Summer 2015 Writing Prompt #10

We'll end our summer writing prompts with a good-bye to summer vacation. See the prompt below!

Set a story on the last day of summer vacation. 

Include a dog, a thief, a cupcake factory, and a broken window. 

Summer 2015 Writing Prompt #9

A gate, a door, an entryway, a portal….no matter what we call it, it invites us to enter another world. What awaits us on the other side? See the prompt below!

Write a story about a boy who opens this gate and meets 
someone or something that brings trouble.  

Summer 2015 Writing Prompt #8

Am I the only person who sees a dog in this painting? See the prompt below! 

Write about what YOU see in this painting. 

Summer 2015 Writing Prompt #7

It's very hot and dry here on Bainbridge Island where I live. The frog pond at the end of our road has dried up. Leaves are curled. Ferns are lying flat on the ground. 

There's a drought in the Pacific Northwest and other parts of the United States, too. 

What if we put two characters into a drought situation? See the prompt below! 

A boy and his father must walk in the desert during a drought. 

They have no water. What do they do? 

Summer 2015 Writing Prompt #6

In mystery stories, detectives have a lot of tools to help them solve crimes. But a mirror? See the writing prompt below! 

You (the detective) have been hired to solve a murder. 

You solve it using only your mirror. Write a 1st-person ("I") mystery story explaining how. 

Summer 2015 Writing Prompt #5

I love books in which characters have to survive in the wilderness. 

This week, we'll make the wild world the setting for our prompt. (See the prompt below!) 

Write about two children lost in a forest. 

Summer 2015 Writing Prompt #4

Warning! A bunny is about to invade!

I discovered the "Minnehaha Bunny," a bronze sculpture created by Jeffrey Barber, in a park in Minneapolis. Wouldn't she make a great writing prompt? 

A giant bunny invades your yard! What will you do? 

Summer 2015 Writing Prompt #3

Have you ever dreamed of living in a tower? 

If we can't really live in a tower, we can do the next best thing. For our writing prompt this week, let your imagination roam among the bricks and turrets of this magical place. 

Set a story in this tower. Don't forget to include a hero and a villain. 

A dragon would be a nice touch, too! 

Summer 2015 Writing Prompt #2

If you've ever gone to the post office in another country, you know it can be an adventure.  

Here's a mailbox in Warsaw, Poland. ("Poczta" means "mail.") 

For our writing prompt, we'll take ourselves to another land. 

Write about sending a letter in another country. You're homesick. You lost your phone. And you don't speak the language. You walk into the post office and….

Summer 2015 Writing Prompt #1

During the summer, Yellow Pencils likes to keep things simple.

Each week, I'll post a Summer Writing Prompt with a photo. Take your notebook and pencil to a comfy spot--under a tree, on your front steps, or to the beach. 

The photo and the prompt below it are to inspire. What is your story or poem? 

Write about three mice in a fountain.

Have fun! 

Summer Vacation!

School's almost out for the summer! 

Maybe, if you're lucky, you're already free to sleep in, head for the beach, and….write!

We can't all go to the ocean, but we can celebrate summer in our own way. And we can make writing part of that. 

What would you like to work on this summer? Finish that story? Write poems? Explore ideas in your journal? Or write from a prompt each week?

Starting next week, Yellow Pencils will post a writing prompt each week to keep our pencils moving. 

For today, I offer a tribute to the wonders of summer. What are yours? 

Remember to use all five senses. What are the sights, sounds, smells, feels, and tastes of YOUR summer? 

Summer Brings Its Joys

Sun slants through the porch

Books fill the hours 

Shade cools my skin 

Grass tickles my legs

Crows cackle in the trees

Strawberry ice cream lingers on my tongue

Low tide releases its smells

Sunglasses slide down my nose

Summer brings its joys. 

Making Up Words with Shakespeare

According to Jacqueline Morley in William Shakespeare: A Very Peculiar History, Shakespeare probably made up about 1,700 new words.

Here are some of them: assassination, courtship, outbreak, fashionable, and exposure.

And a few that didn't make it: insultment, unbuild, and exsufflicate (which means puffed up--whew, glad that one didn't catch on). 

