Child Soldiers Resources

Click here for a list of links.

New Links:
Debate Continues Over Child Soldiers in Uganda (article)

Video Response by C. Jack Ellis

Character Profiles

Creative Writing Students, please click "reply" to this post and then type in your character profile.  That way, we will each be able to read the profiles and refer to them as we are writing the story.


The URL for the Clockwork game is http://dictionary.reference.com/fun/clockwords

Have fun!

Short Story Terms

A Dictionary.com Word Dynamo challenge involving 22 short story terms is here.

Depending on your familiarity with these terms, please click "Play" and complete one or more of the following (listed in order from easier to more difficult):
(1) flash cards
(2) matching
(3) crossword puzzle

Have fun!

50-Word Stories

Can you tell a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end that will engage your reader in 50-words or less?

See http://fiftywordstories.com/top-stories/ for examples.  Then write your own.

Creative Writing -- Prose Exercises

To improve as a writer, it is important to:
(1) Write frequently.  Write every day, if possible.
(2) Try your hand at all different kinds of writing.  (This is like cross training for an athlete or trying new ethnic foods for a chef.  It can only make you better at your main specialty.
(3) Save what you write, read it over, and reflect on it occassionally.
(4) Have others read and critique what you write.
(5) Read.  Continuously.  You can't read enough.  Borrow tricks of the trade from the masters.  Try out different styles.  Be impressed.  Get motivated.  Let your imagination take flight.
(6) Engage in some longterm writing projects of your own choosing.


The principles above can be useful in helping giving direction to this course.  Some of the daily writing exercises may seem like they "are not your cup of tea," but I encourage you to try them all.  The exercises that seem most difficult may actually be the ones that stretch you the most and do you the most good.

Some exercises to get started:

1.  Write about a place (real or imaginary).  Involve all 5 senses in your description of this place.
2.  Write about a person (real or imaginary).  Involve 2 or more senses in your description of this person.
3. Write about an object.  Tell the story of this object through time.
4.  Write about a pet (or other animal) from the point of view of that pet.  Tell a story (real or imagined) through the pet or animal's eyes.
5. Write about a birthday, Christmas, or other holiday from the point of view of a young child.  Use the language and way of looking at the world suitable to a child.
6. Write from a point of view of a person very different from yourself -- a prisoner in a jail, a nomad living in the desert, a yak farmer in Tibet, a rancher in Australia -- you get the idea.  Tell a story about your life from this perspective.
7. Write a complete short story that includes a beginning, middle, and an end in less than 200 words.  Then try to get it down to less than 100 words.
8.  Write a fable or a myth.
9.  Write about your first memory (from childhood).
10. Tell a story by only using dialogue.  No narration.
For example:
     "How would I go about doing that?"  he said.
     "Just start in the middle of a conversation and keep going," she replied.
     "But what about the story part?"
     She paused before answering.  "We've already got a beginning.  Now make it go somewhere. . . ."

Read a Poem Aloud

More than most other things that are written, most poems need to be read aloud to be fully appreciated. In fact, the poems themselves crave it. So do a poem a favor by adopting it for a day and preparing to read it aloud for the class.

This can be one of your poems -- or a poem by another writer. Be sure the poem is well-suited for reading aloud, and keep your audience in mind as you make your selection.

Some tips on reading poetry aloud can be found here:
Tips on reading poetry aloud from Billy Collins.

#5 Break the Rules

Poets of all times have been rule-breakers. (Just another reason to love poetry!)

Don't like punctuation? Leave it out. Wanna ms. spell words? Do it. Want to write about something you are not supposed to say in polite company, go for it.

The above are just a few examples of how poets of the past have broken the rules. To truly be a rule-breaker, you will have to find your own rule to break -- and to break it in a truly original way.

(Or maybe, just maybe, you could break the rule by following all the rules.)

Here is one example of a poem that breaks the rules:

Why do we read from the top to the bottom? Do poems always need to be read that way?

See the poem at thestarlitecafe.com/poems/51/poem_8213044778.html to find out.