#writing activities

[itspeterandersonwriting]

Creative Writing Activities That Will Motivate You To Write More

If you want to be a true writer, you should have day to day activities that will not only enhance your writing skills, but your love for writing as well.

Remember that technical writing skills are important, but if you don’t have the will to write, you will lose interest in the long run. You will need to hone your love for writing as well.Here are some creative writing activities that will awaken your inner writer.

[kids-worldfun]

10 Activities To Improve Kids' Writing Skills https://www.kidsworldfun.com/blog/10-activities-to-improve-kids-writing-skills/ Writing is an important skill, which is vital not only in study but it also becomes the main way of communication in the digital age. Read following activities. #WritingSkills #WritingActivities, #ActivitiesForKids #ImproveSkills #Education #LearningActivities

[kids-worldfun]

5 Writing Activities for Kids with Autism https://www.kidsworldfun.com/blog/5-writing-activities-for-kids-with-autism/ One of the challenges that many parents whose kids have autism face is teaching them how to write. Here a list of writing activities for kids with autism. #WritingActivities #KidsWithAutism #TeachingTips

[ignitingwriting]

Igniting Writing Create Your Own Session Plan Challenge 2020, Submission by Katie Hall

Writing from the Perspective of Multiple Characters

 Introduction:

This session is about writing a longer piece of writing, or a story with multiple points of view. By the end, you will have created two characters and will have had a go at writing scenes from both of their perspectives and all this will hopefully help you understand the importance and impact of using more than one narrator to tell a story. An important thing to keep in mind with this is making sure that in every scene the things taking place are all helping the story, or a character arc along, sometimes both. This leads to the first activity.

 Activity One (30 minutes – 15 minutes on planning and writing of each character):

- Creating two characters.

- You will get a prompt that gives one characteristic for the character (see below). From there, bullet point what you think the person would be like – either sticking to or defying stereotypes. Decide on their gender, age and their relationships with their family and friends.

- With that, write the following scene: ‘Your character walks into a museum. They are greeted by a security guard. As they go inside, they see someone from their past. (This could be an old schoolteacher, this could be an ex, this could be their long-lost aunt Dora, it's really up to you). This task is to just get a feel of the character – what do they notice about the room as they walk in? Do they notice all of the doors and windows, do they see the dirt on the floor, or the pretty shaft of light through the window, or the art on the walls? It is entirely up to you, and don't think too hard on the plot of this scene, it is just to get more into their head.’ 

- Then, do the whole thing again with your other character.

- This is also the point to decide on the relationship between the two characters – they must not know each other at the start of the story, but you can decide if they become friends or enemies or love interests or mentors or long-lost family members – it is up to you. When you write for the second character, don’t include the first character in the scene – this may clash with the next activity and the task is just to get to know the character. The museum scene doesn't have to be part of the story.

 Prompts:

- They love chess

- They love gardening

- They get very annoyed very easily

- They love bright colours

- They are very easily distracted

- They are very motivated

- They take jokes too far

- They love to read

- They are into musical theatre

- They love painting

- They don't talk to other people very often

- Their room is immaculately tidy

- They are quite arrogant

- They have quite low self esteem

- They are scared of dogs

- They love to cook

- They love video games

- They love photography

- They have a vast collection of stuffed animal toys

- They have an impressive social media presence

- They enjoy making computers and gadgets

- They play several instruments and enjoy writing music

- They have a great singing voice

- They have a terrible singing voice

- They are very passionate about recycling

- They are scared of children

- They are a child

- They are scared of heights

- They have an alarming collection of puppets

- They love camping

- They are a part of the scouting community

- They are terrible at cooking and only eat plain pasta

- They have an impressive knowledge of history

- They are willing to suffer in the name of fashion

- They have a large collection of marbles

- They are a hoarder of random items

- They like to sew

- They love to swim

- They strongly dislike exercise

- They spend an unhealthy amount of time on the internet

 Activity Two (roughly 20 minutes on each character):

We’re skipping a few steps here, but the next task is to write a scene from late in the story. You may not have a story to go with these characters yet, but we have some criteria for the scene, and some plot suggestions if you need them. 

