Taking as inspiration the world of puppeteers for the play “War Horse” this activity teaches students how to use gesture to make animal characters more realistic. This 23-minute TED Talk is about how the puppet horse in the play War Horse is made to feel alive. Animals are common characters in stories written by kids, horses especially. Different authors of stories about animals bring their characters to life in different ways, but one very common way to make an animal character believable as the animal it is declared to be is to have it display behaviors that are characteristic of that animal. In this video we see that the puppeteers who created the horse for War Horse enabled their huge puppet to display several very typical horse behaviors. First, all horses (all animals) breathe. So they gave their puppet the ability to look like it was breathing. Horses can breathe very loudly! When writing a story with a horse character, it can be helpful to remember that at some point the horse may breathe out through loose lips, making that distinctive horsey brrrrrrr sound. Second, anyone who has spent time around a horse knows its ears move in multiple directions and the horse may cup its ears towards a sound to listen, even before it moves its head. In fact, a horse may divide its attention between looking and listening. The puppeteers who created the wooden horse made sure it was able to move its ears in a horse-like way. In writing a story about a horse, the cocking of an ear, the letting out of a loud breath, the flicking of a tail, a pawing gesture of a front leg — these are the kinds of horse-like behaviors that can imbue a horse character with the sense of reality that strengthens the character in the story, making it more believable. Yes! It really is a stallion! The ideas for making puppets explained in this video can be applied to any animal — dogs, cats, parakeets, rabbits, chickens. A writing project based on the video could be as simple as writing a paragraph in which an animal character moves a short distance — a cat across a room, a horse to the edge of a paddock — but in the process uses one or two movements that are characteristic of that animal. The discussion inspired by the video could expand to include a discussion of gesture as a way to delineate human characters. The nervous laugh, the unconscious brushing back of the hair, a voice that goes up (or down) under stress — these are the gestures that help define each of our personalities. The characters in a story become more believable, more real, when given the occasional dimensionality of real life.
story writing
Using the Young Adult Author Resource Pages
Writers are readers. The purpose of the Young Adult Author Resource Pages is to bring young writers closer to their favorite authors. Through social media and recorded interviews many authors offer fabulous advice on writing that are useful for writers of all ages. If you are a teacher, you can use the interviews in your classroom in the context of your creative writing curriculum. If the author is one of your favorites and you would like to share something about why you like that author’s books, please leave a comment. Interview with Author Kate Milford I have always been a big fan of Kate Milford’s books, and so when I heard she had a new …Read More Author Interview: James Ponti, author of the City Spies books, speaks with blogger Thee Editor’s Note: Recently, Stone Soup blogger Thee Sim Ling reached out to us to ask if she could arrange an …Read More Author Interview: Damian Dibben, author The History Keepers, talks to blogger Madeline Sornson Recently Stone Soup blogger and book reviewer Madeline Sornson had the opportunity to read The History Keepers by Damian Dibben, …Read More Author Interview: Alexis Fajardo, author of Kid Beowulf, talks to blogger Mirembe Mirembe Mubanda, one of our young bloggers, recently got the chance to read Alexis E. Fajardo’s graphic novel Kid Beowulf: …Read More Author Interview: Patricia Newman, author of Plastic Ahoy! talks to Stone Soup blogger Lukas Cooke Lukas Cooke, our young blogger interested in nature and the environment, recently had the opportunity to read one of Patricia …Read More Interview and Links for Author Wendelin Van Draanen This is a wonderful interview. Its biggest strength may be Wendelin Van Draanen’s discussion of the importance of persistence. Her …Read More Interview and Web Links for Author Ransom Riggs This interview inspires two projects: write a story based on a photograph and illustrate a story with photographs. This is …Read More A Video and Internet Links for Madeleine L’Engle This is a video of an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the the publication of “A Wrinkle in Time.” Children, as …Read More Sarah Kay, Poet and Storyteller: TEDxEast Talk on Writing Sarah Kay (born 1988) is an American poet who began performing poetry at age 14. Sarah Kay specializes in spoken-word poetry. The …Read More Interview and Links for Author Renée Ahdieh A strong interview with Renée Ahdieh. The interview focus is on her writing process. • Writes books based on the theme of “choice …Read More Suzanne Collins Reading is the best preparation for writing. We are fortunate that through the internet it is possible to keep in …Read More Interview and Internet links for author Kate Messner This is a strong interview by Kate Messner for her book, Writing is Magic, or is it? Her message is simple …Read More Madeleine L’Engle Talks about Letting the Book Write Itself Many authors talk about the precision with which they plot out their books, taking pride in being in full control …Read More Advice for Writers: Interviews with Rick Riordan Reading is one of the best preparations for writing. We are fortunate that through the internet it is possible to …Read More Cassandra Clare Website Wikipedia Facebook Twitter Books The Mortal Instruments (6 Books) Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy (10 Book Series) Interviews …Read More J.K. Rowling We are fortunate that through the internet it is possible to keep in touch with living authors through their blogs, …Read More
Writing Activity: using a natural process to structure a short short story with “The Fire” by Campe Goodman, 12
Introduction to this Stone Soup Writing Activity This is a short short story about someone who lights a fire in a fireplace, watches it burn for a while, letting his imagination wander along with the flames, and then, bored, goes away from the fire to do something else. The character finally returns to the fireplace, but only after the fire is out. This story has a beginning (lighting the fire), middle (the fire is burning and the character is dreaming), and end (the character returns to the dead fire). Project: Describing What You See Think of things you have watched closely, such as fish in an aquarium, rain falling outside a window, traffic on a street, or clouds in the sky. Decide on something to write about. Then think of a character who, in your story, will see what you saw. Show us what that character sees and how that character responds to what he or she has seen. Remember, this character is not you and may act very differently from the way you act. Author Campe Goodman’s character in “The Fire” is not given a name and his physical features are not described. But writing fiction is like making magic: because Campe describes the fire so well, and because he shows us how his character does things—how he lights the fire, how he dreams for a while and then gets bored with it all—we get some idea of what this fictional person is like. Campe gives his story structure (a beginning, a middle, and end) partly by choosing to describe a process (burning paper and wood) that involves dramatic change. You can do the same if you choose to describe something like the sky as it turns dark at night, or a cloud as it forms, turning from wisps to a fantastic shape and then back into wisps. The Fire By Campe Goodman, 12, Norfolk Academy, Norfolk, Virginia From the September/October 1985 issue of Stone Soup The pile of logs and paper lay lifeless in the fireplace. I lit a match and wondered how this could produce my mind’s picture of a roaring, blazing fire. I pulled back the chain curtain and tossed the flickering match in. Soon flames shot up from the paper leaving an inky black trail wherever they wandered. The smaller pieces of wood began to glow, and gradually tongues of fire enveloped them. I could no longer distinguish between paper and wood, for the dancing fire blurred everything. Slowly the flames soared higher and higher as a red veil crept over the logs. Now the fire was a mountain range with jagged red peaks rising and falling. Twisted ghostly shapes could be seen weaving in and out among the flames. Little by little I lost interest in the shapes and walked away. I returned later to find the fire blackened, trying to find life in the few remaining embers. These gradually faded out, too, leaving me with only memories of the fire.
