Writing Inspiration for 2013

Next to my computer is a little piece of paper with two sentences, and I look at them each day. They're from the marvelous book, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, by Steven Pressfield. 

Here are the two sentences:

"The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down each day and trying."

Those two sentences inspire me each day. Do you know why? Because they take the pressure off me. All I have to do each day is try. I can do that! 

Each day. That means not just when I feel like it, or when inspiration strikes, but each day. Even when I don't feel like it. 

And you know what? When you sit down and try, magic happens. No, you may not write the Great American Novel, and Steven Spielberg may not ask to turn your book into a movie. But when you try, words appear on the page or screen. Your words. Words turn into sentences. Sentences turn into paragraphs. And paragraphs turn into stories. Your stories. 

I don't have a New Year's resolution. I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. I'm going to sit down and try. Each day. 

Happy Writing in 2013! 

Happy Holidays

Dear Writers, 

Thanks for following Yellow Pencils throughout the year. I hope you found ideas to stir your imagination and inspire your writing! 

Yellow Pencils will return next week for another year of writing prompts and activities. Have a joyous holiday!

A Writer's List to Santa

If you could ask Santa for help with your writing, what would you ask for? No, not a brand new MacBook. I'm thinking more about....words!

Asking Santa for words? It sounds weird, but here's my Writer's List to Santa. Imagine how brilliant my story would be with Santa's help!

My Writer's List to Santa

1. An opening line that makes the reader say, "Wow!"

2. Powerful verbs that tackle, explode, and roar.  

3. A cliffhanger "stay-up-all-night-reading" end to each chapter.

4. Dialogue that makes the characters jump off the page. 

5. An ending that leaves the reader laughing, crying, and pondering life--all at the same time. 

What's in your Writer's List to Santa? Ho, ho, ho! 

A Random Title Story

What is a Random Title Story?

In my bathroom there are four kids' books posters on the wall. As I looked at the posters today, I thought about creating a fun story from the titles. That's what I call a Random Title Story.

The titles on the posters are:

• Cat and Rat by Ed Young
• Little Hobbin by Theodor Storm
• Time for Bed by Mem Fox
• Six Creepy Sheep by Judith Ross Enderle and Stephanie Gordon Tessler

Here's my story. How about creating your own Random Title Story? 

Little Hobbin's Night Out

Little Hobbin knew it was a mistake to babysit for the Six Creepy Sheep. But what could she do? She needed the money, and jobs for hobbins were as rare as...well, they were rare. Little Hobbin wasn't good at thinking up similes. 

Ding dong. Oh no, who was that? Little Hobbin opened the door. There stood her next-door neighbor with his children, Cat and Rat.

"Can you babysit tonight?" asked Cat and Rat's father, a gigantic striped alley-cat with his ear torn off. 

"I'll take them with me to the Six Creepy Sheep across the street," said Little Hobbin. "Is that okay?"

"Sure, whatever," said their father, who was known for not keeping track of his children. Cat and Rat's mother, a ferocious rodent, had left years ago. 

"Follow me," said Little Hobbin to Cat and Rat, and the three hobbled, padded, and scurried across the road. 

Mr. and Mrs. Sheep left for the movies (a horror story involving lamb chops). 

"Time for bed," said Little Hobbin to Cat, Rat, and the Six Sheep, thinking she could watch her favorite TV show, "The Hobbins Go to Hollywood."  

But just as she predicted, the Six Creepy Sheep did creepy things. Like sharpening their teeth on the kitchen knives. And putting spiders into their parents' lambswool slippers. Cat dunked the sheep's tails into the pot of Elmer's Glue on the stove, and Rat ate all the cleanser under the sink.  

"Stop!" said Little Hobbin, sinking into the couch. "TIME FOR BED!" 

But it was too late. The Six Sheep were glued to the floor, Cat collapsed in a heap from glue fumes, and Rat was doing something gross in the garbage pail after eating all that cleanser.

Little Hobbin hobbled to the sofa. Forget her TV show. She curled up in a wool blanket and counted sheep. Oddly, they were all holding knives in their teeth. Little Hobbin happily snored her way through the night. Maybe babysitting wasn't so bad after all. 

