BREAKING OUT OF COMFORT ZONES

by Marcia Strykowski

I always used to think ‘Write What You Know’ was the best method for writing a story, but sometimes it’s surprising how changing it up can bring fresh ideas to your palette. In my books, Call Me Amy and Amy’s Choice, I have a connection to my main character—13-year-old Amy—because she lives in a tiny fishing village on the Maine coast that is very similar to where my grandparents lived all the while I was growing up. However, lately I’ve switched gears. My most recent work-in-progress is about a boy who lives in a big city.

Breaking out of your comfort zone by changing the way you always write can set your writing free, while avoiding the usual setbacks and roadblocks. Rather than thinking, ‘oh, he wouldn’t do that…’ think instead, maybe she would!

Many fourth and fifth graders are more comfortable reading and rereading the same series of books over and over and this may factor into their writing, as well. Here’s a fun way for your students to come up with new ideas to write about.

Give everyone in your class a slip of paper. Have them write three items on the paper: main character’s name, main character’s age, setting (city, country, space, under the sea, school, etc.). Collect the slips in order and then pass them out again in reverse order. This takes the pressure off. Rather than writing about their own very familiar beloved characters, they’re now writing about someone or something else.

Have them ask themselves ‘what if?’ as they write their stories. What if there is a sudden snowstorm? What if the bike gets a flat tire? What if the main character isn’t even human, but an alien, superhero, or beast? Write fast, the first lines that come to them. They shouldn’t think about it too much, just go with their thoughts and keep writing.

Another story starter idea is to pass out pictures from old calendars and have your students use the scene for their setting. No matter which methods they use, changing it up is bound to uncover all sorts of new possibilities for their stories.

After these mind stretching exercises, students can go back to ‘writing what they know,’ but hopefully they’ll be less wary of experimenting and including new ideas. Happy writing!

BIO: Marcia Strykowski works at a public library. Earlier, after earning her BS in Fine Arts, she worked for seven years in textbook publishing. She is a member of SCBWI. After numerous magazine and anthology contributions, Call Me Amy was Marcia’s first novel. It was chosen for Bank Street College of Education’s Best Books of 2013. Amy's Choice , a sequel to Call Me Amy, was released the following year. Both tween novels were published by Luminis Books. You can find out more about her and her books at http://marciastrykowski.com/

DRAWING A STORY

by Joan Waites

Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?  If applying this question to a picture book, which comes first, the words or the illustrations? In the world of traditional publishing, manuscripts are typically written by the author and then assigned to an illustrator by the publisher.  If the illustrator is also the author, sometimes the pictures are imagined first, or the illustrations and text are imagined simultaneously.

In previous posts, I’ve talked about some classroom exercises I’ve used during a school visit where children collaboratively write a story and then come up with illustrations to complement the text. The flip side to this exercise is to have children draw a story in pictures only. This works especially well with younger children who haven’t fully mastered writing and spelling.

Make up a simple storyboard sheet with as many pages as you would like to have the children draw.  Six to eight pages seems to be a number most can work with without getting overwhelmed.  Children can draw a story of their choosing, or use a story prompt (as outlined in previous Pencil Tips posts) to jump start ideas.  When the children have completed their drawings, have them either write the text to accompany the drawings, or give each a turn to orally tell their story. Another fun twist is to collect the storyboards, mix them up, and then redistribute them to the class. Have children write a story based on the pictures their classmates have drawn.

For children that are old enough and have access to a camera, this same exercise could be done using photographs.  Ask children to tell a story using the camera. Have them take a series of pictures at an event. A soccer game, a party, a trip to the zoo or an outing with a pet can all tell a story.  Spread out or mount the pictures in a series and have children write the story to accompany the photos.

It is interesting to see how each child interprets another’s drawings and photos.  Mirroring real world of picture books, this exercise emphasizes the unique and magical collaboration that happens between art and the written word.

http://www.joanwaites.com/

MORE STORY STARTERS

by Joan Waites

Back in November of last year, I wrote a blog entry featuring a “story starter” exercise which used a single prop to jump-start story ideas. At a recent workshop weekend offered by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators ,workshop leader author David LaRochelle lead us in another “story starter” exercise that  would work well for students of all ages, and can be adapted to use as an “art starter” as well.

