Color and Music

Last week I talked about color, and this week I'm adding music. I love mixing different senses, like sight and sound, to see how that affects what we write.

I did this writing exercise in my class for adults, "Creativity for Writers," and it's a great exercise to do in a group. Six to eight is a good number.

Let's say you have 8 people. Find 8 pens with different colored ink, or 8 sharp colored pencils. Each person chooses a pen, and takes out their notebook or a big piece of paper. Find a source of music--an MP3 player, a CD player and some CDs, a computer, or the radio. Sit in a circle.

One person is in charge of the music. This exercise works best if you have different kinds of music--pop, rap, classical, country, rock, jazz, etc. You don't have to like the music. In fact, if you hate the music, that can make things more interesting!

The person in charge puts on a piece of music. While it's playing, everyone writes about the color of their ink or pencil. The person with the green pen writes about the color green. The person with the red pen writes about the color red.

What to write about? Write quickly without thinking too much, and listen to the music while you're writing. What associations do you have with that color? What does the color make you think of? Does the music tie in somehow? You don't have to write in complete sentences. Words or phrases are okay. Don't worry about spelling or punctuation.

Here's what I wrote about the color blue while a song by the 1960s band The Beach Boys was playing:

Blue perfect for the Beach Boys waves water California clouds sun the blue of the day in summer, shimmering ocean, the blue of a boy's eyes as he runs in the sand. Sparkle deep, flip flops with aqua blue flowers.

After a minute or two, the person in charge changes to a different piece of music. Everyone passes their pen to the person on the right, and takes a pen from the person on their left.

Write about your new color while the new music is playing. Again, write quickly without thinking too much. After another minute or two, switch the music and your pens. Keep writing about each color until you're all back to your original color, and write about that color again. How was your writing different this time?

For fun, read your writing out loud in the circle. What did everyone write for pink, or yellow? What colors did everyone have for the jazz piece (if you had jazz), and what did you all write about? Did the music affect the writing? Did some music make you angry, or happy?

Did any words or phrases you wrote down give you a story idea?

Three Colors Your Character Would Never Wear

Do you have a favorite color? (I have two, purple and green, especially when they're together.) Do you have a least favorite color? A color you hate? A color that makes you feel sick? A color you would never wear?

Guess what? Our characters have opinions about color, too. Our characters' opinions can surprise us. What if the captain of the football team loves hot pink? Or if a ballet dancer's favorite color is army-green? We can use our characters' favorite or least favorite colors to reveal something about who they are.

Think about a character from a story you've written or a story you want to write. What are three colors your character would never wear? Write a paragraph from that character's point of view telling us why.

Here's one of my characters talking:

The worst color ever is puce. Doesn't it sound horrible? In case you've never heard of puce, it's dark red-brown-purple. It's the color of throw-up after you've eaten a bowl of Spaghettios with grape juice. It's the color of that stuff on the bottom of your shoe after a dog's walked by. It's the color of mud on a rainy day after you slide into third base, and your face is slammed into the mud and it's splattered all over your teeth and hair. It's the color--but you get the idea. Don't ever wear puce. I don't.

What are three colors your character would never wear?

The Cat in the Bookstore

Hello!

I'm back and rested from my trip to Poland. I visited a ruined castle, a writer's museum, a spa town with healthy water, a medieval village, and the Old Town of Warsaw, Poland's capital. (The Old Town was completely destroyed during World War II, and was rebuilt brick by brick.)

Best of all, I got to visit family. Second best of all, I got to go into lots of bookstores. A bookstore filled with books in another language is a fun place to visit, but guess what? The books may not be in English, but a lot of other things are the same.

Like having a bookstore cat. I took a photo of this cat in a Warsaw bookstore. It was lying on a stack of art books, which makes me think the cat has good taste.

What kind of stories could this cat tell about living in a bookstore? What kind of adventures could it have? Maybe it catches a book thief. Or maybe one morning the owner doesn't show up. Or the owner does show up....with another cat.

Write a story about The Cat in the Bookstore. Use your imagination to come up with a tale (ha ha, get it?) for this handsome, book-loving cat.

Yellow Pencils Takes a Vacation!

I hope everyone's having a good school year so far, with lots of writing! While you're in school this September, Yellow Pencils is taking a vacation.

I'm going to Poland to visit family. I plan to take lots of notes in my travel journal and come back with ideas for stories, poems, and prompts. I'm excited about getting a new stamp in my passport. I'll also get to practice my Polish language skills (which need a lot of help).

Keep writing! I'll be back in early October, and my yellow pencil will be raring to go!

"So Much Depends Upon" Poems

I just finished teaching two great weeks of writing camps! The best part, as always, was listening to the young writers' stories and poems. Some were funny, some were sad, and all the stories and poems showed that young writers have awesome, thoughtful, wacky, tremendous imaginations.

Two young writers wrote poems based on a famous poem by an American poet, William Carlos Williams. It's called "The Red Wheelbarrow," and it goes like this:

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

It seems so simple, right? Some of the best poetry is like that. But within this poem's simplicity are powerful images. After reading the poem, can't you vividly see the red wheelbarrow in the rain, and the white chickens beside it? And notice how Mr. Williams breaks up the lines: the words "barrow, water, and chickens" each gets its own line, so our eyes rest on it. Try reading the poem out loud, slowly. Did you notice how you gave a little extra "weight" to those words?

In the novel Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech, the character named Jack writes his own poem based on "The Red Wheelbarrow."

So much depends upon

a creeping cat

crouched in the tree

beside the yellow bus stop.

Here's one of mine:

so much depends

upon

a bowl of oatmeal

waiting on an

orange table

on the first day of

school.

Try writing your own "So Much Depends Upon" poem. Play around with colors, images, line spaces, and vivid words. And have a great first day of school!

The Magical Object

I'm teaching summer writing workshops for young writers during the next two weeks. Yesterday someone suggested "a magic pine cone" as a writing prompt. That got me thinking....what other objects could be magical?

Everyday we see objects that seem, well, everyday. What if these objects are everyday in our world, but magical to someone else in another world? Or what if we could grant them magical powers?

Find a small object in your neighborhood--your street, driveway, yard, playground.

What did you find? A leaf, bottle cap, or dandelion? A piece of glass (be careful!), a shell, or a marble? A stick? A piece of string , a stone, or a blade of grass? How about a pine cone?

Grant your object magical powers. What can it do? Fulfill three wishes? Lift heavy objects? Remove all sadness from the world?

Now imagine your magical object starring in its very own story. Have fun writing!

The Dog Days of August

Have you ever heard of the dog days of August? That's the hottest time of the year. The term "dog days" is thought to come from the rising of Sirius, the Dog Star. Or maybe it comes from the fact that in August, we often see dogs lying in the shade, trying to avoid the hot sun.

Wherever we get the term, I think the "dog days of August" can give us a fun writing exercise. If we have dog days in August, what do we have the other months?

How about these?

• The white rabbit days of January. (Because some rabbits turn white to blend in with the snow.)
• The chocolate days of February. (Because we celebrate Valentine's Day.)
• The squall days of March. (Because we often have big, windy storms.)
• The batter days of April. (Because baseball starts in April.)

How about May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December? What special "days" name can you give to those months?

We don't want cats to be jealous that dogs have "dog days." What month would have "cat days?"

Have fun thinking up "days" names for each month of the year. For extra fun, make a calendar with illustrations. And don't forget to give your dog extra water in August.