Story Starter Tuesday

If you joined us yesterday for a little writing exercise, then you are gonna rock this! 

The pencil groaned as she looked down at the paper below her.  "Not again," she whined inwardly as her lead scratched the surface of another clean sheet.  "Can't we ever write something else?  All we ever write are..."


Gotta write,
Heather

Writing Exercise: Inanimate Perspective

***Congratulations to Amy B! She won the Barnes and Noble gift card prize from Sarah Treu! Watch on Wednesday for a new book giveaway!***

Did you ever imagine your toys were secretly alive? Dozens of well-loved books (The Velveteen Rabbit) and movies (Toy Story) make me think I wasn't alone in this childhood fantasy. Well, now that you are a little bigger, let's use that imagination to help you become a better writer.

Writing Exercise: Look around the room. Choose one object and imagine that it could tell you it's thoughts.

Ask yourself the following questions: What did it see today? How does it feel? Does it like it here? Does it enjoy it's "job"? What does it dream of doing? If it could escape, where would it go and why?

I'm sure you can think of more questions to ask your chosen item. Now, write a short story from its perspective. Tomorrow, come back to try our Tuesday Story Starter and you'll be glad for the practice.

Story Starter Tuesday

Hope you had fun writing yesterday as you reimagined something you enjoy. Ready for this week's story starter? Don't forget to ask yourself good questions before you get started with it, okay? Happy writing!




Boy was mom mad!  I ran across the yard to my favorite tree and climbed up as fast as I could.  That’s when it hit me ....

Writing Exercise: Reimagine Something

Hello, Writerlings! Hope you all had a fabulous weekend. I didn't get a single word typed this weekend, so I was kind of disappointed. But, I had lots of fun with family, so that makes up for a lot.  


I've been thinking a lot lately about a new story idea and wondering if I can make it work without seeming like every other story in the same genre. It had me thinking about many of my other favorite stories and this led me to today's writing exercise:


Think of something you find interesting, an invention, a myth, an animal, a fairytale, etc. Then, redefine it. Look at it from a new angle.


This what great writers do to make their story familiar and still new. Some take a familiar tale and then reverse it somehow. One example would be the recent Disney movie about the Frog Prince. Instead of the same old story about how kissing a frog makes him a prince, the writers turned it around. Now the girl who kissed the frog is a frog, too! What happens next? Well, that's where the real story is, right?  


Or, you could take a historical or mythological topic you find interesting and already know a lot about and turn it around a bit. Ask yourself, what if this was still true somewhere today? What if these people or creatures are around us and we just aren't aware of it? Rick Riordan caught the attention of millions with his Percy Jackson story that used this same technique as he reimagined Greek mythology (and then Roman and Egyptian, as well!) J.K. Rowlling did the same with magic and wizards when she created Harry Potter. What could you reimagine? Norse mythology? Mermaids? The legend of Atlantis? 


The fun is just beginning with the question of "How can it work? How could that happen?" Once you begin to ask "Why?"..... Well, that's when the real story begins.
Why are there still wizards in the world and why do they need Harry Potter?
Why are all the demi-gods abandoned by their immortal parents? Why must they stick together?
Why?


So, try this for your own favorite topic of interest. Reimagine it, look at it from a different angle. Then, ask yourself why. See if that doesn't spark a new direction for your writing this week.


Gotta write,
Heather

Story Starter Tuesday

If you missed the lesson on how to get more out of your story starter fun, click here. 

 Here is this week’s story starter:

I was so excited to be his assistant for a day that I accidently dropped the cup he had given me.  The liquid spilled out onto the grass, forming a small puddle at my feet.  But then I noticed something strange ...

Writing Exercise: Story Starters

***Congratulations to Becca Campbell who won a free copy of Island of Fog!***

Ask yourself this question.... How to get more out of story starters.
My kids say I should be offering more ways to get kids writing.  I completely agree.  They suggested a few fabulous ideas and one of them is the classic “story starter”.  So, starting tomorrow, I’ll be offering up a story starter each week for you writers out there who need a little jumpstart.  Share them with friends, make a game out of it.  See who can write the most fantastic story from one little sentence.  But first, I want to teach you how to make a story starter more fun and more effective.  

Let’s say I give you a story starter like this one: You are riding through the woods with a group of friends.  Then, suddenly....

Well, that should be an easy one, right?  But wait!  Before you start writing ask yourself this question - What are you riding on?  How many of you read that story starter and instantly pictured your friends on either a horse or a bicycle?  What other things could you be riding through the woods?  Could you be riding a motorcycle?  Inside a car or even a royal carriage?  What about riding on a unicorn?  A dinosaur?  A giant spotted leopard?  A mutant plant?