If the greatest writer in the English language could make up new words, why can't we?

Get out a piece of paper--any old kind where you can make a big mess and scratch out words. 

Next, find a dictionary--a paper dictionary works best for this. 

Open the dictionary, stick out your finger, and randomly choose three words. I picked: 

fugleman: a leader

campus: the grounds of a school

louver: a slatted, ventilated opening

Now it's time to create our very own word. Choose one syllable from each word to create a brand new one, along with its meaning:

fugcamer: a camera that works especially well in bad weather 

puslouman: a person who works in a hospital

leloupus: a French pastry

You try! We may not be the next William Shakespeares (or maybe we are), but we can have fun adding our own words to the English language. 

Mancamlou! That's "Yellow Pencils" talk for good-bye! 

Remembering on Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day, a day we remember people in our lives who have died. We may also remember people we didn't know--people who gave up their lives for important causes.

Do you remember someone special? A grandparent, aunt, uncle, or a pet? 

A great way to remember those people or pets is to write about them. 

Here are ways to get started.

1. If you could do something with your special person or pet right now, what would it be? Describe it. I would ask my mom to make a batch of brownies with me.

2. If you had to describe your person or pet in 5 words, what would they be? My words for my cat Zoey would be funny, furry, curious, homebody, and chatty (yes, she loved to "chat"). After you write your 5 words, pick one and write more about it.

3. If you could say something to your person or pet, what would it be? I would tell my grandma that I wished I understood Polish while she was alive, so that I could talk to her.

As its name says, Memorial Day is a good day for remembering the people and animals we loved. Happy writing. 

Animal Poetry

I love poems about animals.

JooHee Yoon must too, because she has compiled a fun, innovative book of poems called Beastly Verse. 

Her bright illustrations in yellows, oranges, reds, and greens make the poems jump off the page. (Good thing the animals don't jump off--they only seem to.) 

Some of the poems are long. Some are short. Some are serious. Some are silly. Some rhyme. Some don't. All celebrate the wonderfulness that is the animal world.

Do you like to write verse about beasts? Try using one of these poems as a model:

The Friendly Hen by Arthur Waugh

Some birds lay eggs in towering trees,
And some in fens conceal them;
The hen seeks friendlier haunts than these,
Where every child can steal them.

Or if caterpillars are more your thing, here's a poem for you:

Caterpillar by Christina Rossetti

Brown and furry
Caterpillar in a hurry,
Take your walk
To the shady leaf, or stalk,
Or what not,
Which may be the chosen spot.
No toad spy you,
Hovering bird of prey pass by you;
Spin and die,
To live again a butterfly. 

Let your poem squawk like a hen or crawl like a caterpillar. Invent your own beast--a henpillar or caterhen. Whether your verse is beastly or ghastly or ghostly, have fun!

Strong Verbs

I was thinking about verbs today as I picked up Gary Paulsen's novel, Hatchet. 

In this award-winning novel, 13-year-old Brian has to survive in the wilderness alone after a plane crash.

Exciting plot, right?

Exciting plots deserve strong verbs. All plots deserve strong verbs. 

Here's a passage from Hatchet describing the crash. I highlighted in blue the verbs in all their forms.

Then a wild crashing sound, ripping of metal, and the plane rolled to the right and blew through the trees, out over the water and down, down to slam into the lake, skip once on water as hard as concrete, water that tore the windshield out and shattered the side windows, water that drove him back into the seat. Somebody was screaming, screaming as the plane drove down into the water. Someone screamed tight animal screams of fear and pain and he did not know that it was his sound, that he roared against the water that took him and the plane still deeper, down in the water. He saw nothing but sensed blue, cold blue-green, and he raked at the seatbelt catch, tore his nails loose on one hand. He ripped at it until it released and somehow—the water trying to kill him, to end him—somehow he pulled himself out of the shattered front window and clawed up into the blue, felt something hold him back, felt his windbreaker tear and he was free. Tearing free. Ripping free.

Did you notice the strong verbs? Crashing, ripping, slam, tore, shattered, clawed. We sometimes need weaker verbs like "was" and "felt," but in this passage the strong verbs dominate and bring the story to life.

