Stoplight Romance (a.k.a. Missed Connections)

Write a Missed Connections ad based on a character from one of your stories or create a new one. 
Here is an example of a missed connection ad from Craigslist:

BAND-AID YEARNS FOR CHIN

You wowed me with your whoopie cushion shenanigans for hours.. I was reluctant at first but then soon fell in line with the jubilant merriment. You can play it in our band! I wish I could give you your band-aid back.. but a new and sterile one. Did you really fall off your bike or was that just some beard burn on your chin? I don't care, let's get together and I'll give you some ointment!

When: Sunday, August 7, 2011
Where: This Toilet Earth
I saw a: Woman
I am a: Man

Use this format to write a missed connection ad based on a fictional character.  Here is an example:

I'LL BE YOUR KNIGHT IN SHINING OVERALLS
You:  Damsel in distress wearing a white dress and in distress.
Me: Brave mustached plummer with a fetish for overalls and mallets.
Will you let me help you get that monkey off your back?

When: Saturday
Where: Top of building
I saw a: Woman in the clutches of an ape
I am a: Barrel dodging plummer named  Luigi

Critter Point Of View

The video clips posted below were filmed using a critter cam that had been attached to an animal or insect. Watch one of the videos and write a story from the point of view of an animal.

Writing from the POV of an animal has helped some author's create fantastic works of fiction. Watership Down by Richard Adams and Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White are two examples of books written from an animal's point of view.

Consider the following when choosing your point of view:

First Person. “Unites narrator and reader through a series of secrets” when they enter one character’s perceptions. However, it can “lead to telling” and limits readers connections to other characters in the short story.

Second Person. “Puts readers within the actual scene so that readers confront possibilities directly.” However, it is important to place your characters “in a tangible environment” so you don’t “omit the details readers need for clarity.”

Third Person Omniscient. Allows you to explore all of the characters’ thoughts and motivations. Transitions are extremely important as you move from character to character.

Third Person Limited. “Offers the intimacy of one character’s perceptions.” However, the writer must “deal with character absence from particular scenes.”

Fonts Personified: Ever wondered what Wingdings would look like?

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Create a Criminal Character

Here is your chance to create a criminal character.
1. Go to the following website and create a sketch artist's rendition of a criminal.
http://flashface.ctapt.de/

2. Use the image to create a crime for your criminal character. You have to decide if your story is told from the POV of the criminal, the victim, or the detective assigned to the case.

3. Publish your story along with the image you created using the sketch artist website.

Send In The Tropes!

Tropes:

What Type Are You? (A Personal History of Typefaces)

The following was originally posted on the Very Short List Blog (www.veryshortlist.com)

Since 1974, the design studio Pentagram has come up with a special way to usher in the holiday season, sending a select group of friends, colleagues and clients small booklets with an emphasis on strong graphic design rather that pat holiday greetings. But we kinda think they outdid themselves with 2009’s edition, the charming and incredibly well-executed and interactive What Type Are You? Typeface, that is!

After entering your name and password—happily, we are allowed to reveal here that it is “character”—turn your speakers, as directed, up. A nattily dressed man, seen only from the neck down, goes into therapy mode, speaking in what we’re imagining is a Freud-like accent. He’ll ask you four simple questions, pausing and fidgeting impatiently if you take too long, and will reveal your own individual “type.” There are 16 different possibilities (from Archer Hairline to Universal), and you’ll receive a short and fascinating history lesson on the specified font.

http://www.pentagram.com/what-type-are-you/

National Day of Listening

A great starting place for a story can be found at home with someone in your family or neighborhood. The National Day of Listening encourages participants to set aside one hour to record a conversation with someone important to them. This year, I interviewed Jewel Johnson. After listening to the interview, I found many stories that I will be using as starters for my own stories.  During the interview Jewel recounts an episode of "coon hunting" and what life was like in Sumter during the 1930's. 



See more Audio at TeacherTube.com.



See more Audio at TeacherTube.com.