Write this scenario: ‘Your characters have met and gotten to know each other well. They have drifted apart and in this scene they are reunited after some time. You must decide why and how their relationship developed and why that was compromised. Why they are reunited and how that goes is also up to you. You have five minutes to plan, and then 20 minutes to start to write it (aim to write about half the scene) from the perspective of one character. Then pick up the scene from the POV of the other character and get as far through the scene as you can. Try to make distinct voices for the characters and show what each character may know that the other doesn't, along with their different perspectives. Try to explore some backstory, which you can reference in the scene. If you need help to come up with different things that could have happened in your story, there are lists below of potential plot points or inspiration.’

 - A family member of one character dies

- One character moves house

- One character is receiving anonymous threats

- One character is mugged

- One character is told that they have magical powers

- One character finds a mysterious box in their parents’ attic

- A character is injured in an accident

- One of the characters is forced to choose between two things they love

- One character is hurt badly in an accident

- One character abandons the other

- One character says something about the other character behind their back

- One of the characters gets sick

- The characters discover a person trying to harm them

- The characters have to face a mutual enemy

- The characters have to face their fears or weaknesses

- One character has to help the other out of danger

[ignitingwriting]

Igniting Writing Create Your Own Session Plan Challenge 2020, Submission by Christopher McAllister

Lyric Writing

 There is lots to cover so I have a few things to say before we get started:

- There are not really any rules to songwriting. Don’t take what I say as if it was the word of God.

- Good lyrics are subjective and might affect people in different ways so don’t worry if people don’t like it. As for everyone else, constructive feedback and don’t be so hard on yourself.

- We will have to talk about music theory so I will cover that ASAP before we get onto writing.

- Songwriting requires you to experiment and not just stick to the rules. Learn the rules like a pro to break them like an artist.

- You don’t need to see any of the handouts.

- Only the song links to the activities need to be used.

 1) Rhythm of lyrics in a broad sense:

Lyrics are poetry set to songs. To understand how to set lyrics to songs, you need to understand how lyrics work. First, we will talk about rhythm because lyrics need to have a rhythm in which they are sung at.

In most songs, the lyrics being sung take up the role of being the main melody of a song and it occurs over a period of time. To begin simply, music has a time signature. There are loads of them out there; the most common is 4/4 where you have four crotchet beats in a bar. 

A measure (or bar) is a segment of time corresponding to a number of beats. An easier way of thinking about it is like a phrase when you talk. (With rhythm) “You can talk in time for four bars.” That is one phrase. Another would be this: “Combine lots more to make a song”.

So you have noticed that I consistently said those words in time but also I counted two words per clap. This is an example of different rhythms you can use and will come across.

Notes can be divided in groups of two and three. We will focus on two for now and this is called “simple time”. Where you have four crotchet beats in a bar, you could have eight quavers – which was my chosen rhythm for that example. You could go further, dividing it into 16, 32, 64. Pop songs don’t usually go past 64 at all because it is too fast for most. We will call the crochet a 1/4note and talk about all the others in terms of fractions.

With this in mind, you can create loads of rhythms mixed up with 1/4 notes, 1/8 notes, and 1/16 notes to create a rhythm. (Example.)

Another side of this, is something called a rest. It is just to say that nothing must be played. You can’t leave music as an empty space, it has to be filled with something and that includes silence.

The other things you really need to be aware of to continue are 1/2 notes and whole notes. 1/2 notes last for two beats (or half of your measure). You can guess what a whole note is.

Okay, that was a mouthful now I got a game for you all to play. It might be simple but you can get as creative as you want with this. I created a loop which we are gonna clap along to. I want to give you a sense of rhythm and also get you to be creative in coming up with them.

