Wordsmiths

37. Describe the experience of a country-born character's first trip to the city. Town Mouse and Country Mouse is one of Aesop's Fables (Not Hans Anderson, as I said in the video, apologies) which, as a prompt, opens up the opportunities to explore and develop a character's backstory. The original characters were simply visiting each other and complaining about the differences in each other's lives, whereas here we can build something with a foundation that we can come back to in the future. 31. City Mouse will come up at some point along the line and we will return to these characters in order to extend the story. What is Backstory? - Simply put, it is the events of a story that have happened before the narrative begins - HP does not start with the arrival of his first owl post, for example. A skilled writer can weave the backstory into a narrative without slowing things down, some writers use flashbacks or dream sequences and some just throw a load of history into the...

Learning to step back and edit your writing is almost as important a skill as the writing itself. Being able to show your writer's craft and process can only benefit your grades overall because - like mathematicians - English assessors like to see your working. Four Tips to CRAFTING Your Work Use 2 different colours - black, blue or green are best. Initially write in one, then use the other for your revision and editing to show how your ideas are developing. Double-space your prose - this allows room for editing in a neater way than trying to squeeze bits in or flick backwards and forwards. Spend AT LEAST 1/4 of your time Planning AND Editing - both are equally important to show an assessor that you're crafting your response. DO NOT USE White-Out/Tip-ex/Correction Strips. How can you show that you've crafted and edited your work if an assessor cannot see what you've changed? There are a number of acronyms for reviewing and editing out there, I personally prefer DARES be...

  111. Write a description of what you can see through a window. Your blue is not my blue, subtle changes in the cells of our eyes mean that we all see colours differently. Over the centuries we have developed a complex colour language, comparing colours to other things or even giving particular names to very specific shades. Colour vocabulary is useful for building interest and detail in descriptive work so this is an opportunity to explore these specialist adjectives. Starter - Name a Colour [5 Minutes] Pick one or two of the basic colours - Blue, Red, Yellow, Orange, Green or Purple - and list as many variations of that colour as you can. (Don't Google!) For a Challenge, try White or Black... DON'T SCROLL DOWN YET! My Lists Blue - Navy, Royal Blue, Turquoise, Sky Blue, Baby Blue, Ultramarine, Indigo, Cornflower Blue, Electric Blue, Denim, Aqua, Cyan, Ocean Blue, Teal, Cobalt Blue, Peacock, Azure, Cerulean, Berry, Sapphire and Arctic Blue. Yellow - Buttercup, Buttermilk, But...

  4: Write a short poem on the theme of the sea. Starter Task - Fill In the Gaps [5 Minutes] Copy/Paste this poem onto a Word Doc, or you can write it out and fill in the gaps. Answers are given in the video so don't watch the second part until you're satisfied. If you don't know or you're not sure use pencil or leave the space blank. No one is going to grade this, so you're free to make mistakes, as long as you make sure you have the right answers by the end. Parts of Speech Poem Every name is called a [    ], as [    ] and [    ], [    ] and [    ]. In place of name the [    ] stands, as [    ] and [    ] can clap their hands. The [    ] describes a thing, as [    ] wand and [    ] ring. The [    ] means action, something done, as [    ] and [    ] and [    ] and [    ]. How things are done the [    ] tell, as [...

Wordsmith's Creative Writing Blog Watch My Introduction Video Here. A Wordsmith crafts with words, as the name suggests. I am part teacher, part writer and part grammar grumbler, but I love all aspects of creative writing. I am alarmed to know that many schools do not have the time or speciality teachers to really teach CW in an inspirational way rather than focusing on technical aspects that can kill creativity before it starts. That is why I'm putting together these tutorials in order to fill the creative gap - whilst including technical skills - with the freedom to run when inspiration strikes. I'm basing these tutorials on a random selection of writing prompts - see THE LIST - which vary from poetry, narrative, descriptive, instructive and persuasive tasks. Each tutorial will begin with a key skill or technical element, then a new idea or skill before the opportunity to use those skills and elements in a creative way. Each tutorial will also include a reflection so that...

  Writing Prompts and Challenges I am not claiming ownership of all of these ideas, in fact I have been collecting prompts for years from different sources as well as finding block-breaking tasks for myself. Some are simple writing prompts, some challenges of technical writing and others are just fun ideas to play with. I do not expect anyone to work their way through them all in a specific order, but rather dip in randomly and explore the writing challenges that you pick. Nb. Some of these are deliberately repeated ideas to increase the practice of particular skills and techniques.   1.        Space [Technical] Write a short, themed poem about space.   2.       The Forest [Technical] Write a short, themed poem about a forest.   3.       Scrambler [Technical/Challenge] Copy down the SECOND sentence from 3 random non-fiction texts. Using only the words from ...