Apparently, teenagers today (who live in Canada) have an excellent chance of living until they’re 100 years old. I want you to image you’re 100 today. It’s your birthday and you’re writing a diary entry for the day. Think about what the world is like around you. Think about the memories you have from your life. Think about the regrets you have.
100 years. What a life you’ve lived…
Filed under exercises, Quickstart
Great workshops with great kids. We did some awesome travelling with out imaginations over the last couple of days and had many neat ideas on pages.
One thing I was reminded of is that writing has to be fun! Try writing a nonsense poem to help remind you of this – it doesn’t have to mean anything, just get some sounds and words down.
Nuf Evah (Have Fun!)
Filed under exercises, Quickstart
In the selection of quickstart ideas on this site, number five suggests writing a prose poem. This is a great form for those of you who have written stories and who want to try poetry, or those of you who’ve written poetry and who want to try something new. I wanted to use today’s post to explain prose poetry a little more…
Simply put, a prose poem is a poem that doesn’t have line breaks. It reads like prose on the page, but like poetry in the language used – think about rhythm, sound, internal rhyme, and imagery, just like you would if you were writing a poem.
When you’ve finished the prose poem read it outloud to yourself. Have you brought an image and an emotional truth together? Do you need to do this, do you think? Does the prose poem work for some reason that is hard to explain but you just know it does? If so, then you’ve done it, you’ve written a prose poem.
If I’ve got ten minutes, I chose a word from the dictionary and use it as a title for a prose poem. I try to let the words flow freely, I try not to get in the way of what I’m writing. I use the word and see if it brings an image to mind that I can capture on the page. Ten minutes isn’t enough to write a finished or polished piece, but it gives me a little writing time in an otherwise busy day.
Today, I’m packing to head on a four month trip. I look forward to writing lots, to taking some photos that’ll inspire you to write and to meeting readers and writers on the road. First stop, Toronto. Maybe I’ll have time to write a rough prose poem on the plane… now there’s an idea…
Filed under exercises, Places for writers, Quickstart
Someone directed me to this on youtube: A trailer for Life on the Refrigerator Door
It made me think how great it would be if you wrote a trailer for your favourite book. Imagine how to turn your favourite book into a movie. Think about which bits of the book you need to keep, and which bits you’d have to cut. Then try and write a few lines to capture the essence of your movie – you could even match it up with photos like in the trailer for my book.
Now, all we need is a real movie deal!
Filed under exercises
Take some time to explore this writerly place… they post a picture every day to get you inspired and ready to write. Use their incredible photos to launch off a story or a poem, or anything that comes to mind!
Filed under Places for writers
Writing Tips for Teens 