Three Things So Lit:
A writing prompt, a fountain pen, and my latest read
Here are three things worth sharing this week:
Writing Prompts: When my kids were in middle school, they had a fabulous Language Arts teacher named Ms. Edmunds. Every day they would be greeted with a writing prompt on the board. The whole class wrote in silence for five minutes. Low stakes, no grades. At the end of the school year, each student had a personal notebook full of creative writing. It really changed the way my children saw themselves; they were writers!
To tell you the truth, I’ve never been one to write with prompts, but I’ve had a mindset shift. Each day in class this week, I gave the students a prompt, and I wrote with them. Sometimes we read our work out loud and sometimes we didn’t, but they came up with incredibly funny, and creative stories. Prompts are a great way to get the creative flow going; there’s no time to edit or judge self, just a free flow of ideas onto the page. It’s FUN and there’s no time to get “stuck.”
Try it! Here’s one I used from Ruta Septys book, You: The Story. A Writer’s Guide to Craft Through Memory (p. 91)
Writing Prompt:
You sneak out of your bedroom window to meet someone you aren’t supposed to. Write from the following perspectives:
First person: you are sneaking out the window
Third person limited: the dorm parent or parent who discovers you’re not in the room.
Third person omniscient: the new security camera that records you escaping from the window.
First or third person: the person who’s waiting for you.
If you want to go further -
How can you add conflict layers?
What details could you add for depth, feeling and mood?
Lamy Safari Pen: I finally ordered some replacement ink so my favorite yellow fountain pen1 is working again. Maybe I will use it to draw some daily diary comics like K. Woodman-Maynard! So inspirational. But you don’t need the special pen to draw something. I drew with some thin Crayola Super Tip markers last week and it brought me JOY.
I saw this quote on Instagram @linescapes.drawing
Read this book:
The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh (National Book Award Finalist)2 What a story! Thirteen-year-old Matthew is miserable and stuck at home during the 2020 pandemic with his 100-year-old great grandmother, Gigi, when he discovers an old black and white photo in Gigi’s papers. A family secret connected to the Holodomor is uncovered (the famine in Ukraine that was orchestrated and covered up for decades by the Soviet union). The point-of-view alternates between present day Matthew and a young Gigi living in 1930s USSR. It’s fantastic. For fans of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, Ruta Septys, and Alan Gratz’s Refugee. It reminds me of Jenna Vandenberg ‘s post: A Story of Poland, from the Polish Underground and Jan Karski’s book: Story of a Secret State: My Report to the World. First published in 1944, Jan provided the first eyewitness account to President Roosevelt about Nazi death camps.
I listened to The Lost Year on Libby, and liked it so much I’ll be ordering my own copy. Not only is the story terrific, but so is the story structure. How does a writer write from multiple points of view and have the story come together so well?
What are you reading? What’s so lit in your world?
Amy 💕
the last part:
Feeling: Warm. It’s actually a wee bit warm (sudden 80s and 90’s!) but you shan’t hear me complaining.
Hearing: The bees are buzzing and the peepers are peeping
Smelling: Bug spray
Seeing: It’s gorgeous in New Hampshire. The grass is green, the apple buds are blossoming, and hark - my tomato plants are ready to go into the garden (the only thing I’m planting this year).
Baby Hal: is coming to see me on Sunday. He’s become very mobile (hide the plants!) On his last visit, he visited his great grandfather, Arthur, who just turned 89 years old.
read with me:
The Unforgettable Guinevere St. Clair is part-mystery, part understanding of the human heart 💖
Ten Thousand Tries is Golden’s quest to save his dad and the soccer team ⚽
The McNifficents is one summer with six rambunctious kids and their miniature-schnauzer nanny 🐕 New Hampshire’s 2024 Great Reads for Kids selection!
I feel guilty for ordering and promoting Amazon, but that’s where I got it…
*National Book Award Finalist*
*Golden Kite Award Winner*
*A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the 21st Century*
*A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year*
*A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year*
*A Bank Street Best Book of the Year*
I've been experimenting with diary comics too thanks to her :) and these look like such food books recs! How have I not heard of a book so award winning??