Names Matter

The underlining understanding (connotative meaning) of words are dependent on the culture in which it was raised.  This interview answers the burning question, "Are toasters male or female".

Paradigm Shift

Fish are the last to recognize water.
Use the following videos and activities to look at the world differently.  

Ted Talk


Activity #1: World Map

 

 

Activity #2: Bathroom Break

Found Poems

Found poems take existing texts and refashion them, reorder them, and present them as poems. The literary equivalent of a collage, found poetry is often made from newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, speeches, letters, or even other poems (source: poets.org).

The poem below was featured in a segment titled "Women Of Troy" on the NPR program Studio360.  It was composed from text found on an application for temporary assistance. 

The Office of Temporary Assistance

By Susan B. A. Somers-Willett

Did you know? You have the right to receive food stamps within a few days if you are eligible and have little or no money. Do any of these apply to you? Pregnant? Need to establish paternity? Need child support? Drug/alcohol problem? Fuel or utility shutoff? No place to stay/homeless? No food? No job? Recently lost income? Pending eviction? You have the right to receive an application when you ask for it. Did you know? When was the last time you or anyone who lives with you worked? Are you participating in a strike? Did you know? You can get WIC even if you are not a legal resident. What type of work would you like to do? Could you accept a job today? Are you a felon, fleeing to avoid prosecution, in violation of parole? Do you live in section 8 or other subsidized housing? Do you live in a drug or alcohol rehab facility? Did you know? We must accept your application if, at minimum, it contains your name, address (if you have one) and signature. How long have you lived at your present address? Is this a shelter? These programs are meant to assist you only until you can fully support yourself and your family. Did you know? If total expenses exceed income, explore how the household is meeting its obligations. Do you or anyone who lives with you have cash on hand? Stocks, bonds, or mutual funds? An IRA, Keogh, 401(k)? A safe deposit box? Life insurance? A burial fund? A burial space? Are you blind, disabled, or pregnant? Black, white, unknown? Are you a victim of domestic violence? Did you know? If so, when did you know it?

Other links to found poetry:
ReadWriteThink Lesson: Found Poems  

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Beautiful Word Breakdown

Beautiful Word Breakdown

Step one: Write step-by-step instructions for how your word is spoken.
Step Two: Explain the origin of your word based on how each sound is made.
Step Three: Speak your word into a spectrometer and describe what the voice print of your word looks like.
Step Four: Look up and record the definition and etymology of your word.

Here is the breakdown for the word LOOM

Step one:
How to say LOOM.
1. Put tip of tongue on roof of mouth just behind the teeth and push air around tongue.
2. Form lips into a circle and expel air out.
3. Press lips together and vibrate air into nose.

Step two:
Loom was first spoken when people saw the moon in the sky and said "ooooo". Then they added the "m" sound because the site was so beautiful and delicious. Finally the dark liquid of the dark night sky moving around the white moon moved people to add the "l" sound at the beginning. of the word.

Step Three: This is what the voice print of "loom" looks like when recorded using the program "audacity":









Step Four: Etymology
• verb 1 appear as a vague form, especially one that is threatening. 2 (of an event regarded as threatening) seem about to happen.

— ORIGIN probably from Low German or Dutch.

Sound Poetry

Sound Poetry is a form of literary or musical composition in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded at the expense of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words". By definition, sound poetry is intended primarily for performance.

Watch the clip of a performance of The Four Horsemen and then write your own example of a sound poem.

Newspaper Blackout Poems

Create a poem in three easy steps:
1. Obtain a newspaper
2. Black out words
3. Display your poem for the world to see

I have posted some examples created by my Creative Writing students at the Academic Magnet High School. You can also visit the best source for newspaper blackout poems by clicking here: Austin Kleon's Blog

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A World Of Words

Watch the clip below to see what the world would look like if it was made of words.


Click here to view instructions on creating your own world of words: The Calligram

SNOOPING FOR CHARACTERS

Creating and developing a character by describing the items surrounding the character is a common method employed by writers. This activity takes this old writer's trick to the next level by taking a quick look at Sam Gosling's book Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You.

