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I took this photo of a mailbox in Poland. I loved that it was bright red, and easy to find when I sent my postcards back home.
Not many of us write letters anymore. It's easier to text, right? But a letter shows that the person you're sending it to is important. You're taking the time to find paper, pen, envelope and stamp, writing your note, and going to a mailbox or post office.
Our characters can write letters, too.
Think about a character in your story. Could he write a letter to his best friend? Archenemy? Favorite athlete? Or grandparents? (Think about a thank-you letter your character REALLY doesn't want to write.)
Pretend you are your character. Find all the things you need to write a letter. Then actually write it on paper, revealing something that you didn't know your character wanted to say.
Put on a pretend stamp. Better yet, design one. "Mail" your letter in a pretend mailbox. Better yet, design that, too! Will your mailbox be red, blue, or orange-and-yellow striped?
How will the recipient respond? With anger, surprise, or joy?
Congratulations! You (I mean your character) wrote a letter.
The new year is a good time to think about beginnings, or openings to our stories.
I wrote about openings in a post last year. Among many possibilities for starting a story, I wrote about beginning with the main character's name.
"My name is Elizabeth but no one's ever called me that." That's the first line of How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff.
"Hello. I am Ivan. I am a gorilla." The Newbery Award winning novel, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, begins with Ivan introducing himself.
Then there's the famous opening to Moby Dick by Herman Melville: "Call me Ishmael."
Can you think of other novels or stories that open with the main character telling us his or her name?
Meg Rosoff's opening is intriguing because we learn the main character's name--Elizabeth--but there's also a mystery. How does Elizabeth prefer to be called, and why? (I'll let you read the novel to find out!)
Take one of your ideas for a story, or a story you're working on, and try out this kind of "introduction" opening.
Your main character, whether a girl, boy, gorilla, or sailor on a whaling ship, may reveal something you didn't know.
Welcome to 2015!
Are you ready to get back into the routine of writing?
Maybe you've been writing all through the holidays--congratulations!
Or maybe, with all the busyness of celebrating, you had to put your story or novel aside for a while.
Maybe you're tempted to quit. Don't! Now is the time to recommit.
Wally Amos, of Famous Amos cookie fame, said something I love:
"Not quitting means you live constantly where the action is, in the now."
Don't we all want to be "in the now," instead of living in the past or future?
We can do that by sticking with our writing. Our "now" is our current story or novel.
So wish yourself a happy new year, start writing, and live where the action is. I'll be right there with you.
Wishing you a great holiday season!
Many thanks to all who have followed Yellow Pencils this year. I hope 2015 brings you an abundance of story ideas, creative bursts, and time to put words to the page.
Yellow Pencils will be back in two weeks for another year of writing tips and prompts.
Happy ho-ho-holidaying!
Ho ho ho! It's time to write to Santa.
What do we writers really want?
Instead of asking for the newest gadgets under our tree, what if we request inspiration for our writing?
What if we ask Santa to bring us patience, or confidence, or other qualities that help us begin and finish the best story we can write?
This year, I'm asking for:
- Belief in myself when I lose faith in my story.
- Perseverance when I'm writing yet another draft.
- Humility to ask for help from a teacher or another writer when I need it.
- Curiosity to keep looking for great story ideas.
- Genius--just kidding, but wouldn't it be nice?
How about you? What qualities would you like to find under your tree?
I normally write realistic fiction, but there are times I like to think about writing fantasy stories.
Like when I look at this tree.
I took this photo in England, but this wonderful, gnarled tree says to me, "magical setting."
Who or what lives in the tree? How old is it? What is the name of the forest? What is about to happen?
Use this tree for the setting of a fantasy story, and see what you discover. It may be something magical.
This week it snowed here where I live. How about you?
Whether you get five feet of snow a year or none, you probably have some feelings about snow. When you see, hear, smell, touch (and even taste) snow falling, what emotions do you feel?
Do you love the first snowfall of the year? Why? Do you hate snow and cold? Why?
Do you wish it would snow where you live? Do you wish it would STOP snowing where you live?
Let's write about snow. We can use our five senses--taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing--to describe it. We can remember a fun time or a sad time when snow was falling.
Do you wait at the window for the first snowfall? Do you hope for a blizzard so you'll get a snow day from school?
However you feel about snow, this phenomenon from the sky is pretty amazing.
Write about this white, fuzzy stuff that for many of us spells w-i-n-t-e-r.