Using index cards, ask students to write down on five separate cards the following:

A Character 

 (Example:  spider, robot, 12 year old girl)

An Emotional Situation 

(Example:  losing your best friend, moving to a new country, not making the cut for the soccer team)

A Place

(Example:  frozen lake, another universe, the top floor of a skyscraper)

An Object

(Example:  sewing needle, lava rock, teddy bear)

Next, have students shuffle the cards and exchange 2-3 of the cards with a partner.

Finally, using the cards they have chosen, ask students to quickly write down ten ideas (one or two sentences) for a story based on the words on their cards. Pick one of these ideas and develop it further.

For a variation of this exercise, have students cut different pictures from magazines, newspapers, or junk mail. Ask them to find pictures of people, animals, places and objects and glue them to the cards.  Have students exchange several cards with each other.  Students will then draw a character in a location and/or with an object based on the cards they have chosen telling the story in their illustrations.

Using this exercise with either the written word or with pictures, students have endless possibilities to jump-start their imaginations!

http://www.joanwaites.com/

PENCIL TIPS WRITING WORKSHOP: PLAYING WITH WORDS

by Laura Krauss Melmed 

Debbie Levy, author of The Year of Goodbyes (Disney-Hyperion 2010) and Maybe I’ll Sleep in the Bathtub Tonight and Other Funny Bedtime Poems (Sterling 2010) recently encouraged aspiring authors “to play when writing.  If a stream of words is running through your mind, you don’t have to channel it into something with a defined structure right away; get the words on paper (or on the screen) and see where they seem to want to go…whether writing fiction or nonfiction, consider using different formats and points of view.  There’s no one correct way to shape a piece of writing!”

Many books and on-line sources present games designed to stimulate creativity and jump start the process of playing with words.  It is also fun to come up with your own exercises.  Here for starters are several suggestions:

Play with Cut-outs:  Cut out pictures from online or hard copy magazines and newspapers, of subjects that you find compelling, and scatter them on the floor. Then, look out the window or at a blank wall for the time it takes to count ten breaths. Next, look down and pick a picture--do it quickly without giving yourself time to think. Put that picture on a mosaic board. Look at the pattern you've made from those pictures. What sort of mood do they evoke? What narrative do they bring into focus?  Write a narrative weaving together the pictures you’ve selected. (Based on a tip from www.editingoffice.com)

Play Story Tennis (requires a partner): One of you writes a few paragraphs of a story. It can be about anything. You then pass it on to your writing partner (email is perfect for this) who then writes the next paragraph and so on and so on. (From the “One of Us” creative writing website http://www.oneofus.co.uk/index.php/writing_tips/writing_exercises/)

Play Doubles: To minimize the waiting time when Story Tennis is being played face-to-face, and for a real right and left brain challenge, how about having two stories going at once and using a timer to signal when to switch with your partner?

Play with Magic: For my picture book, Prince Nautilus, I imagined the consequences of a girl finding a magic seashell on the beach.  Along these lines, author and artist Keri Smith, in How to Be An Explorer of the World, Penguin Group, 20008, suggests assembling a box of small objects (for example, a feather, a key, a mitten, a small figurine and a pinecone).  Each student selects an object, ascribes a magic power to it, and writes about it. 

Play with Dialogue: Alternatively, I might ask students to select two objects from the box and then write a dialogue between them.

Play with Poetry: Write a poem that incorporates all of the objects.

Lastly, here are two exercises based on games described in a YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaO7TYQJXqc by Jamie Cat Callen, author of The Writer’s Toolbox:

Play Pick-up Sticks: Write a bunch of interesting sentences on Popsicle sticks.  For example, “No one knew how the cat with six toes got out of our house every night, but there he sat on the doorstop each morning, as regular as clock-work” or, “The ruby slippers were a little big on Darcy, but the minute she put them on, her heels began to click together involuntarily.”  Have students line up the sticks randomly face down and then select three sticks.  They must use all three sentences in a story.

Play Cards: To prepare, start with a stack of index cards of three different colors, say blue, green and yellow.  On each blue card, write a description of a protagonist.  On each green card write a description of a goal.  On each yellow card, write an obstacle.  Make all of these as wildly diverse as you can.  To play, each student picks a card blindly from each pile and then writes a story based on the selected protagonist, goal, and obstacle.

Remember when using these or similar exercises that the object is not to produce a polished piece of writing, but rather to follow where your words take you.  Above all, playing with words should be fun!

http://www.laurakraussmelmed.com/books.htm