Gary Paulsen also uses repetition--screaming, screaming--to show us Brian's emotions.

Read a scene from one of your stories. Rewrite the scene using strong verbs. Does your passage fly, lift, or soar? 

A How-To Story

We've written how-to poems on Yellow Pencils. How about a how-to story?

What's a how-to story? 

Think of doing something silly. Then imagine telling your best friend how to do it. 

• Wrestle a chimpmunk

• Pick a peck of pickled peppers

• Invite a zombie to dinner

• Live on the bottom of the ocean

• Teach an alien how to play the ukelele

• Give a salamander a bath

Got the idea? Pick one, or make up your own. 

In your writer's notebook, make a list of steps you would take to tell someone "how-to." Then connect the steps with words like "first, then, next." 

Here's my how-to story: 

How To Invite a Zombie to Dinner

First, find some really nice stationery. Zombies are fussy.

Next, write your invitation in red ink. Zombies aren't too smart. They'll think it's blood.

After that, put your invitation in a bright red envelope. Blood again.

Then, put on a stamp. One with a head is good. Zombies like heads.

Next, write on the envelope: "To the Zombie." Don't worry. Letter carriers always know where zombies live. 

Then, walk to your mailbox at night. But be careful. A hungry zombie may not be able to wait for the invitation.

Last, run home and plan your menu. Red food is good. Bon appetit! 

Water Poems

I live on an island, surrounded by water.

So it's not surprising that I want to devote our last week of National Poetry Month to water poetry.


Water is life-giving. It's also beautiful, and wet, and wild and wonderful, which is why so many poets use water images. 

Water also turns into ice, like in "Woman Skating" by Margaret Atwood:

With arms wide the skater

turns, leaving her breath like a diver's

trail of bubbles.

Seeing the ice 

as what is is, water. 

Here's "Water Music" by Robert Creeley, with its dark mood:

The words are a beautiful music.

The words bounce like in water.

Water music,

loud in the clearing

off the boats,

birds, leaves.

They look for a place

to sit and eat-

no meaning,

no point. 

And here's the start of the fun, silly "Duck's Ditty" by Kenneth Grahame: 

All along the backwater,

Through the rushes tall,

Ducks are a-dabbling,

Up tails all! 

What is YOUR water poem? Is it about the ocean? A lake? A stream? An icy pond? Or a duck? 

Find your own images and let yourself get wet with water words!

Onomatopoeia for Earth Day

It's perfect that Earth Day falls in April, which is National Poetry Month.

This Earth Day, I want to combine two things I love: animals and onomatopoeia. 

In case you haven't heard of this wonderful word, onomatopoeia (pronounced ah-no-mah-to-PEE-ah) refers to a word that's formed from the sound it makes.

sizzle, crunch, cuckoo, tick-tock, fizz

Can you think of more? 



Animal sounds have great onomatopoeia:

oink, meow, chirp, hiss, ribbit, croak, squeak, quack

To celebrate Earth Day, let's write a poem using animal onomatopoeia. Here's mine:

Croaking and Squawking

The crow croaks at the mouse

Who squeaks at the sheep

Who bleats at the cat

Who mews at the dog

Who yowls at the pig

Who oinks at the raven

Who caws at the parrot

Who squawks at me that it's time to eat. 

Try making your own poetry animals "talk" with onomatopoeia.

Recite your poem out loud on Earth Day, or read it to your pets. For extra zing, add your own sound effects!

Rhymed Couplets

It's the second week of National Poetry Month. Hurray for poetry!

And hurray for William Shakespeare! I'm reading Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, a story about fairies, love, and confusion in the forest.

One of the joys of reading Shakespeare is his language. Sometimes he uses blank verse (poetry that doesn't rhyme). Sometimes he uses prose (not poetry). And sometimes he uses rhymed couplets, which are wonderful to read aloud.

One story in A Midsummer Night's Dream is about Oberon, the King of the Fairies, and Titania, his Queen. 

In these rhymed couplets, Oberon tells Puck to place some magical "juice" from a flower on the sleeping Titania's eyes. When Titania wakes up, she will fall in love with the first being she sees.

In rhymed couplets, Oberon begins: 

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet muskroses and with eglantine.

