Braveheart Writers

1. Braveheart Writers 10 secrets to quality writing

2. Words of Wisdom Nothing is more dangerous than an idea If it is the only one you have

3. Family Quilt

4. Tell the story of

5. Select “a time I could have been killed • You can write about 40 words per minute • Write for 5 minutes • Put your name on the top • Be sure it is not so private that it can’t be shared (you may have to read it out loud or someone else may be reading it)

6. Secret #1 Start in the Middle of the Action

7. Jurassic Park Don’t start with the details- Here is DNA, in blood of mosquito, trapped in amber, cloned, put into a park Instead: Show some action like the Tyrannosaurus Rex chasing someone or eating something we can only partially see

8. Air Force One • Not- The president has been in Europe and is on his way home in Airforce One • But- Night raid on a place where there are hostages

9. Grade 6 Birth Story • My Mom and Dad were off to the hospital that I was born in called Lutheran Medical Centre. It was December 5th, 1996. The hospital was in Denver, Colorado. My parents entered the hospital at 3 in the afternoon and I was born shortly before midnight. • During the birth there were many complications. The first problem with me was that the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck.

10. Final Grade 6 story • “ Get a clamp.” Dr. Hill shouted frantically, “the cord has broken and I can’t stop the bleeding!” The nurses moved about nervously trying to save the baby’s life. The cord was finally clamped and the baby was passed to the mother for her to hold for a minute before being whisked away. • When I was born my umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck.

11. Author’s Club Suggestions • What we really liked about your piece was... • Our suggested opening is... • Our suggested places for 3 quotations are...

12. Author’s Club Steps • Students sit in groups of 4. The piece they look at is NOT from their group. • Teach a mini lesson • Each group reads from their assigned piece, following directions from the lesson they actually write changes. • The authors join the group and listen to feedback. They do NOT have to use it. • Authors share what they learned with others.

13. Angelo Le Frog’s Plot Outline • Angelo has been born with short back legs; he can’t jump 20 times his length. • Consequences: vulnerable to predators, unattractive to girls • Tries several things, including pogo sticks, stretchers, power thrusters, and finally has surgery

14. The Statistic • Start your story with a statistic that will interest your reader (when this is fictional you can make it up) • Eight out of 10 frogs never make it from the tadpole stage to the mating stage, and for a while it looked like I would be one of them.

15. The Question • A question gets the reader thinking about the problem your story might have. • Have you ever had the feeling that life was passing you by? That no matter how hard you tried you just couldn’t keep up? My name is Angelo LeFrog and that had been my feeling ever since, as a tadpole, I grew hind legs that were just too small.

16. The Hook • A statement about the possible future consequences of the character’s actions “hooks” the interest of the reader. • I knew that when I turned on the power thrusters I might be sorry for the rest of my life- and that it might be a rather short one.

17. The Quotation • A quotation starts your story in a lively way. • “Look out, move back, I think he’s going to crash into something,” was the last thing I heard as I turned on my power thrusters. My name is Angelo LeFrog...

18. The Character • Introduce an interesting character and your reader wants to know more. • If Angelo LeFrog had only been smooth skinned, deep green, witty, smart and as handsome as a frog can be, it might not have mattered that his back legs were only a little bit bigger than his front legs.

19. Words of Wisdom • Play the writing game with fear and arrogance. If you want to: -get high marks- please your teacher -Be an award winningwriter- please yourself -Be a GREAT writer- please your reader!

20. Secret #2Characters Live in a Setting • Don’t write a description • Have your characters walk around in it, touch it, use it

21. Bringing a setting to life • NOT- the heavy marble table dominated the room • BUT- Angela edged carefully around the huge marble table in the centre of the room, and as she leaned up against it she felt a chill run down her spine from the cold surface.

22. Stay with what the character knows • The age, experience, and knowledge of your characters will affect how they respond to a space

23. A fisherman’s son on the beach • Jon trudged across the sand, naturally seeking the hard packed area. Shading his eyes to scan the waves, he stepped over a half-buried piece of driftwood, automatically avoiding the ridge of rotting kelp washed ashore. The sky was turning grey, and the wind, straight off the water, meant there would be a storm tonight. He was relieved to see the dot of his father’s boat heading in. The terns and petrels wheeled overhead, screaming their quarrels.

24. A city kid on the same beach • Andrew clutched his ars about him as the freezing wind blew off the water in the late afternoon. Head down, he tripped(again) over a half-buried piece of driftwood and almost stumbled into a pile of stinking seaweed. Those birds overhead sounded like they might let loose on him. His new Doc Martens were soaked through. So much for the ‘romance’ of the sea.

25. Reflect the character in the setting • How the character feels will influence how he or she responds to the environment

26. Spunky Jesse in Scotland on the moors • Across the yellow blossoming gorse, and up the rolling hill, Jess could see a tumble of stones on the next ‘tor’ as her guidebook called it. Flicking dandelions with her walking stick, Jesse headed up the hill towards the ruins. She admired the lichen-covered granite boulders and the mushrooms clustered in fairy circles near rotting logs. The shrill falcon’s cry was a long way from Mrs. Crunchley’s grade 5 class.

27. Lost frightened Lynne in Scotland on the moors • Lynne’s ankles were sore where they had been rubbed raw by her new hiking boots and the rocks that had looked so much like a cottage were just rocks-from some kind of collapsed tower. The granite boulders covered with lichen looked like leaning gravestones. Mushrooms, possibly poisonous, clustered on a rotting stump. It was deathly quiet except for the sudden shrill cry of a bird. Close to tears, Lynne imagined it was a vulture waiting to pick at her dead white bones.

