Creative Writing Circuit Training Flex those writing muscles!

Directions Today, you’ll rotate through a series of stations with writing tasks to challenge you to think creatively. You will spend about 20 minutes at each station. Record your work in your writer’s notebook, or take screenshots if your work is visual & completed on your iPad/computer. You’ll be graded on the effort you put into today’s assignments (I need to see that you completed each one).

A. Exquisite Corpse Introduction: In Exquisite Corpse, each person in your group writes a few sentences, then folds the paper over so only the last line can be seen by the next person. Directions: 1. One groupmember sets a timer on their iPad for 3 minutes. 2. Give one sheet of paper to each person in your group. 3. On your sheet of paper, write about 3 lines of text. It works best if you use lines of poetry, the beginning of a story, or perhaps some dialogue. Don’t just write nonsense! 4. Fold your sheet of paper so that only your last line can be seen on the front. Pass your sheet to the left. 5. Repeat on the new sheet, using your groupmate’s last line as your starting point. At the end of the three minutes, fold the sheet so only your last line is visible. 6. Continue until everyone has had a chance to write. Share your exquisite corpses!

B. Language Is A Virus Introduction: At this station, you’ll use your iPads to remix some of your writing (or others’) using the interactive tools on Directions: 1. Go to this website: 2. Using your own writing from your own writer’s notebook, or songs/poems/stories/random pages in books from the shelf/Twitter posts/Facebook status updates, play around with at least two of the following tools*: 1. Cut-Up Machine 2. Poetry Gyroscope 3. Sentence Builder 4. Text Mixer 5. Reverse Poem 3. Record screenshots of the originals, and your remixed work. Write at least one of your remixed pieces down in your writer’s notebook. *These are the only tools that work on the iPads. If you have a computer with you, feel free to mess around with the others! Poetry Collage and Visual Poetry are particularly fun.

C. Mad Fortune Introduction: Enter Madame Todd’s Fortune-Telling Parlor! Here, you’ll use the sacred Mad Libs Fortune Teller to predict something about your future. Then, you’ll write a short piece describing what you will do with your prediction. Directions: 1. In groups of two or three, fill in the blanks on the MadLibs fortune teller. One person reads out the words below the blanks (i.e. “adjective”), and the others suggest words to write in the blanks. Be sure to use precise language! 2. Cut out the fortune teller. 3. Take turns following the instructions at the top right of the handout. 4. After you receive your prediction, write a short piece (half a page or more) describing what you will do after you leave Madame Todd’s parlor, using the prediction you received as your first line.

D. Writing From Photographs Introduction: Writer Casey Cep has stopped carrying a notebook around with her, and instead uses her phone to document bits of inspiration, names, pictures of people she loves or finds interesting, and anything else she can use to fuel her writing. Read more here. At this station, you will use photographs to fuel yours.Read more here. Directions : Read Casey Cep’s piece on the usefulness of photographs for writers. Use the following slides as prompts for short pieces of writing. Please complete two exercises based on two different photographs. These could take the form of: Captions Inner monologues (what are the subjects of the photographs thinking?) Poems Beginnings of short stories Six-word memoirs/six-word poems Lists Narration (what’s happening in the photograph?) Analysis (How is the photograph composed? What message do you think the photographer is trying to capture? How is the viewer supposed to feel?) Dictionary definitions Anything else you can think of!