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight.

And there the snake throws her enameled skin,

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in. 

Read it out loud. Can you hear and feel the rhyme? The rhyme scheme is what we call:

a
a
b
b
c
c
d
d

We say "couplets" because the first two lines rhyme, the next two lines rhyme, and so on.

Blows means to burst into flower. Oxlips, woodbine, and eglantine are types of flowers. Weed means clothing. But even if we don't know the meaning of these words, it doesn't matter. The rhyme and the sense of the poem carry us away.

Want to try your own? Write a short poem in rhyming couplets. It doesn't have to be about fairies and magical juice. It can be about anything you want. 

Rhyming is fun. If you get stuck trying to find a rhyme, go to one of the rhyming dictionaries online.

Now excuse me while I start my poem in rhyming couplets:

a      I love my stapler, so sleek and gray,
a      I always hate to put it away. 
b      It chomps, it bites, it holds together
b      Anything, in any weather. 

It's not Shakespeare, but as I said, rhyming couplets can be about whatever we want! 

National Poetry Month 2015

April is National Poetry Month! 

On Yellow Pencils, that means all poetry, all month.

Not a poet, you say? Not a problem. Even if we write fiction or nonfiction, writing a poem lets us play with words. And we all love words, right?

Let's start with nonsense. Being silly is always a good way to get into poetry. I'm in the mood to write an acrostic poem using the word "nonsense." How about you? 

Natty was batty
Oony was loony
Nilly was silly
Sadie was a-fraidy
Elso was nutso
Nad was mad
Soupy was loopy and
Elaine was insane. 

Your nonsense acrostic can rhyme or not. The only "rule" is, Have fun. Welcome to National Poetry Month!

Writing Backstory

What is backstory?

We all know it when we see it: the long, boring stretches explaining what happened before the exciting part.

Backstory doesn't have to be boring. Or long. 

According to the dictionary, backstory is "the history or background created for a fictional character."

Just like this ancient rock, backstory has an interesting story to tell. It can explain "how" or "why?" 

Why does your character hate his best friend? Why did he move from Arizona to San Francisco? Why did he adopt a Rottweiler when he's allergic to dog fur?

The trick with backstory is to avoid "info dumps." Those are the long, boring stretches we want to skip. 

Instead we want to weave in backstory in small bits. 

Here's a great example from Cynthia Kadohata's novel Kira-Kira, when the main character, Katie, describes her Uncle Katsuhisa. 

My uncle was exactly one inch taller than my father. But his stomach was soft. [Here comes the backstory.] We knew this because we hit him in it once the year before, and he yelped in pain and threatened to spank us. We got sent to bed without supper because my parents said hitting someone was the worst thing you could do. Stealing was second, and lying was third. [End of backstory.]

Before I was twelve, I would have committed all three of those crimes.

In 3 sentences of backstory, we learn something about this family. Lying is bad. Stealing is worse. Hitting is the very worst, and that's what Katie and her sister, Lynn, did to their uncle. We also learn about Katie: she's going to commit all 3 of these "crimes."

In your own stories, watch how you weave in backstory. 

Do you see big blocks of explaining? Is it absolutely necessary? Can you tell some in dialogue? Or can you weave in 2 or 3 sentences and then get the reader back to the present?

Happy Spring!

Spring arrived this week! 

I can tell it's spring even if I close my eyes and put a clothespin on my nose. That's because I can HEAR the sounds of spring.

Today I heard 

• a duck quacking in the pond 

• a redwing blackbird tweeting (without a smartphone)

• a woodpecker knocking on a tree

• a bee buzzing near my ear 

• a hummingbird fluttering its wings

• a willow rustling its leaves

• a squirrel chattering with itself 

• and a leaf blower causing a ruckus (oh, well)

What sounds can YOU hear?

Go outside and listen. Over and under the sounds of cars, sirens, and leaf blowers, what noises and sounds tell you it's spring? 

In your notebook, make a list as I did above. The list is almost like a poem, isn't it? 

Our 5 senses are an important tool for us writers. Plus listening is fun--you may discover something when you stop and "hear" the roses. 

I haven't heard a peep from them yet, but you never know! Wonderful things happen in spring. 