28. We think differently • Find some pictures in National Geographic to give your students. Give them a copy to inspire them. • Put your two characters in the scene to walk around. • Provide your characters with a problem • Have your characters respond two entirely different ways to the same problem

29. Lost • “We’re lost,” he said. “It’s hopeless. We’ll never make it.” • “We can do anything.” she responded. “We’re champions. Champions never say it’s hopeless.” • “OK, it’s not hopeless. It’s completely ghastly, critically dangerous, not to say desperate.” • “Buck up,” she said. “Champions don’t whine.”

30. Assign one setting, make me see two characters: Cloakroom poem • Slipping into the cloakroom, eyes downcast • Clutching her denim backpack against her thin chest, • Glancing up from under long brown fringes, • Jostled by other students arriving, • Slipped one arm unobtrusively out of the faded blue parka. • Turned, “Sorry”, as ginger freckles bumped her arm • Slides her other arm free • Silently reaching up to place the parka securely on the hook • And silently, gently, head down, enters the classroom

31. Assign one setting make me see 2 characters-Cloakroom poem • Into the cloakroom, head turned to laugh at friends behind, • Bumping, “Oops”, and giggling again • Head back, curls bouncing, eyes shining with delight • Shrugging shoulders out of her suede green anorak • Dropped to the ground, “Oops, clumsy me,” laughing again • Dropping to her knee,”Look out! Look out!” with glee • And rising, smile in place, drops the parka on the hook • And happily, “Let’s see what’s happening,” enters the classroom.

32. Assign one setting, make me see two characters in that setting-ideas • Two children learning to ride a bike • Two students in the library • Two schoolyard lunches

33. Words of Wisdom: You get good at what you do a lot of. • People always told me that my natural ability and good eyesight were the reasons for my success. • They never talked about the practice, practice, practice.

34. Secret #3- Slam Dunk Echo creates a powerful ending • Create a line • The tigers danced. Try to create a metaphorical feeling. The sinuous tigers danced the dance of whispering grass, the murmuring stream, and the rumbling thunder. At the end, repeat the imagery with a variation The grass still whispers. The stream murmurs still, and deep in the mountains the thunder rumbles-but the sinuous tigers, they no longer dance.

35. A second sample • Line: Jesse was spunky and would bounce back from problems. • Metaphor- Jesse was a basketball, curvy, strong and ready to bounce back. • Close: Jesse was happy. She like being curvy. She loved being strong. And problems were something to bounce back from.

36. I am the Mummy Heb-Nefert • I am the mummy Heb Nefert black as night, stretched as tight as leather on a drum... Once I was the daughter of a nomarch, favored, beautiful, but all things change.

37. I am the Mummy-Ending • I am the mummy Heb-Nefert, black as night, stretched as tight as leather on a drum. Once I was beautiful.

38. Chicken Sunday-opening • She had a voice like slow thunder and sweet rain. (paragraph 2)

39. Chicken Sunday-Close • Sometimes, when we are especially quiet inside, we can hear singing. A voice that sounds like slow thunder and sweet rain. (last paragraph)

40. Words of Wisdom • The creative geniuses of art, writing, and science work obsessively. • They do not lounge under apple trees waiting for an apple to fall or for lightning to strike.

41. Secret #4 • Generalize to a life lesson

42. Cinderella’s Rat • Opening.... • I was born a rat. I expected to be a rat all my days. But life is full of surprises. • Closing... • Life is full of surprises, so you might as well get used to it.

43. Secret #5 • Let your characters duel.

44. The character duels • He lightly balanced on his feet, still strong, barely feeling the pain of the slash to his left arm. The hot blood dripped slowly. Squinting into the sun he gritted his teeth and once again raised his rapier. He swallowed hard and felt his hand, slippery with sweat on the leather hilt behind the guard, but with no other option he touched his opponents blade and resolutely began again.

45. Shy Old fashioned woman vs middle aged biker • Describe them arriving at a wedding and going up the steps of the church (use all five senses-taste, touch, smell, sight, sound)

46. Secret #6 • Let ‘em rant

47. Sailor with Explorer • I should have taken a different job. We haven’t seen land for days, just endless waves. Birds don’t even fly out this far from land. Our drinking water is disgusting-we have to push the scum aside. The food is down to salted fish and hard tack-and my teeth are already feeling loose. And the worst thing is, we don’t know if it will ever end. We’re going to Asia? Every sailor knows it’s the other way.

48. Fairy Godmother Rant • Sometimes I don’t know why I even try. There I was, just sitting around in the clouds, planning on having a bagel with some Philadelphia cream cheese, when I heard my godchild Cinderella sobbing in the cinders. One of the things I have always wondered about her is, “Why does she sit in the cinders? It’s messy and dirty.” Anyways, even though I had been looking forward to my bagel, I popped right on down.

49. Fairy Godmother cont. • So I understood the problem right away. The stepsisters have ruined her dress and she can’t go to the ball, blah, blah, blah. Well my wand wasn’t really charged up for this much work, but if I do say so myself, I conjured up an amazing dress. The problem was that the magic would expire at midnight. • I warned her, and I don’t want to complain, but I think she is quite vain. She was smiling at her reflection in the glass slippers and I was pretty sure she wasn’t paying attention to my warning.

50. Fairy Godmother End • When I think back on it, I should have zapped her to the ball, but no. I had to go showing off and creating a coach, a coachman, and a footman from a pumpkin, a rat and some mice. • Of course, they were REALLY annoyed, and I am scheduled for a hearing before the Rat and Mice Rodents’ Union, so, what I mean is, you always end up paying for it later when you do something too quickly. • Sometimes I don’t know why I even try.