Do you see how asking yourself that one question could change the entire direction of a story?  It could change the genre from classic fairytale to alien space adventure!  Write the unexpected.  Imagine something new.  Tomorrow I’ll give you a new story starter to play with, so come back and this time... bring a pencil!

Gotta Write,
Heather

A Writing Exercise

****Congratulations to Shannon Iverson who won the Free Book Friday contest! We'll have a new free book offer this Friday, so come back and comment for your chance to take home a new book!**** 

Hello, writerlings!  Today is April 2nd which means Script Frenzy is in full swing.  For those of you who don't have a clue what script frenzy is, you can look back at my post about it or follow the link to the Script Frenzy website.  There you can sign up to join the masses as they fearlessly quest to write a complete script in one month.  (If you are a grown up writer who wants to join the fun, go here.)

Even if you never intend to write a script of any kind, I found this fabulous worksheet from week two of their "bootcamp" to be an excellent writing exercise.    It focuses on your main character's motivation for their journey and then helps you to define more of your villain as well.  We had lots of fun going through the worksheets here at home with our young writers and I thought you might enjoy it, too.  I found the following questions particularly helpful as I am currently editing my recent novel:


1. What does your main character want?
2. What does he or she need to do to make his or her dreams come true?
3. How does he or she change during the journey?

It's funny how I thought I knew the answers to those questions when I started out writing, but now that I am looking back on a finished draft, I see that the answers have changed a bit.  As a matter of fact, the answer to the first question was very hard to find.  My character starts out her story thinking she wants one thing, but discovers in the end she wants something very different.  Isn't that so often true?  Even in my own life I see this happening.  This is part of what contributes to a character's change, growth.

How well do you know your characters?  Are they living inside of you yet?  Can you understand them well enough to know why they do what they do?  If not, this simple exercise will help you to breathe a little life into those precious creatures before you send them off on their journey.  Come back and tell us how it helped you!

Gotta write,
Heather

Into the Deep End with Script Frenzy

Yesterday I told you about how this blog came to be all from a little event called NaNoWriMo.   As a writer, Nanowrimo helped me cross that ginormous hurdle called “a completed manuscript.”  I had been writing for years, but never finishing anything.  That is, until my brother, international bestselling author, Aaron Pogue (He pays me a nickle every time I call him that) introduced me to the fabulousness that is Nanowrimo.  A month later I had a finished first draft and the rest is history.

As a teacher, I love Nanowrimo because it gives kids a concrete goal and it helps to show them the thousands of aspiring writers from across the globe who all have the same goal they have: to write a book!  Nanowrimo’s Young Writer’s Program is amazing!  They provide teachers like me with resources to help my group of aspiring young authors reach their goal.  Last year I used some of their worksheets and we had a lot of fun learning more about dialogue together.

In my opinion, the best practice for learning dialogue is writing a play.  In October, my little writing group had a blast writing a few silly plays together as we practiced the important elements of dialogue.  We learned how to show action without simply describing it.  We practiced how to share sensory information with an audience (ie. “Brrr, it sure is cold in here!)  We even threw in a few ridiculous sentences just so that we could laugh as our friends had to read them aloud.

Well, imagine my surprise when I visited the Nanowrimo site yesterday and discovered this wonderful announcement: Script Frenzy begins April 1st!  That is just under two weeks away, so we better get ready if we’re going to join the fun!

Script Frenzy is another wild adventure brought to you by the same crew who pilot national novel writing month each fall.  Only, this time the goal is to write a complete script.  It can be a play, a t.v. show, a movie, anything that involves a full story line in script form.  What fun!  

Wait!  Did I hear someone say they don’t know how to write a script?  No problem!  That’s why we’re here, right?  We get to learn something new and practice it, too!  The young writer’s program over at script frenzy thought there might be a few of us who needed a little help, so they created Script Frenzy Bootcamp.  There is one for elementary age students and one for middle school students.  They even have a bootcamp designed for highschool.  At bootcamp, you’ll find all the help you need to train for the big event.  Stretch yourself and your imagination.  Practice and prepare a little each day.  This is how we get our brain and fingers ready to work together.  Before you know it, you’ll have a finished script.

So, what are you going to write?  I think I’ll start on my next webseries.  I’ve been thinking about it for months.  I know a sixth grader here who will be working on her own original movie script - something about the Muppets and the story of Peter Pan?   What story would you write?  Do you have an idea for a movie?  A play?  A new and fabulous t.v. show?  Tell us about it and then go check out Script Frenzy.  It’s going to be a blast!

Gotta Write,
Heather