Writing Exercises: Painting Word-Pictures of Still Life

This is a fun game designed to get children playing with words by using their senses.

A wordsmith may be great at telling a story, but fall foul of plot. Others can conjure up unforgettable characters, but their dialogue is limp.  And even many experienced writers often trip up on description.

This exercise is amazingly powerful at their creative juices flowing. And it's simple and easy to do.

The aim of the 'Still Life' game is to paint word-pictures!


What do you need?

• Pen and paper
• An object

The Rules of the Game?

• Select an object
• Create an air of mystery about the object.
• Then present it! 
• Encourage the children to use their senses...

• Get the children to walk around the object - instruct them to try different angles

Ask them: 

• What is the object? Can they think of alternative names?
• What colour is it? Can they think of different ways to describe the colour?
• What is its shape?
• How does light act on the object? 
• Does it resemble another object?

If safe, pass the object round:

• Is it hard, soft? Heavy, light? 
• Warm, cold?
• What kind of texture does it have?

• Does the object make a sound?
• Which part of the object does the sound come from?
• Is it a pure sound? A note?
• Does the sound resemble any other?
• How long does it last?

• Do they think the object has a taste? 
• Could they describe it?

• How does the object make them feel?
• Is it special in any way?
• Does the object recall a memory?

• What is the story of the object? How did it get there? Where is it going? Where was it made? By whom?
• How is it placed? How does the object relate to other objects around it...

Then:

• Get them to read out what they've written

Once they have the hang of the exercise, ask the children to write what they see as:

• A poem
• A short story
• A title
• A letter
• A text message
• An email

  

Extra tips:

• Prepare beforehand - I suggest selecting five objects.
• Five objects could take more than 30 minutes to describe!
• The more intriguing the object the more involved the childen will get.
• Children will improve each time the do the exercise - but don't do too many objects!

Finally: 

If your group enjoys this exercise, suggest keeping a notebook handy to take notes. Writers depend on random scribblings to populate their writing. You never know when you might need a descriptive piece of writing.

Have fun!

The No 1 Secret to Getting Your Message Across

Charity's struggle to share their successes and struggles with donors, friends, staff, and volunteers. Communication is essential to raise funds and resources, link with hard-to-reach communities and to ultimately change society.


How do charities usually tell their story? They start with the the date established and close the narrative with the services they offer and expect us to buy in to their vision. Hmm.

This works wonders when the message is shot from the founder's hip or comes from someone whose life was turned around by the charity. But what if you're not the founder? How do you connect with would-be donors?

Simple.

Focus on the positive change you brought to one person's life. 

In future blogs I will provide examples and more steps on how to connect with audiences. Watch this space.

Books for Writers: "The First Five Pages" by Noah Lukeman

A great number of books have been written on the art of writing. Most of these books are written by authors, poets - that is, writers in the main. Very few are written by agents.

This is where The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile by Noak Lukeman comes into its own. It tells you what you should not do as well as what you should. Sometimes knowing what you should not do is actually far more useful. What Lukeman clarifies that agents, are looking to reject a manuscript. That thought will horrify you perhaps, but he provides the landmarks you need to follow to ensure your book is not thrown into the rejection pile.

Although I recommend this book, I have a proviso; it is not suited to all writers. It is geared towards genre/commercial fiction in the main and not literary fiction.

ZHZ.

Great Writers: Guy de Maupassant

A short-story occasionally appears on the horizon that redefines the world and jars it into focus and  Boule De Suife is one of them.  For any writer seeking to master the short story there is no better beginning to the instruction of this most difficult of forms than this collection.

Guy de Maupassant's classic opening story (also entitled 'Boule de Suif') takes a knife to French society and ruthlessly peels away its many layers. Set during the Franco-Prussian War, Maupassant descends into the mores of the rich and educated and reveals them for what they are.

What is fascinating about Maupassant's tale is how in the confines of the short story form he is able to show how delicate the fabric of human illusions is and how easily it is torn asunder.

Guy de Maupassant

Whether you read it in the original French or otherwise, c'est formidable.

ZHZ.

Great Books: Dune by Frank Herbert

I read Dune when I was twelve and I revisit it continually as its lessons remain as potent today.

Dune has a brooding quality that erodes limits and barriers and emphasises certain realities and hints at greater depths and mysteries.  There is a sense of timelessness to this classic eco-religio-political piece of science fiction that defies interpretation and continues to tantalise.

Yet Dune was turned down by twenty or so publishers before it was finally accepted and even then, grudgingly so.  There lies hope for writers who achieve only rejection instead of recognition.  Publishers are businessmen: don't expect them to fund art for art's sake.

In today's world of eco-nightmare and addiction to petroleum, in the nature, shape and influence of "spice melange" there is a vital message for all us and there lies one secret of this classic: it answers questions of the day in perpetuity - whoever controls the ultimate source of power controls the universe and whoever is willing to destroy it, like Paul Atreides, will rule.  What will follow, however, may be unspeakable.

Dune, remains the greatest single science-fiction novel ever written, not simply due to the quality, depth and cadence of the writing, but because of the universe Frank Herbert wrought.

If ever there was a contender for a science-fiction novel worthy of the Nobel Award then this is it.


ZHZ.