I mentioned Kate Clanchy’s book, How to Grow Your Own Poem, in the last post. It needs proper attention as it is a good collection of poems and thoughtful guidelines for ‘growing poems’. Kate Clanchy is a poet and teacher whose work with students in an Oxford comprehensive school is widely known. One of the many … Continue reading How to Grow Your Own Poem
Many years ago, I found George Ella Lyons’ poem, ‘Where I’m From’ in a collection of American poets’ advice for young writers. It provides a welcoming frame for our own writing. It begins like this: I am from clothespins, From Clorox and carbon tetra-chloride, I am from the dirt under the back porch, (Black, glistening, it … Continue reading I am from
We’d like to introduce you to The Travelling Bookbinder. Rachel Hazell is an imaginative and generous bookbinder, teacher and lover of papery, wordy things. Her book, Bound, is a beautiful collection of book-making projects. They are all easily manageable. Each book form suggests different ideas for writing and art work. The Travelling Bookbinder has a regular … Continue reading The Travelling Bookbinder
It is always good to receive a lovely message through the post, even when it is delivered by hand -perhaps especially when delivered by hand. You may not have any post cards at home and you are not likely to be away on holiday at the moment, so what could you do? Your home is … Continue reading Cards from card.
This is a little like a found poem. You start with a text that already exists and transform it, picking words and phrases from it and covering the rest to make a new story, a poem, or even, maybe, a message. You might approach it as a ‘black-out poem’ but I prefer the idea of … Continue reading A Humument
Here is a playful way of listing words and noticing how they are formed. Make a list of words and phrases in which the last section of each becomes the first part of the following word or phrase. It could be that there are whole words within compound words: pigtail - tail end - endpaper - paper … Continue reading Word Chain
Words are endlessly fascinating. Naming is so interesting and important. I read recently about a book by John McPhee, The Crofter and the Land. McPhee visited the Hebridean island of Colonsay where his family originated. He discovered that every beach, gully, cliff and rise of land has a name. On a tiny island of only 138 … Continue reading Land Words
Today, we offer just a quick idea: a different point of view. Try writing a story from the point of view of one of your pets. If you don’t have a pet, then you can imagine one. In fact, if you don’t have a pet, you can imagine any animal you like. Our pets know … Continue reading Stories they tell
Make yourself a little flip book and create hundreds of different characters. A small flip book can generate lots of variations on a theme and plenty of laughter. Take a sheet of A4 paper and cut it into four quarters. Fold each small sheet and slot the sheets together to make a small book. Secure the … Continue reading Flip book
We’re back to lists today and we are thinking about characters at the same time. Ann Berthoff writes: ‘Lists are composed; they don’t just happen.’ Composing a list involves organising names and sometimes actions according to some purpose. The act of list writing can even be a way of discovering purpose. One thing can lead … Continue reading Another kind of list
