Earth Day

Earth Day is over for this year, but shouldn't every day be Earth Day? It's exciting to see people recycling, turning off lights, using cloth bags, and walking instead of driving. We can do those things all year round to make our planet a better place. 


What did you do for Earth Day? Maybe you had a normal day. If you did, it may be more fun to write about "The Craziest Earth Day." Use your imagination to come up with a wacky day where everything goes wrong. 


Here's an idea to get you started. Feel free to change the story and words however you'd like! 

"The Craziest Earth Day"

For Earth Day, my family went to the _____________________. It was really crazy. First we had to find the ___________________________. Then we had to fix the ___________________. On top of that, everything went wrong when __________________. Luckily, Uncle Bob brought a ____________________________. It all turned out okay when I _______________________. I'll never forget the craziest Earth Day! 

Contrast

Wouldn't stories be bland if everything was the same? If everyone was the same? If Character A was exactly like Character B?

I think I hear a unanimous YES! Bland, bland, bland, and we don't want blandness in our stories.

One way to make stories exciting is to have contrast.

The other day when I was walking near my house, I saw these trees. One was a row of cherry trees in full bloom, full of life. The other tree was dead. The trees next to each other showed a lot of contrast.

How can we put contrast into our stories?

What if Character A loves to have fun and make jokes? And Character B sees life seriously?

What if Setting A is a busy mall on a Saturday afternoon? And Setting B is a quiet, empty church on a Thursday morning?

What if someone in your story speaks fast and breathlessly? And someone else chooses each word carefully?

What if some sentences in your story are short? And others are long?

What if some scenes are emotional? And others are matter-of-fact?

What if some of your descriptions are lengthy and detailed? And others are short and general?

What if some situations in your story are funny? And others are sad?

What if Character A dresses in wild, colorful stripes? And Character B wears beige pants?

Try adding contrast to a story you're writing, and see how things that are contrasted come to life more vividly--even a dead tree.

Funny Poems

April is National Poetry Month, and that means it's a fun time to write poems. It's also a fun time to write funny poems.

What's funny to one person isn't always funny to another, but I think everyone would smile at the following poem by Laura E. Richards.

Eletelephony

Once there was an elephant,

Who tried to use the telephant--

No! No! I mean an elephone

Who tried to use the telephone--

(Dear me! I am not certain quite

That even now I've got it right.)

Howe'er it was, he got his trunk

Entangled in the telephunk;

The more he tried to get it free,

The louder buzzed the telephee--

(I fear I'd better drop the song

Of elephop and telephong!)

And here's a short, funny poem by Ogden Nash:

The Eel

I don't mind eels

Except as meals

And the way they feels.

What makes these poems funny? They all use word play and rhyme. They even make up their own words! It's fun to break the rules and write, "And the way they feels."

So try writing your own funny poem. Play with words, make up your own, and try out some rhymes.

If you need help getting started, rewrite "The Eel" with your own animal or thing:

The _________

I don't mind ______________

Except as ________________

And the way they ___________.

Here's my poem, "The Cat." Have fun writing your own!

The Cat

I don't mind cats

Except as mats

And the way they get fats.

Setting and Place

This building is College Hall at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where I got my master's degree in writing.

Pretend I didn't just tell you that. Let's pretend:

• This building is where a family of retired elves live.
• This building is where a lonely widow lives with her pet tarantula.
• This building is where a 12-year-old boy has just moved in with his parents, who are movie producers.

Who else could live in this building?

Setting is all about place. Where a story takes place is important. Details about place, or setting, can make a story come alive. Described vividly, setting can be almost like another character.

The above photo was taken in winter.

Here's the same building in summer.

How would the season change the setting of the story? The building will still be there, but how do snow or leafy trees change what happens in the story?

You could also have fun naming the building:

• The McCreepie Mansion
• The Home for Abandoned Aardvarks
• The School for Wayward Snowmen

Write a story that takes place in this building. You choose: winter, summer, or both. Remember to include details about the setting to make your story come alive!

Last Lines

On March 5, I wrote about First Lines. Scroll down to see that. Today we'll play around with the opposite: Last Lines.

This is a more challenging (and fun) writing exercise, because we need to think of a story that ends with a given line, instead of a story that starts with a given line. But we're all up for the challenge, right?

Here are some last lines from published books. Again, it's okay to copy a line from a writer's published work as long as we're using it as writing practice, not to publish it ourselves.

Take one of these last lines, and see if you can write about something that happens before this last line. Then finish your story with this line.

• The lighthouse was working. (Mooninpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson)

• His voice was soft, soft but strong, like a hummingbird wing, like spider-silk. (Green Boy by Susan Cooper)

• We lived happily ever after. (A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck)

• "The feast waits." (Runt by Marion Dane Bauer)

• Below him, the stars burst upward, back into the sky. (Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt)

• Richie took a deep breath and entered, walking with them into the darkness. (Demon Keeper by Royce Buckingham)

Okay, have these last lines set your imaginations stirring? Ready for the challenge? Try writing a story that ends with one of the lines above.

Go!

Rain, Rain Rainforest

It's raining today here on Bainbridge Island, and that reminds me of a great writing activity to do on a wet, blustery day. It's called, Rain Rain Rainforest. It's fun to do with other people, but you can play it by yourself, too.

Find several small pieces of paper in different colors. (Try going to your paper recycle bin.) On each piece of paper, write a word. You can choose words at random: bicycle, fudge, run, violin, taste, lamp, rock, spin, and so on.

When you have a nice batch of pieces of paper, wad them up in your hands to make "raindrops." Now create a rainstorm by throwing your raindrops up in the air. (Ask an adult first.) When you're done, pick up about 5 or 6 raindrops and unfold them.

In your notebook, write a story using those 5 or 6 words. Those words must appear in your story. For example, what kind of story plot would have a bicycle, a piece of fudge, someone running, a violin, someone tasting, and a lamp? See what your imagination can come up with.

And don't forget to pick up your extra raindrops from the floor!

First Lines

When we write stories for practice, sometimes it's fun to start a story with a first line from a published book.

Of course, in a story we plan to publish, we can't steal lines from another writer. (That's called plagiarism.) But when we write stories in our notebooks, and don't plan to publish them, it's okay to use a line from another writer as a starting point.

Here are some great first lines to get a story started.

• It was raining bullfrogs. (The Midnight Horse by Sid Fleischman)

• A small vagrant breeze came from nowhere and barely flicked the feather tips as the arrow sped on its way. (The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley)

• Move over, Dr. Dolittle. (Seaglass Summer by Anjali Banerjee)

• It was quite untrue that the Minnipins, or Small Ones, were a lost people, for they knew exactly where they were. (The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall)

• One of my best dreams ever. (Listening for Crickets by David Gifaldi)

• Most boys his age had never touched paper. (First Light by Rebecca Stead)

Take one of these first lines, or another one you found in a published book, and write a story using it as your story opener. When you're done, you may want to read the published book to see what it was about. How was your story different? How was it the same?