Tag Archives: grammar

Color Catalog Center… Does This Spelling Drive You Crazy?

Labour-labor, theatre-theater, jewellery, jewelry… If you find the inconsistencies in spelling between American and Anglo-English irritating, let me tell you, it could have been much, MUCH worse!

My awareness of British vs American spellings began way back in Grade One. I was just learning to read and brought a picture book home from school that featured two adorable kittens and cans of paint. The word “color” in it surprised me, because I was pretty sure that wasn’t how you spelled that word. Then someone (parent? teacher?) told me that both spellings were correct. Wait… WHAT? Mind blown.

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Group Writing Fun: Fill-in-the-Blanks Story

IMG_5988 - Version 2The game that has taken my writing club by storm recently is what I call the Fill-in-the-Blanks Story. We start by writing words on slips of paper and dropping them into the appropriate bowls: NOUN (character), NOUN (object), NOUN (location), ADJECTIVE, VERB, or ADVERB. Then we proceed with the story and draw a word every time we need to fill in a blank. The results can be… weird. Continue reading

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Writing Club: Dialogue That Works

Welcome to another edition of writing tips, prompts and folderol. (Look it up.) Today we’ll look at writing dialogue that isn’t clunky, baffling or boring. But first we warm up…

cuff_last_passenger_corn_brook_5505-minute prompt: TRAVEL

Planes, trains, automobiles, boats, bicycles, or feet. Five minutes, stream of consciousness, write whatever comes to mind on the topic… GO!

For some reason most of my thoughts on the topic tend to the befores and afters and not to the actual travelling: airports and train platforms, figuring out schedules, waiting in line, delays, waiting for luggage, missing luggage, etc.

What’s the strangest mode of transport you’ve ever used?

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Writing Club: Writing Group Etiquette

Greetings! The winter months drag on but there is a glimmer of hope as the days grow long. Spring, o spring will you please hurry??

images-45-minute prompt: SCHOOL

Five minutes, stream of consciousness, write whatever comes to mind on the topic… GO!

Your own schools, schools from fiction, schools from film. Hogwarts maybe? Terrible schools or brilliant schools. Terrible teachers or brilliant teachers. Sights, sounds and smells. And think about how different elementary schools are from high schools…

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Writing Club: Three Act Structure

Today we’re going to look at the basic structure of stories, which should really help you organize the events of your plot. But first a warmup…

IMG_40315-minute prompt:  WINTER

What do you think of when you think ‘winter’? Think of as many words for different kinds of snow and ice as you can. (Skiers and snowboarders should be good at this.) Can you think of any specific smells, sounds or tastes you associate with winter? Continue reading

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Writing Club: Writing Games for the Holidays

IMG_3984Snow day! Here on Salt Spring our first significant snowfall has occurred, on the first day of vacation! I decided to give the old car a break and not drive down the mountain into town for our last Writing Club meeting (awwww!). Here are the fun exercises we were going to do…

banana-peel5-minute prompt: FUNNY

(5-minute, stream-of-consciousness exercise, write whatever pops into your brain on the topic. Don’t bother with sentences, paragraphs, or punctuation. Just write.)

What’s funny? What makes you laugh? Who makes you laugh?  How many different words for ‘laugh’ can you think of?


 Who Am I? Game

A little character-invention fun. For each of these faces answer the following: Continue reading

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Writing Club: Introducing Your Character

Today we’re going to work with characters a a little more, and talk about how to introduce and describe them.

But first let’s warm up…

6a00d83451be8f69e20168e6823b8e970c-320wi5-minute prompt:  FACE

(5-minute, stream-of-consciousness exercise, write whatever pops into your brain on the topic. Don’t bother with sentences, paragraphs, or punctuation. Just write.)

Sometimes we can go on and on with descriptions of someone’s clothes, hair and build, but neglect the most important feature of all, their face! Continue reading

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Writing Club: Creating Complex Characters

Photo 2013-10-25 11 53 42 AM - Version 2

Welcome back to Writing Club. In this post we will talk about Creating Complex and Intriguing Characters, but first a little warmup…

5-minute prompt:  HAIR

(5-minute, stream-of-consciousness exercise, write whatever pops into your brain on the topic. Don’t bother with sentences, paragraphs, or punctuation. Just write.) Continue reading

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