A Cat's Point of View

Point of view is a term describing who is telling a story. "View" means to look, so when we talk about point of view we're talking about seeing a story's events through a character's or narrator's eyes.

This is my cat Zoey, and I bet she has a great story to tell. What is she doing, or what is she about to do? What is she thinking about?

Write a story from the cat's point of view. It can be an "I" first-person story, or a "she" third-person story. Have fun being a cat--at least while you write your story!

Holiday Magic

No matter what holiday you celebrate at this time of year--or even if you don't--there's something magical about going outdoors and seeing all the lights.

What if you were a space alien seeing stores, houses, and apartment windows lit up for the first time? What kind of creatures would you think Earthlings were?

For our writing prompt today, imagine you're a space alien. Your ship has just landed next to a brightly lit shopping market, like in the photo above. What are you going to tell your space buddies back home?

Be creative. Why do Earthlings have so many lights?

Holiday Parody

A scary Christmas tree? That's what you get when you say, "Twas the fright before Christmas...." and that's called parody.

What is parody? According to Sarah Ellis in The Young Writer's Companion (a wonderful book), parody is "A humorous, exaggerated imitation of a poem, song, character, or writing style."

Other holiday parodies?

"Jingle bells, Santa smells, ninety miles away...."

OR

"Joy to the world, the school burned down."

Can you come up with other holiday parodies? Think of your favorite (or least favorite) holiday song or poem, and give it a try:

"Rudolph, the snot-nosed reindeer, had a gooey, gobby nose...."

"Frosty the jail man, had a big, big set of keys...."

Have fun poking gentle fun at the songs we hear over and over at this time of year. Who knows? Your parody may become the next big hit!

Opening Doors

Sometimes starting a new story is as easy as opening a door.

If you need an idea for getting started, try using a door in the first sentence or paragraph. Doors are portals, or openings, to the outside world. When we hear a knock on the door, we're interested. When we open a door, we meet--someone or something.

Try using these first sentences to start a story, or make up one of your own. Whom or what will you meet on the other side of that door?

• I opened the door, and....
• When the doorbell rang, Adam ran to be the first one there.
• The door was so low, Uncle Jake had to stoop to come inside.
• I'd never seen a door painted flamingo-pink before.
• Creak!!! I pushed the door open and found....
• The name carved into the wooden door gave me shivers--it was my name.
• The door slammed with such force that Julie jumped.
• I knocked three times and waited. And waited.
• Hello? I'm a 500-year-old door, and I have a story to tell....

Treasure

What does the word "Treasure" mean to you? Riches, gems, gold?

Do you think of buried treasure? A chest full of money? A surprise you find in your pocket? A hidden fortune? A wallet filled with $100 bills?

Or does "Treasure" make you think about a person or a pet? Someone in your family whom you treasure? Your cat that keeps you warm at night ? Or your uncle who always gives you just the right present?

Or do you treasure something more abstract? Time? Beauty? A friend sticking up for you? A kind act on a day when you're feeling rotten?

Who or what do you treasure? What does the word Treasure mean to you? Set your timer for 15 minutes and write about it.

November

Last week I wrote about November, and I'm still thinking about the things I love about this month.

I love the sky in November. Here in the Pacific Northwest it's often gray, but the sun is trying to peek through. The shades of gray are all different and alive, and always changing--mouse gray, almost-white, soft gray, or metal gray.

In November, a picture book by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Jill Kastner (published by Harcourt in 2000), is one of my favorite books about November. The book is like a poem to a month that doesn't get noticed too much, except at Thanksgiving.

What do you like about November? Thanksgiving with your family? The first snow? Getting out your mittens? Sleeping in on weekends? Raking the last leaves? Watching which birds migrate? Getting ready for Christmas?

Make a list of your favorite things about November, and write a poem about them. And don't forget to have a great Thanksgiving. I'm grateful for everyone who reads "Yellow Pencils," and I'm grateful for November!

Smells and Similes

Maybe it's the smell of wet leaves in the air, but I always think November has great smells.

Smells, scents, odors, aromas--whatever you want to call them--are one of the hardest things to describe when we write. Sometimes it's easier if we use a simile: a comparison using the words "like" or "as."

Try to describe what the following things smell like using a simile. Go wild with your imaginations!

I'll get us started.