Cat Twins

I haven't written about cats for a while. I love cats, kittens, and felines of all sorts, and can't imagine being a writer without at least two cats in the house. (My husband and I have Max and Zoey.) Who would listen to me talk about the beautiful sentence I just wrote? Or hear me complain about the beautiful sentence I didn't write? 

When I saw this cat who looks nearly identical to Max, I had to take his photo. I started to wonder about Cat Twins. What if a cat had a long-lost identical twin across town, or on the other side of the world? 

I don't mean litter mates. I mean two cats who are identical in every way. And what if those two cats met and had an adventure together? 

What would their names be? Would they be allies or enemies? Would they have bionic powers? What would their story be?  

My story might be named "Max and Xam," and feature two black-and-white tuxedo cats out to save the last jar of catnip on Planet Earth from the evil, cat-hating Dastardly Dog. 

What is your Cat Twin story? 

A Thanksgiving "Thank You" Pie

Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks...and eating. Let's combine the two and create a "Thank You" pie.

What are you thankful for in your life? Put it in your pie. Here's mine, with a focus on my writing life. 

One gallon of time to write each morning 
Two cups of my local library 
Five pounds of my writing critique group 
One box of my cat Max who sleeps next to me when I write
Three tablespoons of my favorite notebook 

Put all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Stir. Sprinkle with gratitude and pour into a pie plate. Get a yummy feeling thinking about all the great things in your life. 

What would you put in your pie?

Magic Pen Story Starters Part III

This fall I'm teaching workshops for writers ages 8 to 12. Most of the writers have a story idea when they walk in the door, but I always bring Magic Pen Story Starters for those who need inspiration. I hope one (or more) of these ideas gets your pen moving!

1) Write these folktales:

• "The Day Hansel and Gretel Became Zombies"
• "Welcome to Rapunzel's Beauty Shop"
• "The Three Bears' Nightmare in Hawaii"

2) Write a story with these three things in it:

• a pair of scissors, a sailboat, and a green gorilla
• a broken computer, a monster with a chipped tooth, and a torn map
• a zoo, an airplane, and an escaped ice cube

3) Write a story with this first line:

• The magic pen floated toward me.
• The leg jumped from the ship just in time.
• My favorite color is purple, and that's because I'm an eggplant.
• You might think it's weird that our school "day" starts at 10:00 at night and ends at 4:00 in the morning.

4) Write a poem or story about:

• Yourself in which nothing is true
• A blue egg
• November
• Something you've lost
• Your shadow

Take one or more of these ideas, and let your pen (or your pencil or your computer) work its magic! 

My Crazy Voting Story

Today is Election Day in the United States. Unfortunately for kids, you must be 18 or older to cast a ballot. 

You may not be able to vote for real, but you can write "My Crazy Voting Story." Make it as crazy as you like!

My Crazy Voting Story

Today is Election Day, so I headed to ____________________________ to vote. I looked for the voting booths, but instead I found _________________________________. The candidate I was voting for, ________________________,  was _______________________________________.  

I asked if she needed help. She responded, "__________________________." I shook my head and placed a _____________ in the __________________ to vote. 

The next day I went to City Hall. My candidate had _____________! There was a sign in the window: _________________________. 

I took a ___________________ and went home, thinking _______________________________.

My Crazy Voting Story

Today is Election Day, so I headed to the pickle store to vote. I looked for the voting booths, but instead I found barrels of pickles and loaves of bread. The candidate I was voting for, Annabeard Muttonchops, was making pickle sandwiches. 

I asked if she needed help. She responded, "Not today. I'm too busy running for office." I shook my head and placed a pickle in the barrel to vote.

The next day I went to City Hall. My candidate had won! There was a sign in the window: Free Pickle Sandwiches for all! 

I took a sandwich and went home, thinking Ms. Muttonchops sure knew how to run a good campaign. 

Halloween Description

Halloween is a great time to think about suspense and scary things. It's also a great time to think about description.

How's that? On Halloween we see and do things that are out of the ordinary, and that gives us a chance to describe things that are out of the ordinary. 

What's your costume like? What kind of candy will you bring home? What is the sky like when you step outdoors? 

