Archive for the ‘Writing Exercises’ Category

Today’s writing exercise is…

Find three words in the dictionary that you’ve never heard before or don’t know the meaning of. Say them aloud several times and read the definitions. Use them in sentences. Say silly things to each other.

Put them on index cards with the word on one side and the definition (pick the shortest, most common definition) on the back (in case you forget what the word means). You can even put the part of speech.

Then spend the next several hours/days thinking of ways to combine these words with experiences, objets d’art, pictures and household furniture like the toilet.

You can stick these words on those items directly with duct tape. Or you can jot down the resulting sentence fragments on napkins and use them at dinner. Or you can start a blog and share your brilliance with the Internet world of word-peeping toms.

Just play with words, like toys, that you can blast or smash or cuddle.

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Friday Freewrite: Hair

Pippi Longstocking hair quote for Friday Freewrite

For kids:
Go in the bathroom and mess up your hair. Girls with longer locks can twist it, spray it, curl it, clip it, put it in pony tails, tease it, smooth it, push it so it hangs in their faces.

Play with your hair while looking in the mirror and then WRITE.

Boys can look at pictures of their hair over the last few years. Look at the style differences. If your moms are daring, buy a bottle of hair color spray and do something different to your hair (stripes? dots? a big happy face on the top of your head?).

WRITE. (Feel free to write about how stupid this topic is too, if you need to first. You can then write about a first haircut or the time your hair stuck up at camp after sleeping on it funny, or the time you decided to cut off one long lock in the front….)

For Moms:
Remember a favorite hairstyle (or the worst haircut ever) and write about one specific incident related to that haircut.

Example: I used to get up at 5:30 a.m. every morning of my junior year of high school to curl my hair into Farrah Fawcett feathers. Instead, they looked more like tunnels of curls up against my head (not the endless fluffiness Farrah was famous for). So I might write about that… or about the time Super Cuts botched my hair right before I left for France to meet all new French boys! Oh the horror. Fortunately, once landed in that country, I discovered that hair was a pretty low priority with the French since most of them only washed it, oh, once a week, if we were lucky!

Flip through old photo albums if you need help. Pick a key memory (not just general impressions) and explore it fully.

GO!

Want more Friday Freewrite writing prompts? Or, keep reading to see how freewriting is part of the Brave Writer Lifestyle.

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Just Say No

Write at the top of your page: NO! in caps, with the exclamation point.

Set the timer for two minutes and write everything that comes to mind related to NO!

Grab a clean sheet of paper. This time write at the top of the page a teeny, tiny no without an exclamation point.

Set the timer for two minutes and write all the things that come to mind when no is tiny.

Now flip the pages over. Start with the big NO!. Write YES! at the top and do the same for the big yes. Then write yes at the top of the back side of no. Write for two minutes for the little yes.

At the end, read and enjoy the different writing these words and sizes conjured up. There may not be any ryhme or reason to them, but then again, there may be. You might even be able to harvest some sentences from these four freewrites to make an interesting poem.

Use the cut and paste method. Print up the lines, cut them into strips and start arranging them (no editing of the actual lines). Just see where they lead and play with all kinds of arrangements. When you’re happy, stop!

Post results here.

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Are your kids fed up with “assigned” writing?

Word sculptures

Unhook resistance by playing with language (instead of fighting with it). You’ll be making what are called “word tickets” and then turning them into “word sculptures.”

This activity comes from a terrific little book called, Poem Crazy. I’ve adapted it for our homeschool experience. Hang onto your word tickets! (Keep the ones you don’t use in an envelope or little dish.) I’ll post an exercise called “Scrounged Poetry” later in the week (see update below!) that will build on this activity. For now, have fun with words!

You’ll need:

  • a stack of magazines (you will be cutting them up so be sure you’re finished reading them)
  • notecards or stickies
  • glue stick
  • clear tape
  • scissors
  • your imagination

Your objective:

You are going to create what we call “word tickets” that will be used to create “word sculptures.”

What to do:

Page through the magazines looking for words. Any words will do. Don’t edit your choices. Just dive in and start cutting. You are picking single words or two to three word phrases that pop, that engage you in some way.

Cut out the words or phrases.

Select words and phrases for 30 minutes to an hour. Keep them in a little stack.

Glue them to cardstock or notecards so they are sturdy. Cut them to the size of the word or phrase.

Next, collect some items and bring them to the kitchen table. You can tape the word tickets directly to the items in your home or you can tape them to sticky notes and then put the post-its on the items. Whatever works best for you.

You will put your word tickets on potted plants, photographs, coffee tables, candles, the crock pot, a bowl of fruit, the window, the TV, the soap dish, the handle of a door, the side of a chair, above a lock, next to the fireplace or on the screen of the computer. Notice what your word tickets do to the items in your house and allow yourself to see those items with new eyes.

A clothing catalog can be an incredible source of quality words such as:

sparkling sequins
handmade
stuff sack included
fresh tangerine
rib-knit
Traditional European
quirky
teapot
avid
mosaics
snappy little colorsplash
spherical
Asian elegance
brave

Here are some combos the kids and I came up with:

Sparkling sequins taped to my globe

fresh tangerine labeling my teapot

snappy little colorsplash sat under my birthday flower arrangement sent to me by a good friend

Asian elegance next to my car keys

avid taped to chop sticks

mosaic light next to my votive candle set

Play around with it. If you or your kids don’t like where one word is, move it. You can also combine words if that adds texture or insight or nerve to your label. You might find that you want to tape words to items that can’t be moved to the kitchen table. Walk around the house and stick words everywhere!

Traditional European might look just right under a certain photograph or painting in your house.

handmade sits next to my computer

brave was taped to my window.

nearly naked was stuck to a print by Matisse

Feel free to wander through your house taping labels to furniture and brick-a-brack.

Label things strangely:

rib-knit on a bag of chips

stuff-sack included on a wine glass

Put nouns with verbs (combining word tickets):

car keys jump

chickadee stumbles

Have fun! Post your word sculptures in the comments section of the blog.

UPDATE: Here’s the Scrounged Poetry post!

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Monday is Martin Luther King’s Birthday

To celebrate MLK Jr. Day, I thought I’d post quotes from his speeches and letters. We’re taking the day off to observe the importance of this day.

When I studied black theology in my graduate school program I was struck by MLK Jr. and his amazing contribution to our country during the 1960s. He was a brilliant orator and has left us with some of the most memorable speeches in our culture; fragments from these letters and speeches continue to challenge us to think and rethink our assumptions even today.

Here are some of his thoughts that might make good copywork this coming week for those who are inspired by them.

—julie

All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

These come from a page of Selected Quotations of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior.

 

Spring will be here soon, I promise! If you don’t already have a copy of A Gracious Space: Spring, click through for timely support and encouragement. 

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