No Lights! No Camera! No Action! Painting with Objects that ARE NOT THERE… ...like black holes, and missing socks This strategy brought to you by Harry Noden & Image Grammar (122).

Focus on the *mood* created by the combination of sound and words Let’s Begin! In a moment you will watch/listen to a film clip. There are words in this clip that you will need to read (even if you have read them before). As you read/listen, use the back of your same sheet of scratch paper to write down any words or emotions that come to mind. Focus on the *mood* created by the combination of sound and words Mood: the overall atmosphere or emotional sense evoked by a text

Now How Did That Make You Feel? Share Time = Raise Hands + Wait Your Turn!

Let’s Try It Again! In a moment you will watch the same film clip and read the same words. As you watch, again write down any words or emotions that come to mind. Focus on the difference in *mood* between this clip and the previous one. Ponder: What is similar? What has changed?

Do you feel differently? How did the mood change? Share Time = Raise Hands + Wait Your Turn!

1: Focusing on objects that are not present creates a different effect than focusing on objects that are. 2: You can use these effects to change the mood of your writing!!!

An Example…. The night was dark. Clouds obscured the stars. The air was calm and still. Silence lay heavily on the hills and woods. On the front porch a swing and a chair. On the lawn a silvery dew.

Or You Could Say… No star pierced the clouds. No heavenly body lit up the dark. Nothing stirred: not wind in the branches, not a single cry from a single creature echoed through the woods or on the hills. Nothing to disturb the silence. No one sat on the porch swing. No one sat in the chair. No foot crushed the silvery dew on the lawn.

Your Turn! Using the noun collage you created during Mrs. Springs’ activity, try your hand at painting with what is not in your noun collage. Take a moment before starting to visualize what is in your noun collage picture, then make a list of the things that are not there. Transform that list into a description using whatever sentence structures you like (fragments, run-ons, appositive phrases, etc.)

Reflect Questions? Comments? Look at both of your writing experiments? Is the mood different in the two pieces? How? Take a few moments to think on which style you like best or might like to try in the future. Questions? Comments?

Works Cited Noden, Harry. Image Grammar: Teaching Grammar as Part of the Writing Process. Heinemann: Portsmouth, 2011. Print. Star Wars: A New Hope. Dir. Lucas, George. 20th Century Fox, 1977. Film