As you know, I often talk about inspiration for the fiction writer on this blog.  But today is International Human Rights Day, and it is a good day to take up the pen (or your keyboard, I suppose!) for a good cause!

Amnesty’s site is providing you with e-petitions to sign, and instructions as to how to use your Twitter or Facebook account to spread awarenss of human rights violations around the world.  But you and I both know that a personal, well-thought out letter carries the most impact when you want your opinion to be heard and valued.  The time you put into your letter(s) could make a huge difference to another human being, at home or across the world.

The Writing Challenge:  Check out the website, which provides information and videos on various human rights violations and prisoners of concience.  Then craft a letter for a cause that speaks to you.  Use language to express exactly what you feel, and to ask people who have power to make the world a better place.   Don’t forget that you have power too, and that words can be one the most effective tool for change.

I feel a twinge of shame as I write this sentence, but the truth is that I quite enjoy eavesdropping.

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t spy on people. I never physically change my location in order to learn another person’s secrets, and I never hold an empty glass up to my ear against a closed door. But I do eavesdrop, often, and I find a wealth of ideas within the conversations of others.

Eavesdropping is a great way to find situations for characters to be in, to think about the patterns of dialogue between two people, or to discover ways to add depth and nuance to a character. Eavesdropping falls under the larger category of “people watching,” which is a great way to let your imagination run wild. What appointment is the man in the pin-striped suit hurrying to? Has the dog-walker left acting on the brink of stardom to pursue a quieter, more anonymous life? Is the friendly teller at the bank really concealing a gun in her lunchbag?

Eavesdropping has become even more interesting now that many of the conversations we hear in public are are one-sided. I am amazed at how cell phone conversations can be so personal and yet so LOUD when people are talking in public. Imagining what is being said on the other end of the line can be a great exercise to think about relationships between two people, and that exercise can be mined for character development.

Of course, eavesdropping has a very strict set of ethics. If you have to hide in order to eavesdrop, you are in the wrong. If you have to move much closer to the person speaking because they are whispering to someone else, that is not defensible. But the reality is that you won’t ever need to do either of those things, because open conversations between two humans are often very interesting and full of creative possibility. You’ll never need to skulk, because there is so much material without it.

The Writing Challenge: When you are on the subway, the streetcar or in a coffee shop this weekend, try tuning in to the conversations around you. Your goal is not to record the words verbatim (unless they are REALLY interesting!) but to use the experience as a jumping off point to create situation, dialogue or character. And no hiding!  If you have  giant ears like the dog in this picture, don’t use them either.  It’s cheating.

Have you ever vaguely dreamed about writing a novel?  Wouldn’t it be great to causually refer to “my novel” at the dinner table, on a first date, or on the subway (loud enough, of course, so that onlookers could overhear and be awed?)

Well, now is your chance.  November is National Novel Writing Month.    An internet writing experience that has skyrockted in popularity since its inception in 1999, when organizer Chris Baty challenged 21 participants to write 50,000 words (175 pages) of prose in one month.  Last year, over 100,000 people participated.

How is such a feat accomplished?  Well, it’s very simple.  The goal is to write with abandon – no editing required.  The word count is all – no one will ever read your book, unless you want them to.

What’s the point?  Well, the point is to produce.  Sure, you might produce 50, 000 words of pure drivel, but it’s 50,000 words more than you would have produced this November, right?  And I guarantee you, if you write 50,00o words, there will be some really excellent phrases, paragraphs, and even pages of material in there.   You may discard the book on Decmeber 1 and never want to look at it again, but on December 1 you will find it much easier to write than you did on November 1.  Writing is like flexing a muscle – the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

If it sounds intruiging, you should definitely check out their website at www.nanowrimo.org, particularly their hilarious FAQ page.  If you like, you can sign up as a participant and have your progress tracked on their website (again, no one will read it unless you want them to.)  You will also find plenty of forums to give you inspiration and ideas.

AND, if novel-writing isn’t your bag then perhaps you would rather participate in Script Frenzy, which is a challenge to all budding screenwriters to write a 100-page screenplay in April, 2010!

The Writing Challenge:  Write a novel in November!!!!  If you are in one of my classes and you successfully complete this mission then I will throw you a huge party in class.  HUGE.

