I’ve never been the type to carefully read instructions. I don’t have the patience. Or, maybe it’s more like most of the time, I don’t understand. I’m not a visual, step by step sort of person. I’ll just assume I know what I’m doing enough to figure it out, that through some combination of instinct, common sense and magic, everything will come together. That strategy worked in the Before-Times, back when there was room for human error because there had also been room for human interaction, …
Write about Fear
I thought this would be fun for Halloween. If you're a teacher and planning to use this for your class, you'll obviously need to press pause throughout, and give students writing time. Hope it works well! …
Best Friend Poem using Similes
I created this as another way to warm up my students in Creative Writing class. I think it will be fun. Who doesn't like writing about their best friend? Who doesn't love a good simile? …
Stranger on the Beach by Michele Campbell
I listened to Stranger on the Beach on audio, and the fact that this book is narrated by January Lavoy affected how good I think it is. Lavoy narrates lots of books and she’s excellent – so good, that she made Sweet Valley Confidential sound like quality writing. And for that reason, I couldn’t tell if Stranger on the Beach was a decent book with some notable plot holes and several flaws, or if was just really, really bad. The story is about Caroline Stark, who …
Five Object Poem
This warm up idea came from the Creative Writing: Daily Warm-Ups, Level II. Years ago I made a slide show with my objects and examples, but I thought I'd update it into a video for distance learning. While my Creative Writing class is studying poetry, I find it fun to start class with a concrete task about something so abstract. …