Try writing an over-the-top description of something you see, hear, taste, touch, or smell on Halloween. First write an "ordinary" sentence, then write an over-the-top description. You may not use it in a story, but it's wonderful practice to see how fun description can be.

Here's my description of a black cat. 

Ordinary: The cat stood beneath the moon.

Over-the-top:  The black, scruffy flea-bitten feline with chewed-off ears, a spiky, mangy tail, dull fur in a tangled mess of knots, four paws like discarded woolly mops, and large golden eyes that glared in the moonlight like a ghostly flashlight, arched its scrawny back beneath the shimmering late-October full moon.  

Happy Halloween! 

Fun with Games

When the power goes out and there's no computer, TV, or video games, that's the time to pull out a board game. But why wait for the power to go out? And why pull out a real board game? We can use our imaginations and make up our own games, with a little borrowing from the real thing. 

Have you ever played Monopoly? How about Hogopoly, where all the pieces are pigs? You get to create the characters and name them.

Chess? How about Mess? It's like chess, with kings, queens, rooks, bishops, knights, and pawns--but you decide the rules and mess things up. 

Scrabble? How about Scramble? After a player puts his letters on the board, the next player scrambles them to create a made-up word. 

Trivial Pursuit? How about Life-and-Death Pursuit? Your answers to a series of trivia questions can mean that you live or die (in the world of the game, of course).

Try inventing your own game. Come up with a fun name, write down the rules, and create a game board and pieces with paper, cardboard, markers, or other material--or even on the computer once the power comes back on!  

More About Color

It must be those fall leaves again, but I'm obsessed with color these days. 

I just finished reading The Light Beyond the Forest, the second in the fabulous King Arthur trilogy by Rosemary Sutcliff, and she pays attention to color. 

Here's how Sutcliff brings the quest for the Holy Grail to life with fresh descriptions of gold and red and black. As I read, I wanted to join the knights on their adventures! 

new-fired gold

russet-brown

badger-streaked

crimson-striped

honey-comb golden houses

a cross as red as fresh-spilled blood on fresh-fallen snow

the proud fierce white of swan's wing or lightning flash

the blackness had a bloom on it like the bloom on a thundercloud

eyes as softly and deeply blue as nightshade flowers

the bulging black bellies of the storm clouds 

a mouth as silken red as harvest poppies

blazed red as though he were a tongue of flame

Try taking a piece of writing you're working on. Have you used colors in your descriptions? Can you make them more vivid by using an unusual color word, or by creating a simile? What does the color really look like? Not just gold, but new-fired gold or honey-comb golden houses. 

If your piece of writing doesn't include colors, try adding a flash here and there with your own inventive description. 

What about the green field in the photo above? It could be another boring landscape, or it could come to life as the blurred-green grass stretched through the haze. 

Be original with color! Have fun! 

Color

It's fall, and that means fall leaves! 

To me, the best thing about leaves in the fall is their color. (But I also love the crunchy sound they make when you kick your legs through them.) 

Red, yellow, orange, brown. Yawn.

How about a more exciting way to describe autumn leaves? When we add specific colors to our writing, our descriptions become more concrete and vivid.

A yellow leaf? Try ocher, mustard-yellow, saffron, flaxen.

Red? Wine, scarlet, crimson, blood-colored. 

Orange? Tangerine, coral, salmon, reddish-yellow.

For those of you with fall leaves outside your door, check out the incredible range of colors. Try describing a leaf in a poem: 

Falling

The crimson maple leaf

twirls toward the ground

like a glass of wine 

spilling ruby drops. 

A Hedgehog Story

Yellow Pencils is back from England! I had a great time walking through the countryside, eating mushy peas and brown sauce (not as bad as they sound), and listening to the bleating of thousands of sheep. 

I did have one disappointment, though. As I was walking on footpaths along the hedgerows, I really, really wanted to see a hedgehog. Sadly, I never did. 

I love hedgehogs. Maybe it's their shyness, or their cute snouts, or the way they look like pincushions with eyes. Whatever it is, they really capture my imagination.

So I'm dedicating this Yellow Pencils post to hedgehogs and invite you to write a story about one. What's a good hedgehog name? Harry? Bob? Gertrude? 

What does a hedgehog want more than anything in the world? To be brave? To sail across the ocean? To open a world-famous restaurant under the hedge?

