This morning in Creative Writing: Short Stories, we conducted a series of rapid-fire writing exercises and played several writing games. For example, we practiced stream-of-consciousness writing by having each student write about a pre-set topic for three minutes and then switching papers and continuing on the story that someone else started. Students really enjoyed this activity, and we had some entertaining stories as a result!

Next, we practiced word choice through micro stories. You may have heard of “six-word stories,” but we expanded that to 100-word stories, 50-word stories, and 20-word stories. Each round had a different prompt, and students had a chance to showcase their creativity. Additionally, we talked about Shakespeare, who invented almost 1600 words, and we gave students a chance to invent their own words and use them in a short story. Students did a great job guessing the new words that their peers created!

After lunch, we learned about types of literary conflict using film clips, then we practiced writing our own conflicts using the characters that we created yesterday. Finally, we ended the day with a study of the fantasy genre and allowed students to begin creating their own worlds! We will finish up the world building exercise tomorrow, and then students will begin to work on the independent writing projects of their choice.

Some dinner table questions:

1. What was the word that you created today? What does it mean, and how would you use it in a sentence?
2. Which type of literary conflict did you write about for your character? What are the other types of conflict that are most interesting to you?
3. What did you create for your world building exercise? What is unique about your world?