Hallowe’en is nearly here. Perhaps we should write a poem or story with Hallowe’en in mind. What about writing a story where something impossible happens? If you want us to believe your story, you need some really good, ordinary detail. Just imagine, you have to prove that you were at the park yesterday afternoon. If … Continue reading Pumpkin speaks
Startword – I thought that I had made it up, but the word exists. It means a sequence of letters that begin a word that could exist in a particular language. ‘STR’ could begin any number of words in English -how many can you think of? But if you saw the letters ‘DZI’ you wouldn’t expect an … Continue reading Startwords
… I am…… over the moon under a cloud on top of the world kinda blue walking on air happy as the cat who got the cream like a bear with a sore head broken-hearted cheesed off bored to tears like a fish out of water like a cat on hot bricks a bit hot under … Continue reading mixed feelings…
This is the last post inspired by the Scraps book for a while. Lois Ehlert has lots of collections - Mexican tin toys, Inuit ice fishing decoys, tiny dolls from South America. What collections do you have? I have a collection of boxes and one of mechanical toys, a collection of birds, a collection of …. I … Continue reading Collections
I think it was Shirley Hughes who first spoke to me about the number of pages in a picture book. The sum total is usually 32 and that includes the end papers, the title page, everything. Lois Ehlert shows how she maps out her picture books so that she knows where the pictures will go and … Continue reading 32 pages
Here is Lois Ehlert again: she says that, when she visited the aquarium, an idea for a book floated into her head. She stopped and noted her thoughts before they floated out again. You don’t have to make a special visit. An idea for a story or poem may come from a walk down your … Continue reading Seize the moment, list the words
Here is another post based on the Scraps book by Lois Ehlert. She tells us how she finds inspiration all around her and she goes out looking for ‘good stuff’. The good stuff could be materials for a collage that could turn into a story. These leaves remind me of her story Leaf Man. In Britain there … Continue reading Looking for good stuff
May we recommend the Scraps bookby Lois Ehlert? Perhaps you know her book, Leaf Man. If you don’t already know it, then look that up, too. the Scraps book is filled with treasures for writers and illustrators. It is part memoir, part craft book, total joy! Lois Ehlert tells us a little about her childhood and how she came … Continue reading the Scraps book
This is an idea borrowed from the poet, Naomi Shihab Nye. I used it in a workshop recently and we had a good time. We all wrote something quite different and intriguing and fun. Write a list of things that you are not – an oak tree, a bus driver, an elephant, a Roman soldier, a … Continue reading Things I am not
Here’s an idea that comes from a workshop run by the poet, Lavinia Greenlaw. Look at these tree similes: … as white as milk … … as white as asbestos … … as white as angel’s bones … Think about, talk with others, about what images of white each of those comparisons give rise to. … Continue reading … as white as …
Writing Box 