Have fun writing a hedgehog story, and don't forget the mushy peas! 

Yellow Pencils Goes to England!

Yellow Pencils is taking a vacation--or should I say holiday--to England! I'll be doing a 125-mile hike through the English countryside. 

While I walk, I'll be inspired by the country that produced William Shakespeare, Roald Dahl, E. Nesbit, Lewis Carroll, Philip Pullman, Charles Dickens, J.K. Rowling, C.S. Lewis, and so many more writers. 

Of course, I'll keep my notebook tucked inside my backpack. Each day, I plan to write down and describe one unusual thing I see, hear, taste, touch, or smell. From stone fences and bleating sheep, to Treacle Tart and Bubble 'n Squeak, England will be a blast to my senses! 

At the end of my walk, I'll have 15 descriptions. I plan to match each description with a photo for my own personal writer's journal of my journey. 

Even if you're not traveling, try describing one unusual thing each day for the next two weeks. Can you discover things close to home that open your senses to new experiences? That's what travel does--and sometimes you don't even have to leave home. 

Yellow Pencils returns October 2nd. Cheerio!  

Back to School!

Good luck to all of you heading back to school this week. I hope you have a fun, fabulous, and fantastic year!  

With sports, homework, and friends, it can be hard to find time to write during the school year. If you want to keep up your personal creative writing, try writing for 15 minutes a day. I wrote about that here. 

What to write about when you start school? Try these ideas for a 15-Minute Story: 

• The Cafeteria Lady Who Was an Alien
• The Teacher Who Vanished
• The Principal Who Turned into a Woolly Mammoth
• The Librarian Who Got Swallowed Up by a Book

Remember, 15 minutes a day. That's less time than it takes to watch a TV show, walk the dog, or find your homework in your backpack.

Happy school year and happy writing!  

An End of Summer Poem

Do you feel sad when summer comes to an end? I do. Right now I'm sitting in our yard swing on a gorgeous sunny day. The sun and breeze feel good on my skin, the air smells like the cedar trees around me, and I'm drinking grape juice with fizzy water. I swear I can also smell the blackberries ripening on the bushes down the road.

Because I love summer so much, it's always hard to say good-bye. I'm in the mood to tell summer why I love it so much, using metaphors (similes without "like" or "as") to fill in the lines. 

Scroll down to read my Summer Poem. Feel free to join in and write your own! 

Summer Poem

Summer, your sun is ____________________________________.

Your trees are _________________________________________.

Your shade is _________________________________________.

Summer, your sidewalks are _____________________________.

And your sky is _______________________________________.

Summer, why do I love you? 

Because your days are __________________________________

and your nights are ____________________________________.

Summer, you're the best! You're a ________________________.

Summer Poem

Summer, your sun is an exploding firework. 

Your trees are lime-green popsicles. 

Your shade is a dark, deep pool.  

Summer, your sidewalks are sizzling pancake griddles. 

And your sky is a big, blue umbrella.

Why do I love you? 

Because your days are a long, lazy bike ride  

and your nights are a cool, soft blanket.

Summer, you're the best! 

You're a jewel in my year. 

Magic Pen Story Starters Part II

This is my second week of teaching summer writing workshops, and what a great group of writers! Some of the stories by the young authors involve a decathlete, a secret room, a fire-station dalmatian, a journey through a garden, a fight for plunder, a gift involving a very special dog, a banana with a mind of its own, an adventure for Goldilocks, and some dragons with attitude. 

Here's a sample of more Magic Pen Story Starters using first and last lines: 

Write a story with this first line: 

• All my life I wanted to be a rock.
• The notebook sighed, wondering why it was destined to be written in and thrown out. 
• The worst thing about living in a desk drawer is the paper clip that won't stop talking.
• "No."

Write a story with this last line:

• "Got you," she said, skipping away.
• At the end, Dad told me to clean up the atomic waste in my room.
• The spaghetti-eating contest was the most fun a mouse and a lizard could have.
• And that's why I always wear orange tennis shoes.

Happy writing!  