 Activity One: clapping multiple rhythms (length of activity; three minutes excluding explanation)

So, you will get a one bar count-in before the song starts. The first part of the game is just to clap along to the first part of the song that lasts eight bars. I will call out the ‘subdivisions’ I’ve told you about, which everyone here should follow along to. I promise all of this has meaning in the long run. 

After the first part of the song, you have one bar to clap out any rhythm of your choice then everyone else will be able to repeat it the bar after. This is called a ‘call and response’. Don’t be scared to go complex but it must be ‘in-time’ with the music. Music has a set tempo which is the speed at which you count the 1/4 notes. (Provide example.) I will pick who goes, don’t worry if you can’t get it the first time around because I certainly didn’t. I will run through part of the whole song with you then we will all try it together. 

Activity One instrumental w/ voice: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I-mtvSOUFMMUe4MLTuyL2_OkwhA_8EQF/view

 2) Writing lyrics:

So now you hopefully have an idea of rhythm and most of you here have seen or heard poetry before. We are going to look at rap songs first because this will build on your sense of rhythm as well as give you a few tools to transfer into different situations like poetry and songwriting.

Rap songs focus on rhythm and rhyme as a bare minimum. One of the best rappers is Eminem and a few of you here might have heard their songs. Most of you know how to rhyme but it can be done in a few more satisfying ways in music and we will look at an example.

 Lose Yourself - Eminem (handout):

His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy

There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti

He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready

To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgettin'

What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud

He opens his mouth, but the words won't come out

He's chokin', how, everybody's jokin' now

The clock’s run out, time’s up, over, blaow!

 There are quite a lot of things to pick up on. You can utilise these in your lyric writing if you want to. Not every song has to rhyme. Let's look at what’s going on here:

This verse is built upon rhyming groups, that isn’t the exact name but it says what it is.

- Palms, arms, vomit, calm, bombs, on.

- Sweaty, heavy, sweater, already, spaghetti.

- Nervous, surface.

- Wrote, opens, won’t, chokin’, jokin’, over.

- Crowd, loud, mouth, now, out, blaow.

These words are grouped by vowels. There are around 20 vowel sounds in the English language, even more if you alter your accent like Eminem did.

The rhymes land on the same beat in the measure.

Eminem uses multisyllabic rhyming which we are going to cover in our next activity.

 Activity Two: rapid fire word rhyming (length of activity; three minutes + two minutes)

We are developing rhyme in preparation for the activity after this. This activity is meant to help you develop your rhyming and also provide you with a way of building verses and stanzas in the future.

To begin, everyone will pick two words at random from one hat. This word could be anything, but it will mainly be a noun or pronoun. Then, everyone will get five minutes to write as many words that rhyme (with your two words) as possible. An extra tip is that you can change your accent slightly and bend the rules to fit a word but that rule bending must remain consistent.

 List of words (can be used by more than one person):

Horse

House

Juice

King

Cat

Dog

Lock

Lunch

Match

Nail

Train

Trip

 Now you should have two banks of words which you can use. The next stage is to look at your words and see if you can combine them so that you have multisyllabic rhyming – this is where you have two words with more than one syllable that rhymes with another word with more than one syllable. You have less time because it might not be possible to come up with any, in which case, we can move on.

 Activity Three: (writing a rap) (length of activity; 15 minutes excluding explanation, 10 if we listen to 10 people)

So you now have a sense of rhythm as well as a really useful tool that helps you build rhymes from one word. If you keep practicing that with random words, then you should find yourself improving the level of your rhyming. Now that you have a few of the lyrical tools, we are all going to put them to the test. You’re going to write a stanza or two, or three, or four. Your topic is going to focus on 1 or both of the two words that you have been given which means that you can use your word banks that you have created for help.

To further help narrow the scope of what you have to do, I have created a few beats of different levels that you can set your raps too. Some of them are of a typical standard, others are much more difficult. All of them are one minute long. If you want to sing or add a melody, you can but focus mainly on the rhyming and the lyrics. 

