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Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Story School #2

Hello and welcome! Welcome to the second Story School of 2014!

What is Story School, you ask--let me tell you.  Every Wednesday this summer, I'll post a story starter of sorts.  It might be an idea or a prompt.  It might be just a single word.  Who knows!  Story School started as a way for me to continue to connect with the students from my school (about writing) over the summer. But really, Story School is for everyone, young or old.  Writing exercises often get my writing juices flowing so I thought it would be good to share some of the stuff that works for me! 

The response to our first Story School was awesome.  Several kids sent amazing stories and poems.  It was a pleasure to read them and I am looking forward to reading more!

Okay, so on to today's prompt:

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words.  A thousand words!  That's a lot of words.  I am hoping that one of these two pictures inspires you to create some words of your own, but don't worry if it's not 1,000.  Any words are good words.

Today we are going to focus on character.  Describing your character well in your story really helps your readers create pictures in their own minds, and understand your story even better.   Describing a character doesn't have to mean showing what the character looks like. If you tell how the character acts, or what they are thinking, you are describing important parts of the character as well!

Who are our characters today?  Well let's meet them:

These are the Dog Brothers. (These two guys live at my house).

And this is Paper Cat. (This was made by my friend Mimi).

So, your characters for today's Story School are the Dog Brothers and/or Paper Cat.  Maybe they are super heroes!  Maybe the Dog Brothers live on a farm and the little one is always getting into trouble and the big one always has to get him out.  Maybe Paper Cat goes into outer space and saves the Earth from an alien invasion.  You can have them do anything you want, because you are the AUTHOR.  You don't have to use them both in your story.  You can make up a story with Paper Cat OR the Dog Brothers if you choose.  Or a poem.  Maybe the Dog Brothers or Paper Cat reminds you of your own pet and you want to write about them instead.  That is okay, too.

Just make sure you describe them!  (And you don't have to write a WHOLE story, either. Maybe you just want to write the beginning today, and more tomorrow.  Anyway you want to write it is fine, just as long as you are writing!!)

Remember, if you want to send me your writing, you can email me at storyqueen@gmail.com.  I will write back to you!

Happy writing!

hrh

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