• Dirty socks: Her dirty socks smelled like five-day-old fish.
• Salsa: Mom's homemade salsa smelled like the best vegetable garden on Earth.

Now you try some:

• Burning rubber
• Clean sheets
• Peanut butter
• The inside of our car
• The inside of my desk
• An eraser
• My dog's ears
• A tree trunk
• A rusty fence
• Already-been-chewed bubble gum

Have lots of fun with smells and similes!

Writing an Alphabet Poem

Every person who writes a newspaper story knows that the 5 most important questions to ask and to answer in your story are Who? What? When? Where? Why?

What if we turned those 5 questions into a poem, and had fun with the alphabet?

Here's the pattern. Our poem will have 5 lines answering our 5 questions:

Line 1: Who? (the subject)

Line 2: What? (what happened)

Line 3: When (when did it happen)

Line 4: Where (where did it happen)

Line 5: Why? (why did it happen)

Ready to start? Pick a letter of the alphabet. Let's say we pick S. Here's our poem:

Who? Sam

What? Slithered sneakily

When? After snack time

Where? To the sandbox

Why? For a snooze.

Now let's take off the questions, and we have our finished poem:

Sam

slithered sneakily

after snack time

to the sandbox

for a snooze.

Now you try one. Pick a letter of the alphabet. Will you pick J, T, or M? Or the first letter of your name? (Warning: Q and X are the hardest.) Have fun writing your alphabet poem!

Halloween Stew

Happy Halloween!

To celebrate this ghoulish holiday, let's invent a recipe for Halloween Stew. (For the record, I'm a vegetarian, so this is definitely a make-believe recipe!)

5 slithering snakes

2 timid toads

10 crispy caterpillars

1 gallon of gorilla spit

2 jars of jumping bean juice

Mix all ingredients together. Add 4 pounds of scary spiders. Season with dog dandruff.

Cook until trick-or-treaters show up at your door. Bring out your Halloween Stew, and watch everyone run away screaming.

What would you put in YOUR Halloween Stew? Happy Pumpkin Day!

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.

Baby Animals

Baby ducks are ducklings.

Baby geese are goslings.

And baby humans are...babies.

How many names can you think of for baby animals? A baby cat is a kitten. A baby dog is a puppy. A baby eagle is an eaglet. A baby frog is a tadpole. A baby fox, bear, wolf, or lion is a cub.

How about some lesser known babies? A baby lizard is a hatchling. A baby snake is a snakelet. A baby shark is a pup. A baby elephant is a calf.

For a fun word game, make a list of as many baby animal names as you can find. Or make up your own names. A baby crow? How about a crowlet? A crowling? A crowten?

Let your imagination soar as high as a baby seagull. Would that be a seaglet?

A String of Pearls

Have you noticed that I've been using word games and storytelling games for summer writing activities? Any time of year is great for word play, but summer seems especially good because we're often hanging around with friends. Friends make a word game or storytelling game even more fun.

I ran into Nancy Lewars the other day. Nancy teaches an improv acting class (short for "improvisational") on Bainbridge Island where I live. Nancy told me about a great improv storytelling game called "A String of Pearls." Here's how you play.

You need at least three people (that's where your friends come in). Imagine an invisible string in front of you. The first person starts by stringing the first pearl--by saying a sentence that begins a story.

Beginning: One day a mouse jumped out of the heating vent.

The second person strings the second pearl--by saying a sentence that will be the middle of the story. The second sentence doesn't have to be related to the first.

Middle: The paper bag filled with marbles flew across the street and under the bus.

The third person strings the third pearl--by saying a sentence that will be the end of the story. The third sentence doesn't have to be related to the first or second.

End: The giraffe drove the stolen car to the police station.

So far we have three pearls on our string:

Beginning: One day a mouse jumped out of the heating vent.

Middle: The paper bag filled with marbles flew across the street and under the bus.

End: The giraffe drove the stolen car to the police station.

Now the three people (or more) string the rest of the pearls by filling in the story. How will you create a story by connecting a mouse, a paper bag filled with marbles, and a giraffe driving a stolen car?

Have fun stringing your own pearls!

The License Plate Game

I'm going on a trip next week. I'm flying to Boston, and then driving to Vermont with a friend. Thinking about driving reminds me of cars, which reminds me of license plates, which reminds me of the License Plate Game. It's a great game for writers!

Even if you're not going on a trip this summer, you can see license plates almost anywhere. Here's how the game works.