Punctuation!?!

Punctuation: a big yawn, right?

But have you ever heard that punctuation saves lives? Compare the following two sentences:

"Let's eat Grandpa."
"Let's eat, Grandpa."

The only thing saving Grandpa's life is a comma! 

So far I've used a colon, comma, question mark, quotation marks, apostrophe, period, and exclamation point.

I just used seven types of punctuation in a short passage of writing; there must be something to this punctuation thing, right? (And I just added a semicolon! And another exclamation point!)

Punctuation wasn't invented to drive us crazy. Using correct punctuation makes our writing clear. 

Here's a story with goofy punctuation. See if you can find all 24 mistakes. The correct punctuation is down below in blue. 

Mr, Grumpys' Bad Day. 

Mr, Grumpy woke up in a bad mood' He burned his toast? spilled his coffee! and took a shower with his clothes on:

Not only that" He missed the bus and was late for work; 

After lunch his boss said; ?Where is your sales report?" Mr, Grumpy replied; "My dog ate it.'

Mr. Grumpy was fired:

At home, the dog brought his slippers? His mom cooked his dinner; Best of all' he checked the newspaper? he had the winning lottery number" He was a millionaire,

!Mr. Grumpy had a good day after all;

Mr. Grumpy's Bad Day

Mr. Grumpy woke up in a bad mood. He burned his toast, spilled his coffee, and took a shower with his clothes on.

Not only that. He missed the bus and was late for work.

After lunch his boss said, "Where is your sales report?" Mr. Grumpy replied, "My dog ate it."

Mr. Grumpy got fired.

At home, the dog brought his slippers. His mom cooked his dinner. Best of all, he checked the newspaper; he had the winning lottery number. He was a millionaire.

Mr. Grumpy had a good day after all! (A period is OK here, too.)

I hope punctuation doesn't make you grumpy. Let's all keep Grandpa alive! 

A Bench: An Invitation to Write

An empty bench is like a door. A bench invites us to sit on it, just as a door invites us to open it.

Who or what could sit down on this bench? Someone--or something--that wants to tell a story.

Here are some story starters. Try these first lines, and see where the bench takes you. 

• The man hobbled to the bench carrying his bag of money.

• The cat jumped onto the bench, but the boy had disappeared. 

• Four hundred years ago, a famous robber had sat on this bench.

• The bench was built of magical stone made to resemble wood.

• The bench waited. It was 2015. Only three years, two months, and five days until…

Have fun using your bench to start a new story! 

Taking a 5-Minute Break from Writing

I think the words, "Let's take a break," are some of the loveliest in the English language. 

A break can mean having fun, eating a snack, or renewing our energy.

It can also mean seeing our stories in a new way.

A friend mentioned a writing exercise she did with a group. Write for a certain amount of time--say, 15 minutes. Then take a break for 5 minutes, walking around and not consciously thinking about your story, novel, essay, or poem. Then go back to your writing. 

She guarantees that you'll go back to it with an insight. 

I love this exercise. Often we think that writing involves work, work, work. But we can also be working while we seem to be doing nothing. A part of our brain is still thinking about our story, even if we're not aware of it. That 5-minute break can give our brain time to "churn."

This is an especially great exercise to do if you're stuck. 

Try the 5-minute break. And if someone asks why you're not writing, you can honestly answer, "I am!"

Writing About Memories

I've been thinking about this building lately. 

It's not just any building. I lived here several years ago. Recently I went back to visit, and when I walked past this building there was a flood of memories.

Do you have a special place that you remember? A house you lived in, or a friend's apartment? The school where you went to kindergarten? A grandparent's yard? The back seat of your parents' old car? 

When we write about these places, something amazing happens: more memories come back, even stronger. It's not necessary to visit. Just the act of writing triggers details we may have forgotten. 

Think of a place that was special to you. To get started, write down three things you remember about that place. Then write down the emotion you felt about each thing.

When more details come, keep writing. Don't worry about forming them into a finished piece yet. Think of your memories as your "compost heap." The memories may spark an idea for a story or an essay about your life.

Our memories are unique to us. What place do you remember? 