That’s right, folks.  The subject of my last blog, Stephen King, is coming to Toronto to speak and  to read form his new book “Under the Dome.”  He is going to be interviewed by David Cronenburg, a Toronto-born film director who knows a little something about the creepy and macabre as well.

The show is at Massey Hall on November 19, and tickets start at $28.    If you are interested in gleaning some insights on writing, the horror genre or making movies, this will be a great night for you!  You can follow this link to Ticketking if you want to purchase tickets in advance.

My favourite book by Stephen King, however, is his bestseller On Writing, which is at once an autobiography and a writing guide.  If you are interested in writing fiction and want to know more about how to enhance your descriptions or develop your characters, Stephen King is clearly your man.  People often pooh-pooh his writing as populist crap, but the whole thing about populist crap is that it is POPULAR – King creates scenarious and characters that speak to an overwhelming number of people, and isn’t that one of the factions of really good writing?

King is often asked about how he comes up with his “plots.”   (I put the word “plot” in quotations for reasons that are made apparent below.)  Here’s what he has to say about that …

“In my view, stories and novels consist of three parts: narration, which moves the story from point A to point Z; description, which creates a sensory reality for the reader; and dialogue, which brings characters to life through their speech. You may wonder where plot is in all this. The answer — my answer anyway — is nowhere … I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because our ‘lives’ are largely plotless … and second, because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren’t compatible. It’s best that I be as clear about this as I can — I want you to understand that my basic belief about the making of stories is that they pretty much make themselves. The job of the writer is to give them a place to grow (and to transcribe them, of course.) … I lean more heavily on intuition, and have been able to do that because my books tend to be based on situation rather than story … I want to put a group of characters (perhaps a pair; perhaps even just one) in some sort of predicament and then watch them try to work themselves free.

A strong situation redners the whole question of plot moot, which is fine with me.    The most interesting situations can usually be espressed as a “What if” question:

What if vampires invaded a small New England villiage?  (‘Salem’s Lot)

What if a policeman in a remote Nevada town went bezerk and started killing everyone in sight?  (Desperation)

What if a cleaning woman suspected of a murder she got away with (her husband) fell under suspicion for a murder she did not commit?  (Delores Claiborne)

What if a young mother and son became trapped in their stalled car by a rabid dog?  (Cujo)     (On Writing, 169)

The writing challenge:  Give the “What if” exercise a try.  If it doesn’t go anywhere, so be it, but at least you spent some time writing, and according to Stephen King, “If you want to be a writer you must do two things above all others:  read a lot and write a lot.”  (On Writing, 145)

Finding things to write about gets easier the more you do it.  I think it’s really a case of developing the habit of looking at things as potential writing topics.  Here’s an example.

In searching for funny and spooky clips on Youtube (it is, after all, only 26 days until Hallowe’en!) I discovered this little gem filmed by the staff at the Fuji- Highland Amusement park in Japan.  Apparently, the people who play zombies at the park’s haunted labrynth weren’t deemed quite scary enough by their boss, who puts them through a series of undead-inspired calisthenics on a beach in full makeup and costumes.   My Japanese is a little rusty, but it seems that Zombies whose abdominal strength or menacing growl are not up to par get taunted and poked with long sticks.   Apparently the video was released as part of a promotional package for the amusement park … and to be truthful, having seen it … I would go there.

Now, I have no idea whether or not this is true, or an elaborate hoax.  I did check www.snopes.com, an online hoax  catalogue (and another great source of writing inspiration,)  but there was no mention of the “Zombercise” video in question.  But really?  Who cares.  Let’s think about the writing possibilities here …

1.)  On your blog.  What excercises are deemed most effective for zombie development as illustrated by the video, and could you come up with a better regime for Zombies in training?  Would you go to such an amusement park?  Would you work at such an amusement park?    Is the zombie fad in movies and books  finally petering out, or are we just getting started?   How scary are zombies compared to other “creatures of the night?

2.)  Short or long fiction.  You could write a story about an employee who inspires her zombie co-workers to revolt against the park administration in full make-up, or someone who has taken the zombie job because it’s at night and he needs a night job because in real life, he’s a vampire.  What about a love story between two people who find themselves playing zombies at a theme park?  Or a human rights pamplet that asserts that “Zombies are People Too!”

