The Book Arts Bash: A Summer Writing Program

[Photo by gotplaid?]

Are your students eager to put their thoughts on paper? Or do they struggle, intimidated by that blank, white page? Or are they like me --- a little of both? Even the most reluctant writer may be motivated by knowing that a real person (not "just Mom") will read his creation. In case you missed the announcement a couple of weeks ago, I would like to highlight a wonderful opportunity for writers of all ages:

• The Book Arts Bash

From the website

" The Book Arts Bash is a brand new writing contest for homeschoolers, unschoolers, upschoolers, and outschoolers! Our goal is to have fun writing and illustrating, and to stretch book arts across the curriculum.

"The deadline is October 1, so get scribbling! Explore 20 categories, and enter as many as you like! There are five age groups, from kindergarten kids to homeschooling moms and dads."

Browse the list of contest categories

Look over this delectable list to get your creative juices flowing. Which of these would you like to write? As a bonus, the guidelines for each category include teaching tips!

• Picture Book: Original Story, Familiar Tale, ABC Book, Pop-Up, Fractured Fairy Tale, or Non-Fiction

• Blog: Entire Blog or Single Post

• Drama: Classic Revisited or Original Skit

• Fiction: Short Story, Original Fable, Original Legend, Novel Excerpt, or Novel Cover Art

• Poetry: Single Poem or Collection

• Storytelling: Original Story or Familiar Tale

• Comic Book

A few contest details

Parents and homeschool graduates can enter, too, so be sure to get the whole family involved. There are five different grade levels in each category: K-2nd, 3rd-6th, 7th-9th, 10th-12th, and Adult.

Prolific writers may enter more than one category. Simply fill out one form for each entry, and then send them in together. There is a small entry fee: $5 for the first entry per family and $3 for each additional entry.

The organizers are still working to find sponsorships and finalize assorted details. Several well-known authors, editors, and storytellers have signed on as judges. See the list here as it is updated.

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Related Posts:

• Dragon Writing Prompts
  
• Writing a Story, Part 1
  
• Writing a Story, Part 2
  

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Keeping a Commonplace Book

[Image from the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.]

A commonplace book is what a provident poet cannot subsist without, for this proverbial reason, that "great wits have short memories:" and whereas, on the other hand, poets, being liars by profession, ought to have good memories; to reconcile these, a book of this sort, is in the nature of a supplemental memory, or a record of what occurs remarkable in every day's reading or conversation. There you enter not only your own original thoughts, (which, a hundred to one, are few and insignificant) but such of other men as you think fit to make your own, by entering them there. For, take this for a rule, when an author is in your books, you have the same demand upon him for his wit, as a merchant has for your money, when you are in his.

--- Jonathan Swift
"A Letter of Advice to a Young Poet"
Quoted at Blogs, Definitions and Commonplace Books

Through the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival, I stumbled on last week's post about commonplace books from one of my favorite homeschool bloggers, Harmony Art Mom:

• What is a Commonplace Book? Or Another Way to Narrate

(I really must subscribe to her feed, so I don't miss these things!)

Do you have a quotation journal that you've started and left to gather dust? I have at least three of them, but now I feel inspired to dig one out and start collecting quotes again. It's great fun, it provides fodder for my co-op class blackboard, and it sets a good example for my young scholars. Commonplace books have been used for centuries by readers and scholars, and at least one professor still requires students to keep one.

If you've never kept a quote book before, here are some ideas to get you started:

• Commonplace Books
  A commonplace page about commonplace books, from the professor mentioned above.

• The Commonplace Book: Part I
  A history of commonplace books, and how they are still a useful tool today.

• The Commonplace Book: Part II
  What to put in your commonplace, and how to organize it.

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Related Posts:

• Dragon Writing Prompts
  
• Homeschooling No-Brainer: Use the Library
  
• Explore My Math Blog
  

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Writing a Story, Part 2

[Photo by mezone.]

Yesterday, I talked about writing for elementary and middle school children. This time, I have collected a set of writing tips for older students.

First, some general pointers:

• A Guide to Writing Well
  by Joshua Sowin, compiled from the classic books On Writing Well and The Elements of Style

• Rules for Writers
  by William Safire

• Commonly Overused Words
  and Synonyms for Words Commonly Used in Students' Writings

I need to bookmark those sites for my own use. After myriad years of writing, I still lapse into bad habits too often.

Next, because my own children are all writing fantasy and science fiction stories, here are the best tips I can find for sf/fantasy fans:

• Heinlein's Rules
  by Robert J. Sawyer

• Creating Fantasy and Science Fiction Worlds
  by Michael James Liljenberg

• Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions
  by Patricia C. Wrede (one of our family's all-time favorite authors!)

• Many articles about writing
  from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)

• A Complete Course in Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy
  by Jeffrey A. Carver

Finally, a bit of humor for sf/fantasy fans and budding writers:

• Grand list of overused science fiction clichés


• The Not-So-Grand List of Overused Fantasy Clichés


• The Fantasy Novelist’s Exam

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Related Posts:

• Writing a Story, Part 1
• Dragon Writing Prompts
• Homeschooling No-Brainer: Use the Library

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Writing a Story, Part 1

[Photo by Pingu1963.]

A friend forwarded the link to these Creative Writing Lesson Plans by Jamie Amini (I particularly enjoyed her brainstorming list of opening sentences). As I read those articles, I realized that we haven't done freewrites or other writing assignments for ages. My kids do quite a bit of writing on their own, but sometimes they do need a spark to relight their fire.

So I started browsing the Internet for other ideas, and I discovered a great batch of writing tips from real authors:

• How to Write a Story
  by Bruce Hale

• Explore Fractured Fairy Tales
  with Jon Scieszka

• Folk Tale Writer's Workshop
  with Alma Flor Ada and Rafe Martin

• Mystery Writing
  with Joan Lowry Nixon

• Myths Writing Workshop
  with Jane Yolen

• And finally, here are three Poetry Writing Workshops
  with Karla Kuskin, Jean Marzollo, and my son's favorite poet, Jack Prelutsky

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Related Posts:

• Writing a Story, Part 2
• Dragon Writing Prompts
• I Love KISS Grammar

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Dragon Writing Prompts

[Photo by jez.atkinson.]

Dragon Writing Prompts offers great quotes, brainstorming lists, idea generators, and plot ninjas. What a great resource to kick-start your students’ (or your own) writing!

Recent writing prompts:

• Hidden in plain sight
• “Writing is a cop-out.”
• Ah, and our eight alligators ardently ate another
• Quiet as a rooster at sunrise
• “One of the most difficult qualities …”

And since all of my kids are writing fantasy novels:

• The Fantasy Novelist’s Exam
• The Not-So-Grand List of Overused Fantasy Clichés
• The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches
• Grand list of overused science fiction clichés

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Related Posts:

• Writing a Story, Part 1
• Writing a Story, Part 2
• I Love KISS Grammar

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