Boo! Based on what you learned about the art and craft of creating a setting that sets a mood, write a scary tale that could be told around a campfire. Develop setting, characters, and plot so that the reader is pulled into your story and gripped with suspense as you build to the climax.

This week we noticed how often good writers are able to write in such a way as to make a reader see something from a different perspective. This week’s “speak out” theme challenges you to write on any topic from a different perspective. You may choose to write about any situation, object, living being, place, or experience, showing first one side of the coin, and then the other.

Look around you. Writing topics come from the ordinary wonders of life. This week we learned that poetry and creative writing begin with observing the details of life. A great poem could be a discovery of the ordinary things, people, and objects that we experience throughout the day. Write a poem or an essay in which in which you capture the wonder of the ordinary. It could be based on the “Things I Didn’t Know I Loved,” or the poem you wrote from your observations outside the classroom, or it could be a reflection on a recent experience that you observed (like the lady who screams because of the spider). _{(graphic image is from  www.scottsaw.com/paintings_2004_lifes_wonders…)}