Activity 3a - (86bpm, 4/4, LoFi) (Difficulty; 2/3): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PxVqFcpSeeFDuvIDLTGHfqzfMZ-HUedc/view

Activity 3b - (125bpm, 4/4, Hip-Hop) (Difficulty; 1/3): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JtTa3ZEUp4dZts-gidADljXzUDQEz-9W/view

“Activity 3c” - (120bpm, 4/4, Hip-Hop/Funk) (Difficulty; 2/3): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fJoTkXT4yrzPRVTdFrQo-_NoBRFQnAnH/view

 3) Applying music and lyrics to story:

Okay, now is the next stage of writing songs. Of course, we overlooked loads of other components that make up a song but should you be interested, there are loads of people who teach music and lyrics online. I’ll mention a few at the end. Right now, we are looking at applying lyrics to a story and there is no better genre than musical theatre.

A song is a key component of musical theatre and they serve multiple purposes. These are some that I have noticed so try to name a song that fits in with the following. They can be from a Disney film or another musical of your choice:

(Quick fire, show of hands if they have an answer.)

To introduce characters (Beauty and the Beast: Gaston https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuJTqmpBnI0, Hamilton: Alexander Hamilton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhinPd5RRJw, Beetlejuice: The Whole ‘Being Dead’ Thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ADY7FGtwmM).

An ‘I want something’ song, usually near the beginning of a musical (The Little Mermaid: Part of Your World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXKlJuO07eM, Hamilton: My Shot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic7NqP_YGlg, Beetlejuice: Dead Mom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEct4Nod2iU).

A song that is at a character’s lowest point in the story: (Frozen 2: The Next Right Thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6g1yQV0dIY, Hamilton: It’s Quiet Uptown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjEoOeXId1k, Beetlejuice: Home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xt3WNuB-oc).

So those are three types of songs out of millions of others and I can guarantee that a good song isn’t because of the music directly; it is because of the lyrics. And I would argue that though well written music is very important in musical theatre, well written lyrics are the most important component of the music in most musical theatre shows, with a few exceptions. 

But why is that the case? (Ask them why they think lyrics are important.) This goes for any form of media: communication. Stories are written by people to communicate something, whether it is an emotion like happiness or a lesson. 

- A Christmas Carol being written in 1848 as a political diatribe to battle against the poor working conditions in London. 

- Beauty and the Beast teaches about not judging a book by its cover. 

There was a point to communicate to an audience and it was done throughout the bigger picture of a story. But the ‘bigger picture’ isn’t necessarily where the real story exists.

Where is the story in a story? (To rephrase, ask them why they listen to stories told by other people.)

We can look to screenwriting, drama as well as life for the answer: all stories exist within the characters. They don’t exist in events – events fuel the story that exists in the characters. The reason for this is because your characters have had their own unique experience that nobody else has ever had, which is where the story exists. How were they affected? What was it like? Those are questions that characters communicate and I would argue that is where the core story lies.

Musical theatre songs are sung by characters who have a story to tell because they were affected by something in the moment. They are effective because they communicate a unique experience. 

 Activity Four: writing for a character (length of activity; 15 minutes excluding explanation) 

This activity is a step up from the third activity in basically all aspects, including story. You have a choice on what you write: An ‘I want’ song, a character introduction song, or a song where the character is at their lowest point in the play. 

The character that you pick can be already established, including yourself. You can use the previous tracks if you want, though I don’t recommend it, and you can read them like poetry or perform them. The choice is yours.

One more thing to talk about is the structure of a song. In musical theatre, most go AABA, but you can mess around with this if you want to. Make sure it has a clear structure when you write it and I look forward to seeing what you come up with. Don’t be ashamed if you think it is trash as it is a first draft. That is why us musicians cut, change and rewrite, even after the song is on Broadway or the West End. Good luck.

[crrailey01]

[eslexpat]

Common writing mistakes and how to avoid them #infographic

[eslexpat]

2nd grade writing prompts http://ift.tt/2vid1IZ