Sure, it’s silly, and perhaps it’s been overdone (Woody Harrelson’s “Zombieland” opens this week, and promises to be only a pale shadow of “Shaun of the Dead”.)  But the point of all of this is to get writing, and if you need inspiration in the weeks leading up to Hallowe’en, perhaps zombies aren’t a bad place to start.

The writing challenge:  Faff around on Youtube for a while, and see what could inspire you to write at least 200 words of fiction or non-fiction material.  Remember that all material posted here, including videos, needs to comply with the rules listed in the “Hello, world!” post.

Ms. Thompson’s first entry on her excellent blog is a list of topics to help you  get  started on your blog.   Rather than try to improve on her work, I have reposted the list here.

Blog Topics To Get you Going

1 Facebook and why I use it
2 Kanye vs. Swift
3 2010 Olympics
4 A Community I Love
5 Me and my laptop
6 Life without iTunes
7 Glee Club
8 Ways to Save a Bad Time at a Party
9 How I Find Blogging Ideas
10 I Just Have to Get This Off My Chest
11 When I Have Kids
12 How Schools Could Use Social Networking Sites
13 The Best Parts of the Day
14 Hockey Season
15 College Football
16 Kristen Cavallari: friend or foe
17 When high school ends
18 Top birthday gifts
19 How to Make a Difference
20 If I Were a Movie Star
21 Athletes and their Salaries
22 Read These Books
23 People I’d Like to Meet
24 Time for me to Brag
25 Here’s how I Feel about Newspapers

The writing challenge:  Select one of these topics and write about it in a post.  Take it through the editing process before you post the final piece.

This blog is part of a classroom project with my grade 10 students.  Each student will maintain a blog of their own for the entire year.  There are no rules for what they write about, except for the rules listed below.  The goal is that they write.  If you are visiting this blog as one of my students, you will see examples of ME writing about what I am interested in, and hopefully one or two things on the site will spark your imagination as to what you could write about.  You can write reviews (books, movies, plays, video games, etc.) fiction, poetry, your observations about life, your family, your hamster, the gum you stepped in this morning on the way to school.  You can celebrate the Leafs victory of the previous night (Go, Leafs, Go!) or you can express your outrage at the latest plot twist on “Lost.  You can write about anything that tickles your fancy.

Writing is like exercising a muscle.  The more you do it, the easier it becomes … and the more you want to do it.  Jules Renard said that “writing is the best way to talk without being interrupted,” and I agree with him.  Let’s put our ideas out in the the world, and see what comes back.

Come on by to the page whenever you want.  I hope to include writing tips, other blogs for inspiration, writings and musings of my own, advice from the pros and ideas to prompt your own writing.  Write on!

This is your first post.

As a student blogger at The York School, you are expected to follow the blogging guidelines below. As your writing will be published to the world wide web under the York School name please conduct yourself in a manner reflective of a representative of our school . When submitting details for comments or discussion use only your first initial and last name to identify yourself. Use the questions below to help you decide what is appropriate to post on your blog. This space if for you to express yourself so above all else enjoy writing!

1. Only post things that you would want everyone (in school, at home, in other countries) to know. Ask yourself: Is this something I want everyone to see?

2. Do not share personal information. Use only your first name and initial to identify yourself.
Ask yourself: Could someone find me (in real life) based on this information?

3. Think before you post.
Ask yourself: What could be the consequences of this post?

4. Know who you’re communicating with.
Ask yourself: Who is going to look at this, and how are they going to interpret my words?

5. Consider your audience and that you’re representing The York School.
Ask yourself: Do I have a good reason/purpose to do this?

6. Treat other people the way you want to be treated.
Ask yourself: Would I want someone to say this to me?

7. Use appropriate language and proper grammar and spelling.
Ask yourself: Would I want this post to be graded for proper grammar and spelling?

8. Only post information that you can verify is true.
Ask yourself: Is this inappropriate, immature or bullying?

9. Anytime you use media from another source, properly cite the creator of the original work.
Ask yourself: Who is the original creator of this work?

Commenting Guidelines

As a blogger, you will be commenting on other people’s work regularly. Good comments:
• are constructive, but not hurtful;
• consider the author and the purpose of the post;
• are always related to the content of the post;
• include personal connections to what the author wrote;
• answer a question, or add meaningful information to the content topic;
• follow the writing process. Comments are a published piece of writing.

Blogging Guidelines adapted from : http://blogs.isb.ac.th/blogging-guidelines/