something to draw and look at it carefully. After drawing it, take a photo and compare the photo to your drawing. Did you miss anything? Try drawing it again, only this time include the details you missed.

Drawing and taking photos are great ways for writers to learn to look carefully!

The Numbers Game

This writing exercise is adapted from the book Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun, by Carla Sondheim, published by Quarry Books.

What does writing have to do with drawing? Everything! Whether we write or draw (or both), we're expressing our creativity. Many drawing exercises can be used for writing. "The Numbers Game" is one of them. This one you can do with a friend.

Ask a friend to take a sheet of paper and fold it in half lengthwise. On the left side of the paper, ask your friend to list 10 animals down the page and number them 1 to 10. On the right side of the paper, ask your friend to list 10 objects and number them 1 to 10. Don't let your friend show you what he or she has written.

For example:

On the left:

1. giraffe
2. buffalo
3. mosquito
4. seagull
5. beetle
6. gorilla
7. panda
8. rat
9. raccoon
10. coyote

On the right:

1. star
2. scissors
3. rainbow
4. flag
5. broccoli
6. bus
7. mirror
8. computer
9. stapler
10. pizza

Without looking at the list your friend made, pick two numbers from 1 to 10. Now (finally!) you get to look at the list. What two objects did you pick?

Let's say you picked 6 and 9: a gorilla and a stapler. Write a story about a gorilla and a stapler. Maybe a gorilla goes out shopping for bananas, but comes home with a stapler. What is a gorilla going to do with a stapler?? What if you picked 5 and 10? A beetle and a pizza. 1 and 7? A giraffe and a mirror.

Before you write your story, switch roles with your friend. Just as your friend did, take a sheet of paper, make two lists, and ask your friend to pick two numbers. When you have both chosen an animal and an object, sit down together and each write your own story. Have fun being as creative as you can!

When you're done, read your stories out loud to each other.

For extra fun, combine your two animals and your two objects, and write a story together. Maybe it will be a gorilla, a stapler, an ox, and an umbrella. Write a story together with those four things in it.

If you want, illustrate your story after you are finished. See? Drawing and writing go together!