Find five license plates that include letters. Then make a phrase out of the letters.

For example:

SFA = Stop Feeding Aliens

MLH = Monsters Live Here

DSOM = Don't Step on Marvin

LL = Lizard Landing

UNH = Unicorns Need Help

For extra fun, use one of your phrases as a story title, and then write a story about aliens, monsters, Marvin, lizards, or unicorns. See how creative you can be, all because of the humble license plate.

Alliteration

Summer is a splendid season to soak up the sun.

That's alliteration, when we use the same letter at the beginning of words. Alliteration is fun, it's rhythmic, and it's poetic. It has a nice sound. When readers see a sentence with alliteration, they enjoy saying the words out loud.

Let's try another one:

Larry was so lazy, he lounged till noon.

Not every word in a sentence needs to start with the same letter. Here's a line from The Jade Dragon by Carolyn Marsden and Virginia Shin-Mui Loh. The main character, Ginny, is thinking about the disappointing Christmas presents she received.

Socks. Underwear. A pair of pajamas. Pencils.

Say it out loud. The "p" sounds with their little puff of air show how frustrated Ginny is. Later on the page, she repeats the line, so we get to hear the "p" sounds again.

Socks. Underwear. A pair of pajamas. Pencils.

Try writing your own alliteration. It's fun, fabulous, and fantastic!

The Translation Game

Q B X M P C Y D A H U K S E Z N L T W O V F G

I J R

Here's a word game I learned from Nancy Lewars. It's a great game for summer, because you can play it outside while the weather's warm and sunny.

Three people sit in a row. The person in the middle is the Translator. The first person says something to the Translator in a made-up language (gibberish). The second person, or Translator, "translates" that to the third person in English. The third person answers the Translator in another made-up language (gibberish). The Translator then "translates" that back to the first person.

Sound complicated? It isn't. Here's an example:

First person: "Eee-ee ha la, moo hani la?"

Translator: "Why are you wearing a wool coat in June?"

Third person: "Sher trekk ponter dred trekk setin klakervin."

Translator: "Someone took my clothes."

First person: "Moo?"

Translator: "Why?"

Third person: "Sher trekk klakervin bettlever dagin."

Translator: "Because the clothes didn't belong to me."

You get the idea. Create a story using the Translation Game, and see how long you can keep it going. Have fun making up your gibberish language on the spot!

P.S. Lemonade goes great with this game.

School's Out for Summer!

SCHOOL'S OUT!

School's out for summer.

It's really a bummer.

Just kidding!

I miss all my classes

and wearing my glasses.

Just kidding!

The bus smelled so great.

I was never late.

Just kidding!

My teacher was cool.

I really loved school.

Just kidding!

I did all my work

and was never a jerk.

Just kidding!

Now summer's here

and I'm shedding a tear.

Just kidding!

I can ride my bike

and go for a hike.

I can sleep till noon

and act like a goon.

I can watch TV

and water ski

ride my skateboard all day

and play, play, play, play!

NOT kidding!

What do YOU think about school being out for summer? Write a poem about it!

Libraries

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE libraries!

What's better than a library? A story set in a library.

Think of all the story possibilities for a library:

• you get locked inside the library overnight
• you see someone stealing a book
• you're hiding from someone in the library bathroom
• you're at the library computer when a magical dragonfly whizzes past
• you find a talking tarantula with a chef's hat in the cookbook section

Try setting a story in a library. In YOUR library, no one will say, "Shhhhhh!"

Memory

Today is Memorial Day. It's a holiday, which means no school, right? It's good to know why Memorial Day is a holiday. On this day, we remember soldiers who have died. We also remember family members and friends who have died.

So Memorial Day is about remembering. It's about memory. Are you remembering someone special today? Maybe it's your grandma or grandpa. Maybe it's your pet. Or maybe you're remembering someone who's living--your mom, dad, aunt, or uncle in the military or away from home for another reason.

Think about someone you're remembering today. Write down five things about that person.

Today I'm remembering my mom who died a few years ago.

My Mom

1. Made the best chocolate chip cake.

2. Took the bus with me because she didn't drive.

3. Helped me with my spelling words (and that's why I'm a good speller).

4. Taught me some words in Polish.

5. Loved to go shopping.

What do you remember about a special person or pet? Happy Memorial Day!