Magic Pen Story Starters

I'm teaching summer writing camps over the next two weeks--for ages 8 to 11 and ages 12 to 14. Super fun! I'm inspired by every single writer who walks through the door. Anyone who spends part of their summer vacation at a writing workshop is my kind of person! 


A lot of the young writers have story ideas, but some are looking for a prompt to get them going. For those writers I have "Magic Pen Story Starters." 

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll give you a sample. 

Write a story about:

• an elephant that wants to win a skateboard competition
• a boy who wants to be the broccoli-eating champ in his school
• a tree that wants to live in the desert
• a girl who wants to work in a shoelace factory

Write a story with one of these titles:

• "Goldilocks Moves to Hollywood"
• "The Barnyard Blog"
• "The Big Yellow Sky Falls Down"
• "The Diary of a Paper Clip"

Maybe you'll be inspired by one of the "Magic Pen Story Starters." If so, get out your pen--magic or otherwise--and start writing!  

More Inspiration from the Olympics

I don't know about you, but I'm becoming more and more inspired by the Olympic athletes I read about or see on TV.

The volley players are jumping beans. The swimmers are fish. The runners are blurs of movement. The divers are sharp knives in motion.  

What motivates a person to become an Olympic athlete? What kind of strength--physical and mental--is required to compete at that level?

Even if we're watching from the couch, we can be inspired by the sheer amount of beautiful energy we see on the screen.

What if we tried to experience--through our writing--what the athletes are going through? 

Close your eyes. Imagine you're an athlete at the starting line, on the diving board, at the edge of the pool, behind the net. What's going through your mind? What are you telling yourself as you prepare for the most important competition of your life? 

Write down your thoughts, and have fun starring in the biggest sports arena in the world! 

Olympic Gold...for Writers!

Have you been watching the summer Olympic games? 

I'm super inspired by the athletes who run, bike, spin, jump, race, swim, twist, sprint, lift, and hurdle. They perform amazing feats with their bodies that don't seem possible. 

What about writers? We perform amazing feats, too. We create fantastic tales from our imaginations. We bring characters to life. We keep going even though we may not be the next J.K. Rowling (or Michael Phelps). 

Don't we deserve a medal, too? I say YES!

Write down 5 reasons why you should win an Olympic Gold Medal in Writing. Here are mine:

1. I show up at practice every day to write.
2. I warm up for the day with a writing exercise. 
3. I struggle through the rough bits and keep my goal in mind.
4. I sprint to the finish when the story end is in sight. 
5. I do the heavy lifting of revising to make my story better. 

What are your 5 reasons? Make your list and take a bow. And don't forget to hum your national anthem! 

Setting a Story on a Cloud

I read on Discover Magazine's blog that a representative from the National Center for Atmospheric Research said that a single, small, white, cotton-ball cloud weighs about the same as 100 (4-ton) elephants.

Wow. 


The weight comes from all the water that's in that cloud. Makes you see clouds differently, doesn't it?


Try this: Set a story on a cloud. It can be a small, white, cotton-ball cloud, but remember, the cloud is actually dense with heavy moisture. 


Who would live on a cloud? Would they wear raincoats and boots? Or would they have special skin that has adapted to all that heavy water weight? 


What would houses be like on a cloud? Would the houses have special roofs? Or would there be no houses at all? 


What would people eat and drink? What would the gardens be like? 


What would your story conflict be? Maybe, despite all that moisture, there's a water war. Or someone on the cloud is allergic to water. Or....use your imagination! 


Setting can be fun to play with in a story, and what's more fun than playing on a cloud?  

Dictionary Fun

What? What's fun about reading the dictionary in the middle of summer???  


Yes, it can be fun. Honest. I'm not kidding. Words and definitions are weird and wonderful. 


Try this: 


Find a dictionary. Maybe it's a beat-up old dictionary you've had around the house for a while. Or an online dictionary. Or a small paperback dictionary you carry around in your backpack.


Pick a letter at random. Let's say "t." 


Find five words under the letter "t" that you don't know the meaning of. I found T-zone, tabard, traduce, tole, and tinea. Read the definitions, just for fun.  


Pick your favorite word and write a story about it.  (Tinea means ringworm--ooh, don't want to write about that.) I picked tole. That means "painted, enameled, or lacquered tinplate used to make decorative domestic objects." (That means "objects around the house.")


