Smiley Face Tricks for Writing

REPETITION FOR EFFECT ☺Repeat a symbol, sentence starter, important word, etc. ☺Repeat specially chosen words/phrases to make a point/to stress certain ideas ☺Decide purpose before you begin writing

BEFORE I hate writer’s block! AFTER I hate writer’s block! I can’t think of anything to write. I can’t come up with words for this crazy assignment. I can’t create anything new. I can’t, and I won’t!

Before I love my cell phone.

After Your turn! I love my cell phone…

HYPHENATED MODIFIERS ☺Connect two or more adjectives together with a hyphen to describe a noun

Before She rolled her eyes at her mother and turned her nose up with a sniff. After She rolled her eyes at her mother and turned her nose up with an I-can't-believe-you- actually-said-that sniff.

Before The hallway smelled like onions. After The hallway had that mama- don't-cook-nothin’-without- onions smell.

Before I will be a college freshman next year.

Your Turn I will be a __-__-__-__-__ freshman next year.

SPECIFIC DETAILS / IMAGERY ☺Helps your readers visualize the person, place, thing, or idea you’re writing about ☺Appeal to at least 3 of the 5 senses

Before: My grandma’s house is nice.

Your Turn My grandma’s house is …

After: I am sitting out on an old Dixieland porch in Mississippi. The twin rocking chairs glide back and forth, speaking to each other in the tongue of “rickety-rack”. Making itself a web in the corner of the wrought-iron railing is a small black spider. Hanging from a weeping willow, an emerald birdhouse sways in the wind, as the robins sing their never-ending song. I throw up a wave as a muddy 4 X 4 passes the farm. Down here in Mississippi we share Southern hospitality.

Your Turn Write your own description of this. Be creative; be humorous; have fun.

MAGIC 3 ☺Three items in a series ☺Separated by commas ☺Creates a poetic rhythm ☺Adds support for a point

Examples I was so excited that I jumped, cried, and smiled. I was so excited that I jumped up and down, cried huge tears of joy, and plastered a big smile on my face. BEFORE AFTER

Before: Cooking requires chopping, seasoning, and sautéing.

Your Turn Cooking requires chopping, seasoning, and sautéing.

After: Chopping vegetables into bite- sized pieces, adding herbs and spices to “kick it up a notch”, and sautéing until the tidbits are juicy, make cooking an enjoyable pastime for me.

Your Turn – pick one

Alliteration Before: Thunderstorms hit central Indiana yesterday. After: Storms socked the state’s middle on Saturday. V for Vendetta

Alliteration YOUR TURN Write about your favorite place to eat – include an example of alliteration

Simile –a comparison between two unlike things using “like” or “as” Before: It’s a simple plan. After: The plan is simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. Similes in songs

Simile YOUR TURN -- Write a simile -- same topic – your favorite restaurant

Metaphor ☺ States a comparison between two unlike things without using any special words. She is a walking dictionary. My husband is a couch potato.

Before: The detective listened to her story with disinterest. After: The detective listened to her tales with a wooden face. Blake Shelton

Metaphor YOUR TURN -- Write a metaphor-- same topic – your favorite restaurant

Personification ☺Gives a non-human thing, human characteristics or human actions. Look at my car. Isn’t she a beauty? The wind whispered through the dry grass. The flowers danced in the gentle breeze. The fire swallowed the entire forest.

Before: I scratched my arm on the twig. After: Your turn…

After: Racing toward the house as the storm approached, I was delayed as the trees reached for me. They began to wrap their twisted arms and gnarled hands around me. I fought back, but they didn’t lessen their grip; instead, they began to screech at me as they pulled me into their grove. Personification

Onomatopoeia Words whose SOUND imitates the sound of the thing being named Batman

Your turn

HYPERBOLE hyperbole

HUMOR ☺ When possible ☺ When appropriate ☺ Inject a little humor to keep your reader awake

Humorous Before: Chinese food seems to last forever in the refrigerator. After: I believe the only food that should be kept around is take-out Chinese, which contains a powerful preservative chemical called “kung-pao” that enables it to remain edible for several football seasons.

PUN ☺A joke that comes from a play on words ☺It can make use of a word’s multiple meanings a word’s homonym a word’s rhymes

Before: Sir Lancelot told us the bad dream he had about his horse. After: Sir Lancelot told us the bad dream he had about his horse; it was a real knight mare. Puns in the grocery store