Water, Water Everywhere....

When you get to a page in a book that describes the weather, do you yawn? It doesn't have to be that way! The weather--rainy, sunny, stormy, cold, hot, dry--can be a great backdrop to your story. The weather can reflect the way your characters feel, or just the opposite. Your character may be in a sunny mood, and not even a rain squall can dampen that.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse is all about the weather. The story is set in the Oklahoma dust bowl during the Depression. The dryness almost lifts off the page.

In As Long As There Are Mountains by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock, set in Vermont, Iris describes the rain: "The trees dripped rain, shrouded in fog, and seemed as pale and lifeless as ghosts, but they weren't lifeless at all. Their energy was stored deep inside to weather the cold winter." That could describe Iris herself.

A picture book can convey weather, too. Here's the first page of George Shannon's Rabbit's Gift: "Rabbit twitched his nose in the cold, damp air. Time to find food. More snow was coming. Coming soon." Even if you're reading that in spring, don't you want to cuddle up under a warm blanket?

Whether (ha-ha) you're writing about wet weather, dry weather, cold weather, or hot weather, you have an opportunity to convey mood.

Try writing a paragraph about weather. Describe a storm, a blizzard, a thunderstorm, or a heat wave. Think about how you have experienced those weather events. Now think about a character who experiences hail on his face, sleet under his collar, or snow in her boots.

Makes you want to cuddle up under a warm blanket, doesn't it?

Emotions

When people read our stories, they want to feel our characters' emotions. How do we put emotion into a story?

We can write about our characters' emotions by thinking about our own emotions. We don't have to be gushy or drip tears all over the page (or screen). But we can think about a time we felt the same way our character is feeling.

If your character is angry: think about a time someone made you really mad. What did you do? Did you want to hit someone? Did your heart start racing? Did your face get hot? Did you roll your hands into fists? Or did you go off by yourself to cool down?

If your character is happy: think about a time you felt true joy. What did you do? Did you jump up and down ? Did you cheer? Or did you sit quietly and let the wave of happiness wash over you?

If your character is jealous: think about a time you felt "green" with jealousy because your friend received a wonderful gift. What did you do? Did you make a sarcastic remark? Did you try to grab the gift? Or did you force yourself to make a kind remark, even though you didn't feel like it?

Look at the photo of the boy above. What do you think just happened? What emotion is this boy feeling? Think about a time you felt that same emotion. How did you react? Would this boy react the same way?

Write a paragraph describing how the boy is feeling. Maybe your description will make him feel better!

Naming Places and Things

It's fun to name characters in a story, but it's also fun to name things in your story.

In this exercise, name the following things and imagine the stories they might go in. When you come up with a story idea you love, write the story!

• a desert town
• a disease that's just been discovered
• a diner
• quadruplets
• a combination laundromat and beauty salon
• a new diet soda
• a summer cottage
• a rock band
• a circus
• a tree house
• a parking garage
• a shoe store

Here's my idea for a desert town named Crazy Rock: A girl who's lived near the ocean all her life moves to Crazy Rock, a town of 100 people in the Arizona desert. She misses the water so much, she decides to find a way to bring a bit of the ocean to her new home....

Excuse me while I go write the story. Try naming the things above and finding your own idea for a story!

"I Am" Poem

In an "I Am" poem, we write about a thing as if we are that thing. (Isn't it fun to pretend?)

Here's the form we use for an "I Am" poem:

I am a __________, __________ing ___________________.

I am a __________, __________ing ___________________.

I am a __________, __________ing ___________________.

I am a ____________________________________________.

In the first blank, write down an object. In the second blank after the comma, use a verb ending in "ing." Try to think of fun and unusual verbs, something you don't usually connect with that object. Instead of "I am a pine cone, falling to the ground," how about "I am a pine cone, diving to the ground?"

In the third blank, finish the sentence as you'd like. So: "I am a garbage can, opening my mouth to eat leftovers." (Who says you can't write a poem about a garbage can?)

For the next two lines, write about two other objects. For the last line, finish the poem however you'd like with an "I am" statement.

Since we just celebrated Earth Day, I wrote an "I Am" poem about something from nature.

Leaf

I am a leaf

swallowing rain.

I am a blade of grass

listening to skateboarders.

I am a daffodil

hiding from flower pickers.

I am the big, fat, yellow sun winking at Earth.