It’s exciting to see students generate ideas in class that become stories, and to notice how each student’s unique voice and style are expressed each writing experiment.
In this exercise, spontaneous pieces of writing invite readers into a story by creating a vivid scene and introducing a problem, or perhaps a mystery! After our very brief webinar writing sessions, students may choose to revise or continue to develop what they’ve begun writing.
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The winter wind was blowing with a digging, almost biting cold. Sanikia shivered. His hooves were cold and he was struggling to keep up with the adults. The snow came down in sheets and he couldn’t see. The only way to know he was still with them was the earthy warm scent they left behind. Then he stepped in a large pit he hadn’t seen before, as it was covered with snow. He fell…
-Elise
Natural Magic is relatively rare. Every living thing has piece of and good percent of most organisms don’t even use it. So I guess it’s less that natural magic is rare and more that most living creatures don’t consider it worth their time to learn how to harness it. But Wish Magic, that’s a whole other story. Wishes are very elusive things. They live in genie lamps and wishing stars and in other rare objects. It used to be that people used wishes for EVERYTHING. If you wanted a strawberry from the bowl on the counter then you would wish for it to be teleported into your hands. But then people started accomplishing their wishes themselves and wish magic started to fade. Soon there was only one piece of wish magic left: the wishing tree. The wishing tree was the ULTIMATE wish magic. It could do anything, with no rules at all! And best of all you got SEVEN wishes instead of three! Seven! The lucky number! There was just one problem though. No one knew where the wishing tree was.
-Joshua
There was nothing left. Nothing.
The only thing that remained was the book. Oliver Twist, not a book that often leaves clues. On top of it were her glasses. Leaves had blown on it, and the wind had tried to change the page, but the glasses held them still. It was stuck mid-book, on a page the police refused to disclose. Olivia’s mother continued sobbing over and over again. Olivia loved that pumpkin patch. It was her favorite place to come read. Other than that, she loved the forest. But she wouldn’t have left her glasses, let alone her book, half-finished.
-Noah
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In one of our webinars, students experimented with character development and came up with sketches for new characters. Some of these characters already feature in continuing stories, and others may appear in future pieces of work!
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He always wanted to be an engineer, only to find out that the job was the most boring thing on the planet. It sounded nice to Ryan, planning buildings, building buildings, immersing himself in the craft, but it ended up that he was depressed due to the overwhelming work. He was always tired; his sleep schedule was a wreck. He worked a 6-4 job yet only managed to sleep 4 hours a day. His one rest was to curl up on the couch with his cat and wallow in sadness. Maybe he would crack the occasional joke or two, but otherwise a stagnant gloom followed him wherever he went.
-Evan
As a person, I’ve always thought of myself as kind, however I do have a short temper. And I have lost that temper several times. I hate people who take advantage of other people’s failures to aid in their successes. I really want to complete school, then I want to become a computer engineer, or maybe a lawyer. I know I haven’t been a straight A student recently. It’s just hard to focus when Harry flaps his lips and smacks his teeth with pounds of gum hurdling around his mouth. Or when Bobby teases me with his stupid size. No one cares that you’re six foot. No girl will date you anyways because you’re so ugly and stupid! Anyways, um, yeah, I try to get good grades in school. My mom said that I would enjoy my new school so, goodbye, diary! See you at Christmas!
-Noah
I paced around the warm living room my paws padding against the soft carpet. I laid down and curled myself up into a cinnamon roll like shape. I was satisfied. My ears relaxed as I felt the fire warm my insides. I relaxed and let myself fall asleep. The little girl woke me up with her soft hands rubbing my belly. My ears perked back up as I heard the sizzling of a frying pan. I could smell bacon, and fish. Warm tuna. I lowered my head down into my bowl and ate.
-Makayla