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!