I've been conducting writing workshops for a long time, and if there's one thing I love working with, it's poetry. Nearly every writing programme I conduct begins with a poetry module. Why? Because it's accessible. It's far easier to write a poem in a week than it is to write a story in a week.And so, each time, I try to work with different kinds of poetry. We've done list poems and narrative verse, limericks, rhymes, poems with strong verbs, and much, much more. Everything serves as a poetry prompt for me, and I think it can work for anyone!For instance, what we read always helps us to get creative, and so, my reading programmes too have an element of poetry sometimes. Here's a brief look some of the kinds of poetry we've explored recently.CinquainsThe first poem below is a cinquain, which the children wrote when we read I Survived: The California Wildfires, 2018. … [Read more...]
Creative Writing Workshops – Reflections and Resources
I spend hours scouring the internet for creative writing resources. I love those hours, even though sometimes I find myself panicking. There are so many wonderful ideas out there! What can I use? I want to use them all! At those times, I need to step away from my laptop and remind myself that I cannot do everything in twelve weeks. The weeks always fly by once I start a writing programme. I'm more than halfway through. Here are a handful of activities I used successfully this time! Rhyming Opposites This seems like an overly simplistic activity, but it works with people (I won't even say just children) of all ages. It is based on something I came across in the book Writing with Children, by Jackie Reilly and Vanessa Reilly and serves as a great way to begin a session on rhyme! How would you fill in the blanks? Musical Writing I have no idea … [Read more...]
My Year in Writing – 2020
I'm beginning to write this post on a day when I received a miserable royalty report for one of my books for the year 2019-20. Yet, the year 2020 has been all kinds of wonderful in terms of publishing for me. So many of my projects have seen light of day, though they have suffered for it too, thanks to the pandemic. With ecommerce, distribution and retail taking a blow, perhaps it was not a great year to have books release. But how can I not be happy to see my work out there? Poetry Creatures of the Dark Published by Oxford University Press Buy Roots 5 January 2020 brought me my first publication of the year, and it was a first in many ways. It was the first time I had something published in a textbook, the first time I could download an app and watch an animated video of my poem, and the first time … [Read more...]
Reflections – Part 2
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the first series of reflections, written by children from my first batch of the creative writing programme. The idea of a reflective statement is something that I came to appreciate when I was teaching the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. While I was teaching, however, many students hated writing reflections because they had to write them. The checkbox needed to be ticked for the IB. Now, on the other hand, I find that most children enjoy taking this time out to think about how far they have come and how much they have learnt.It's a moment I enjoy too. Take a look at some of the work they've put together! All this is shared with their permission, of course!This was a guided writing activity, inspired by a poem I read by Ken Nesbitt. Guided writing of this sort is something I especially enjoy facilitating at workshops because the results … [Read more...]
Nine Days of Spine Poetry
I've been fascinated by spine poetry for a while, but I've just been too lazy to try it out.A couple of weeks ago, I shed the laziness and began. Like all kinds of writing, I liked some poems more than others. Some of the poems were so unappealing after a couple of days, that I didn't even bother to share them. But for the rest, over the last nine days, I have been sharing a poem a day on my social media handles.Here they are, all together. Which one(s) do you like most?Edited to add: I deleted one! I don't like it anymore.If sweetness is something you look for in poetry ...Once Upon a More Enlightened Time At the Back of the North Wind In An Antique Land A Song BeginsHere is a slightly dark one.Night-Time is My Time I, Lucifer Incognito Knock Down The Innocent ManThis one was just fun. I saw the first and third books … [Read more...]
Working with Poetry
Many children write poetry. Rhyme is fun, having your poem published in the school magazine is even more fun. Teachers and parents encourage children to write poetry, which is good. Of course there's a 'but'.People have been writing poetry forever. Forget the ancient languages, in English alone, even those who don't opt to study Old English begin by studying Chaucer et al, who wrote almost 700 years ago. When children write about rainy days and their favourite pets, what are they doing to make their work stand out? Why will their work be special? That's what we work with when I conduct poetry writing workshops.Yesterday's workshopAs we played with poetry, people kept popping in to ask what was happening. A Sunday afternoon at a library meant we had lots and lots of visitors.Exasperated with the interruptions, the children finally asked me, "Why do so many people want to … [Read more...]
I love limericks!
Limericks are fun! Very often, during a short session on creative writing, we work with limericks. They're good fun, sparking much conversation and laughter. Many, many children love limericks too - one of my students even wrote a short story in limericks, which is part of Flickering Flames - An Anthology of Poems and Short Stories. But that one deserves a post on its own, so I'll come to it some other time.Recently, we were talking about limericks at a workshop for 7 to 10-year-olds. One girl wanted to share a limerick she knew by heart, so she did. It's a famous one by Edward Lear, which may be familiar to many. There was an old man with a beard, Who said, "It is just as I feared— Two owls and a hen, Four larks and a wren, Have all built their nests in my beard!" Very often, though, in a workshop that has a widish age-group of children, I need to … [Read more...]