What if a boy walks into an antique store and finds an old pot made of tole? And what if the antique store owner warns the boy that anyone who puts water into that pot will cause something bad to happen? What if the boy doesn't believe him? What if he buys the pot, takes it home, and fills it with water?


What could happen next? 


The dictionary is a treasure trove of ideas....even in summer!  

We're Having a Heat Wave

Hot enough for you? 


Most of the country (except here in the Pacific Northwest) has been sweltering under a heat wave.


If you have any energy left to write, use the hot weather in a story you're writing.


How did the heat wave make you feel? Sticky, grumpy, happy, sweaty, or thirsty?


What did you wear? Flip-flops, sunglasses, a baseball cap, and your favorite shorts with the dolphins on them? 


Did you stay inside and play video games? Or did you bike to the beach and build a sand castle? 


What did the heat wave smell like? Suntan lotion, chlorine, and hot asphalt?


What did the heat wave taste like? Grilled hot dogs, fudgicles, and watermelon? 


Try using sensory details from the heat wave to create a scene in your story that sizzles under the sun.


And stay cool!  

Little Free Library

So how's your writing going over the summer?

Not so well? Summer brings a lot of temptations that take us away from our writing--like swimming, running through the fire hydrant, and eating ice cream (which I wrote about in my last post). And, of course, trips to the library. 

Which brings me to the Little Free Library I came across the other day when I was walking.  

Have you seen these? Little "libraries" are popping up all over the country. This particular library was made out of old keys, bottle caps, and can lids, which shows that reading and recycling definitely go together. It was filled with children's books, which made me even happier. 

The motto of the Little Free Library is "Take a Book. Return a  Book." This seems like a great way to exchange books, and that got me thinking. What if we used that same motto for writing? "Take a Story. Return a Story." 

In other words, what if you and a friend write a story for each other over the summer? You would "take a story" from your friend, and "return a story" to him or her. 

Or how about if you write one chapter, and your friend writes another chapter? Over the summer, you can exchange chapters or stories and create your own "Little Free Story Library." 

If you have old keys, bottle caps, and can lids around--or other fun objects--try decorating a box to create a place to put your story library. 

Don't forget the ice cream. That's a summer distraction I will never give up. 

Wacky Ice Cream

It's summer, and that means...ice cream!


We may not be able to eat five scoops of ice cream at once, but how about naming five new ice cream flavors? Say good-bye to plain old vanilla and chocolate. Here's your chance to be creative.


Naming things is one of the funnest parts about writing. Let your imagination go crazy. Think about a hot, sizzling day, and come up with five exciting, over-the-top, wacky names for ice cream flavors. 


While you're imagining licking one of those deliciously goofy ice cream cones, try using your exciting new names in a story you're writing. 


Here are my wacky flavors. What are yours?


1. Star Light Strobe Light Strawberry
2. Polka-Dot Packs-a-Punch Pistachio 
3. Five-Alarm Fire Fantastically Fabulous Fudge  
4. Chill Out, Man Chillcolate
5. Razzie-Dazzie Rambunctious Raspberry 


Now excuse me. I think I hear the ice-cream truck outside.

Inspiration from a Box

On May 21 I posted about having an Idea Box. That's where you put objects inside a box, and when you need an idea for a story you reach inside and...voila! You have an idea. 


Today I'm thinking outside the box. Literally. I bought some stacking storage boxes for my study, and as you can see, they're covered with pictures. Each day I look at these boxes, but I don't feel inspired by them. Today I do. 


The pictures include a pair of gloves, chess pieces, a cat, a shovel, Christmas ornaments, garden shears, a screwdriver, a pair of pliers, a dog, a doll, a scuba mask, a sewing machine, a shirt, a pair of pants, a hammer, and the following types of shoes: tennis, T-straps, and high heels. 


Wow. That's an interesting assortment of stuff. Why did I feel inspired to really look at the box today? That's how inspiration works. We can't predict when or how it will strike. We just need to be open to it. It's everywhere, even on the side of a box. 


What if it's a magical box someone left behind when they moved? And when someone else opens the box, a pair of talking tennis shoes jump out? Followed by a scuba mask, a hammer, and a sewing machine? And they're all complaining about being left behind? 