For the last ten years psychologist Sam Gosling has been studying how people project (and protect) their inner selves. By exploring our private worlds (desks, bedrooms, even our clothes and our cars), he shows not only how we showcase our personalities in unexpected-and unplanned-ways, but also how we create personality in the first place, communicate it others, and interpret the world around us. Gosling, one of the field's most innovative researchers, dispatches teams of scientific snoops to poke around dorm rooms and offices, to see what can be learned about people simply from looking at their stuff.

Gosling suggests asking the following three questions when looking at the items in a person's space:
1. What are the items?

2. What state are they in?

3. What is their location?

THREE TYPES OF ITEMS
Identity claims: Deliberate statements one makes to the world about who they really are.

Self Regulators: Effect how one thinks and feels. (social snacks)

Behavioral residue: inadvertent traces of our behavior

The easiest personalities to accurately predict when looking at peoples stuff
Leonardo Factor: Creative, imaginative
Robo Cop Factor: Dutiful, think before they act, not impulsive

Tips
Avoid putting emphasis on a single clue (instead focus on stuff as a group)
Avoid items that “grab your attention”

THE FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS
Use the following description of the five major personality types to help create a character through his or her stuff:

• Openness - appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unus]], curiosity, and variety of experience.
• Conscientiousness - a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behavior.
• Extraversion - energy, positive emotions, surgency, and the tendency to seek stimulation and the company of others.
• Agreeableness - a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.
• Neuroticism - a tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability; sometimes called emotional instability.

Save the Words

SAVE THE WORDS
Save the Words is a website created by the same people who publish the largest dictionary in the world, Oxford dictionary. The site features hundreds of washed up has been words that literally shout out for you to pay attention to them. Move your curser over a word and it'll cry out "Pick me!" or "over here". When clicked a popup reveals the definition, an example sentence, and an invitation to adopt the word by using it in your everyday conversations.
Many words are interesting and it causes one to wonder why they ever lost their popularity. Here are three of my favorites:
jobler- one who does small jobs
namelings-persons bearing the same name
kexy-brittle or whithered

http://www.savethewords.org/
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Its the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine

The assignment: Write a diary entry describing your first day as the lone survivor in a post-apocalyptic world.

1. Use the web application "Ground Zero" to help you get in a post-apocalyptic frame of mind.
Ground Zero is an evil-minded, utterly absorbing Web app that uses Google Maps and Javascript to simulate the blast radius of any number of nuclear weapons. It allows you to see just how far away you’d need to get from a bomb detonation in your hometown — or to take your aggressions out on someone else’s city.



2. Listen to the R.E.M. song to deepen your experience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXp91aYhOBg

3. Begin your journal entry with the following phrase: "Its the end of the world as I know it, but I feel..."

Calligrams: Drawing with words

"Cat" by Academic Magnet H.S. student Ashley Phillips

"The word and the image are one."
--Hugo Ball

A calligram is a poem (though can also be a phrase or single word) in which the typeface, calligraphy or handwriting forms an important part of the focus. Indeed, it is a visual manifestation of themes presented aurally and textually.

Watch the clip below to see what the world would look like if it was made of words.






The art of the calligram lies in its potential to communicate several messages simultaneously."
--Alan Fletcher in The Art of Thinking Sideways


"Face" by Academic Magnet H.S. student Rachel Ware

Writer's Tool: Visuwords

Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary — Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.

Enter words into the search box to look them up or double-click a node to expand the tree. Click and drag the background to pan around and use the mouse wheel to zoom. Hover over nodes to see the definition and click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify connections.

Paper Airplane

The best ideas for writing often come when you are not looking directly at them. Usually they come when you are distracted and paying attention to something else. Making, throwing, and watching a paper airplane is a great activity to inspire daydreams and/or imagination. Try it and see.

Flying from Sam Fuller on Vimeo.