Food

Writing about a critique sandwich last week must have made me hungry. Today I have food on my mind. 

These sugary donuts make me want to dive into the box and eat one. (Or even two!) 

In real life, we can see, touch, taste, and smell these donuts. (We can maybe hear them if the frosting slides off in a big glop.)

In our writing, we have to see, touch, smell, and taste with words. How do we choose the right words, so that our readers long to step into our story and pop donuts into their mouths? 

Just as in real life, we use our five senses. 

Pick a donut from this box. Is it the braided cruller, or the donut with pink sprinkles?

What does it look like? The frosted donut was a pink, round rainbow with sprinkles. 

What does it feel like? The sticky frosting felt like a smooth river of caramel.

What does it smell like? The cloying scent of the fat, puffy, sugary donut overpowered the room. 

What does it taste like? The chocolate donut exploded in my mouth like cocoa fireworks. 

Did you notice I used similes and metaphors to describe the donuts? Making comparisons is a great way to tap into our senses. 

What does your donut look, feel, smell, and taste like? 

Critique Sandwiches

I've written in Yellow Pencils about critique sandwiches. 

No, they're not for lunch. They're better than lunch. This type of sandwich is for the revision stage of writing.  

When we make a critique sandwich, we comment on someone else's writing in a helpful and positive way. 

First, the bottom piece of bread. What is something you liked about the writing? Maybe it was the terrific character who rescues the stranded whale. 

Second, the filling. What are some things you had a question about? Maybe you couldn't picture the setting. Or the dialogue seemed a little stiff.

Third, the top piece of bread. What is another thing you liked about the writing? 

We usually make a critique sandwich for other writers. But what if we make one for our own story?

It's hard to be objective about our own writing, but a critique sandwich may help. 

Take out a story you'd like to revise. It's time to make a sandwich! 

First, the bottom piece of bread. What is something you really like about your story? It's not bragging to find the positive things in your own work.

Second, the filling. What are some things you need to work on? Try to look at your story with a clear eye. "Re-vision" means "re-seeing." Can you add more details to the description of the junkyard? Can your verbs be punched up? 

Third, the top piece of bread. Find another thing (or things) you like about your story, then give yourself a pat on the back. 

Now you know what's working well in your story (the bottom and top pieces of bread), and you probably have a list of things that will make it even better (the filling). 

See? I told you this would be better than lunch. 

A Newbery Medal Winner in Verse

The Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature was announced this morning. 

The 2015 Medal goes to The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. I'm really looking forward to reading it! 

The story is about twelve-year old Josh, his twin brother, Jordan, and their exploits on the basketball court. A new girl, a budding romance, a brother relationship, and a family's bonds are all part of this novel chosen as best of the year. 

The Crossover is written in verse.

With a bolt of lightning on my kicks...

The court is sizzling.

My sweat is drizzling.

Stop all that quivering.

Cuz tonight I'm delivering.

Have you tried writing a story in poetry form? It's challenging, but it can also be a huge reward for your reader.

For a fun exercise, take a page of your prose writing, and turn it into poetry, verse, or rap--it doesn't matter what you call it. 

The verse doesn't have to rhyme. How do you like it? Do you want to continue in verse?

And don't forget to put The Crossover on your "to read" list.

More Adjectives

Is your character--let's call him Bob--short, thin, stingy, tardy, and lazy? If so, your character has just had five adjectives to describe him. 

Adjectives--words that describe a noun--are important in our writing. But we can overdo them. 

The right adjective helps our readers "see" the world we're creating in our story. 

How would you describe this tree? 

green

mossy

dark

old

mysterious

wide

shadowy

tall

fragrant

spectacular

The list could go on and on. Some adjectives describe what the tree looks like: green, mossy, dark.

Other adjectives describe how we feel about the tree: mysterious, spectacular. 

For our character Bob, or for a tree in your story, one adjective, the right adjective, may be enough.

Bob was a trusty friend. 

The mossy tree dominated the yard. 

Play with adjectives. Have fun with them. They're one more tool in your writer's box of wonders. Try to find the adjective that conveys exactly what you want to say. 

For more about adjectives, see my earlier post in Yellow Pencils. 

Yellow: an adjective!