This past Wednesday I attended just one day of the Michigan Library Association’s annual conference, held in Grand Rapids, and learned lots of great library stuff. We recently started a monthly writing group for 6-12 graders at my library, and the final session I attended was presented by the two lovely staff members of Read and Write Kalamazoo (RAWK). They are a nonprofit organization in Kalamazoo that empowers kids of all ages who both love to write and struggle with it, showing them all kinds of ways to have fun with words. In other words, they’re awesome. After they explained their program they presented their captive audience with writing prompts just like the ones they give to the kids who come to their events. It was so fun to do some carefree writing, and to hear the words of the other adults in the room as well.
Below I’ll provide some of the prompts we did, as well as my own products from them (unedited in the spirit of the times prompts). If you’re having a dry spell, get your pen moving on these and don’t worry whether the end result has moved your work forward. You will have been writing – and that is enough. (PS: This is good NaNo prep!)
Freewrite: keep your pen moving no matter what, even if you are writing a grocery list, or the same word over and over. (90 second timer.)
The Fall has come to Michigan. The leaves are on the trees, but they are no longer green (like the grass, but darker). instead they are the yellow of the mums on my front porch, the orange of the pumpkin waiting in a patch for me to pick it and carve out it’s face.
Poetry: write six lines that begin with “I am looking…” It is suggested that at least three of the things you are looking for be concrete objects.
I am looking for the apples in an orchard by my home,
I am looking for the curtains that will hide my living room from the night,
I am looking for running shoes that will take me down a path less traveled;
I am looking for the return of romance.
I am looking for my warm puppy’s soft ear;
I am looking for a well-lived life.
Haiku: Write a haiku (three lines, 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables) about your favorite food, your least favorite food, or a food you have never tried.
Purple Beans
Crunchy, green inside
Sweet, crisp, cultivated gift,
Plucked from my garden.
Your turn!