We got together to write about true stories–but we could only use SIX words to do it. To warm up, we read examples of six-word stories from Not Quite What I Was Planning, Revised and Expanded Deluxe Edition: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure by Larry Smith (2008) and were surprised that an entire…
Seven students, one lead instructor, and many volunteers braved the heat this August to explore Denver with an eye for storytelling. On the first day, we read “The Blue Jar” by Isak Dinesen and brainstormed ideas for the heroes and heroines of our stories. We completed a scavenger hunt around Baker and learned how to…
Adventure Tales & Survival Stories :: Summer Writing Camp :: June 14 – 18, 2014 Thirteen kids, one student intern, one lead instructor, and many volunteers trekked through Denver looking for inspiration for our adventure tales and survival stories. Laura Miller, our lead instructor, designed this cover for our anthology. Isn’t it cool? The images come from…
Oh my goodness did this week fly by! 11 writers (all girls) joined us in a week filled with LOTS of writing, MANY adventures, and TONS of great conversations! We built a lovely little writing community, and we trekked all over Denver to get inspired for our adventure stories. We visited the Maps and Atlases room…
Flash fiction, micro-fiction, sudden fiction…Whatever you’d like to call it, know this: These stories are short (and we mean short), intense (imagine a novel crossed with a haiku), and powerful (whether they’re illuminating a single moment or a whole life). We started by writing 20 word introductions about a friend, which is much harder than…
WHY are mysteries so compelling to read? That’s easy! They’re like math problems to solve, they make you think about a characters’ motives, and it’s fun to act like detectives and look for clues! During this workshop, we talked about mystifying motives, compelling clues, surprising suspects, & diligent detectives. Using our observation skills and detective…
Do you ever wonder how a certain thing got its start? Like the number 6? Where did he— or she—come from? And what about all those squiggly punctuation marks? The relaxing period, clever comma, ecstatic exclamation point, sleepy question mark—where did they sprout from? (Inspired by Karen Benke’s book Rip the Page! Adventures in Creative…
In this workshop, we considered everything we knew to be true and we threw it right out the window! We used satire to twist our ideas around in sarcastic ways and created a real live and really strange encyclopedia. You may be surprised at what you learn. You may even disagree at times. Or, you…
Using the hilarious antics and adventures of the beloved Calvin and Hobbes comic strip as inspiration, we practiced writing puns and poems, we used figurative language, sarcasm, and other complex language concepts and forms to write short stories. Click on the link below to read them. Prepare to laugh until it hurts! Read our stories from…
“I know all about excellent prose,” said Squishy the cat on Monday in his lavish study. The room was full of leather-bound books and smelled of mahogany. It was then I knew that this cat was the real deal. “I can help these Denver youths become masters of the written word, all they need is…