Here's my challenge. Find an object in your house that you see every day. It may be a lamp, your kitchen table, or a pillow. Let yourself get inspired. See something magical about that object, and write about it. 


And if you write about my box and all the objects inside it, don't forget to put the lid back on. 

Editing and Weeding

Yesterday I worked in the yard. I'm not exactly what you would call a gardener. Here in the Pacific Northwest with our abundant rain we have to keep vegetation from taking over, so I'm mostly a weeder.


As I was digging out poor defenseless green things yesterday, I thought about how weeding is like editing. Or editing is like weeding. Huh?


We've seen gardening analogies with writing before. We plant the seed (get the idea), we fertilize and water (write the story), and we watch (wait to hear from an editor.) But what about the editing step? How is that like weeding?


Editing is an important step to create finished pieces of writing. Some of us (like me) love editing. Others (like some of my students) don't. Which kind of writer are you?


Either way, think about what we do when we weed a garden: 

• We get out our gardening tools (our paper, pencil, or computer where our story is written).

• We get rid out of the weeds that don't belong there (unnecessary words). 

• We take care around the young, tender plants we encourage to grow, giving them more water and fertilizer (the necessary words).

• Finally, we look over the garden to see how it all fits together (our story). 

Here's a weeding/editing exercise, and you don't even need gardening gloves! 

Take a story you're working on. Get out your "gardening tools" and look for unnecessary words, phrases, or sentences. Are there words that can be deleted? (Weeded?) Are there words that should stay and be pumped up? (Given more water and fertilizer?) Can you look over your story to see how it all fits together? (Your garden?)

A weeded garden is one that can grow, and the same for your story! 

Repetition

My husband loves crows, and I love the writing of Margaret Wise Brown, so her poem "Those Crazy Crows" is one of my favorites. The poem uses repetition in a fun way. Watch the 3rd, 5th, and 7th lines:


"Those Crazy Crows"


Those crazy crows on ragged wing
Fly over the woods
They never sing
They screech and they scream
But they never sing
Those crazy crows
They never sing 


"They never sing" is the line that repeats (with a slight variation in the 5th line). The repetition makes me think about flying. And isn't it true that crows don't sing? They caw and croak--not exactly what we would call singing! 


Try writing your own 7-line poem using repetition in the 3rd, 5th, and 7th lines. Here's mine:


"Those Silly Cats" (because I also love cats)


Those silly cats with glossy fur
Jump over the chairs
They're just a blur
They fly and they skid
Oh what a blur
Those silly cats
They're just a blur 

Threads

My grandmother, Bernice, braided this rug. Grandma was born in the tiny village of Łuczaje, Poland and came to the United States when she was 6 years old. She married my grandfather, Walter, when she was 16, and the following year my father was born. Bernice and Walter had 12 children all together. They farmed in Wisconsin, and in her "spare time" after cleaning, cooking, canning food for winter, making clothes, doing outdoor chores, and taking care of 12 kids, my grandma braided rugs.


I imagine Bernice (her Polish name was Bronisława), after a full day of hard physical work, sitting down to braid rugs. Was braiding just one more chore, or was it a way for her to express her creativity? 


My aunt recently gave me one of Grandma's rugs, and it's now one of my prized possessions. I think about the material she used: children's clothes that had been handed down several times. Old coats that had seen several winters. Worn-out dungarees from the farmhands and boys. Scraps of material from girls' woolen stockings or dresses. Faded wool blankets that were torn into strips. 


From all this used material, my grandma created something new and beautiful. From all the threads of her family's life, she braided a work of art with a tale to tell. 


Isn't that a lot like our stories? 


We start out with "used" material. We find the threads of the story. We braid the threads of our experience to create something new. And in the end, we have a work of art that tells a tale. 


Try your own braiding. Not a rug, but a story. Think of two or three incidents or "threads" from your family's life. Write about one of those threads, incorporating colors, textures, and material from your family's experience. Maybe your threads are something that happened to you. Or maybe they're something you've heard family members talk about. 


When you're done writing, share your story with your family. Like a beautiful braided rug, your story will be a work of art with a tale to tell--a tale that no one else but you could create from the fabric of your life.