3 Things I Learned About Writing: Analyzing Toni Morrison’s BELOVED
1. Use personification to set a tone. “124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom” (3). BELOVED has one of the most famous opening lines in literature. And what does it do? It personifies the house.
3 Things I Learned About Writing: Analyzing Nadine Gordimer’s JULY’S PEOPLE
1. Time doesn’t have to be linear.
“The knock on the door
no door, an aperture in thick mud walls, and the sack that hung over it looped back for air.” (1)
3 Things I Learned About Writing: Analyzing Claudia Rankine’s CITIZEN: AN AMERICAN LYRIC
3. Be deliberate. “Neither you nor your friend bothers to ask who is making her feel uncomfortable” (69).
3 Things I Learned About Writing: Analyzing Miguel Cervantes’ DON QUIXOTE
1. Try new things.
“All you have to do is try, with meaningful words, properly and effectively arranged, to honestly unroll your sentences and paragraphs, clearly, sensibly, just explaining what you’re up to as well and as powerfully as you can."
3 Things I Learned About Writing: Analyzing Maya Angelou’s I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS
1. Have a Theme
“If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat.
It is an unnecessary insult.”
Letter to the Author
Have the main character in your novel (or short story) write a letter to you. What would they say? Have them write whatever you want.
Forbidden Basement
You are renting a room in someone’s house as you transition to living in a new city. The owner tells you that basement is absolutely, 100% off limits. You don’t bat an eye at this request, until you start hearing noises from the basement at night. After several week of this,...
Cadaver Concert
You receive an invitation in the mail one day requesting your presence at a “Cadaver concert.” You have no idea what this means or who sent the invitation. However, as a mortician, you are intrigued. You show up at the appointed place at the designated time. What do you find?
Hallucinations Galore!
A ferocious storm is moving into your town: 40 mph winds, hail, the whole deal. But you are a postal worker, and you operate no matter the weather, out you go. As you drive along, a tree branch falls in front of you and you slam into it, knocking yourself unconscious....
Harold the Armchair
Write a story from the perspective of Harold the Armchair. What does he think about all day? Does he like being sat on? Do his parents approve of him being an armchair?
3 Things I Learned About Writing: Analyzing Andy Weir’s THE MARTIAN
2. When writing suspense, write good comedy.
Log Entry: Sol 61
How come Aquaman can control whales? They’re mammals! Makes no sense.
Funny Feet
Ever since you were a child, you have burst into uncontrollable laugher every time you see a bare foot or bare feet. So far you’ve managed to suppress your hilarity at the sight of feet. Today, your boss has assigned you to cover the foot fashion show that is coming town...
Frog in Your Throat
You are flipping through the channels on TV one Saturday, waiting for your pizza to be delivered. On the coffee table sits an open can of soda. You don’t remember getting the soda, but you live alone and haven’t had anyone over recently, so it must be yours. You take a...
3 Things I Learned About Writing: Analyzing Go Set a Watchman
3. Revise, revise, revise. And then revise again. Go Set a Watchman is the first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. It reads like a draft. There are random flashbacks that aren’t always relevant and several information dumps.
Bermuda Discovery
The year is 1491 and you are a famous world explorer. You set out to sail around the globe, but your crew is apprehensive about sailing around the Bermuda triangle. You dismiss their superstitions and demand to hold course. Sure enough, as you approach the Triangle you get caught in a...
Bestselling Author Shannon Hale Talks About the True Heroes Project
BY HANNAH HANEY Some of the biggest names in middle-grade publishing have banded together to write a collection of modern-day fairytales based on the lives of real children: Children that have cancer and very big dreams. True Heroes: A Treasury of Modern-Day Fairy Tales was written by bestselling authors Shannon Hale,...
An Ocean of Crabs
You and your significant other have decided to vacation by the beach for a weekend. It’s your first day and you hurry to the ocean, ready to relax. Once you get to the beach, you find that the ocean is full of crabs. There seem to be more crabs than actual...
Labyrinth
You wake up one morning and find that you aren’t in your bed; you aren’t even in your room. You’re in the middle of a giant maze. A sign is hanging from the ivy: “You have one hour. Don’t touch the walls.” Finish the scene.
3 Things I Learned About Writing: Analyzing Stephen King’s IT
2. Names are powerful—an absence of names is even more so. Names equal identity. If someone is named, they’re important and they’re solid.
Haunted Amusement Park
You are exploring with a friend when you stumble upon an abandoned amusement park. You eagerly start to approach it, but as you get closer, the lights suddenly come on and the rides start to move. Do you keep going to find out what’s happening or do you run away as...
Bicycling Bovines
You walk out of the grocery store one day and discover that the streets are full of cows on bicycles. What’s even weirder is that you’re the only one who finds this odd. What is going on?
I Spy with My Little Eye
You’re at work, like any normal day, and happen to look out the window as you head to the break room for a second cup of coffee. What you see makes you stop in your tracks: What is it?
Word Box
Write a 15-line poem using all 15 of the words in the word bank below.
“Shhh, I’m wabbit hunting”
You wake up one morning and find yourself inside a Looney Tunes cartoon with a burning desire to hunt down a certain Bugs Bunny, no matter the cost. What happens next?