FAMILY OF WRITERS

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Arrive tired.
Leave inspired.

It is misleading to think of writers as special creatures, word sorcerers who possess some sort of magical knowledge hidden from everyone else. Writers are ordinary people who like to write. They feel the urge to write, and they scratch that urge every chance they get.
- Ralph Fletcher

3 BIG GOALS

#1. Share family stories.
It's your legacy.
"It helps us join together."
- Mary Karr

RESPOND WELL

LIFELONG WRITERS

WRITING WELL

• Communicate meaning.
• Use genre knowledge.
• Structure writing.
• Write with detail.
• Give writing voice.
• Use conventions.

THREE KEY ELEMENTS

THE STORY OF LAVA

Untitled Slide

What does the text teach me?

• Piece includes specific details plus a range of detail types.
• Sensory/action/micro-story/what it's not
• Sentence structure helps get details in the piece. Commas are your friends!
• Bonus: Repetition and Rhythm.

Begin the process of absorbing what I'm going to show you about our comma friends.
Do not worry about using them tonight.
Hunt for these sentence structures when you read.
When you least expect it, they'll appear in your writing
like detail fairy dust.
Trust me. It' true.

HERE'S THE PATTERN:
-----, detail, ------.

AS WRITTEN...

• My father is bending over a long sink in the pressroom of The Sioux City Journal at 5 a.m., HIS GREY LONG-UNDERWEAR PEELED DOWN OVER HIS BELLY, a thin bar of Lava tumbling over and over slowly in his ink-stained hands.

Without the Commas or the White Belly

• My father is bending over a long sink in the pressroom of The Sioux City Journal at 5 a.m. with a thin bar of Lava tumbling over and over slowly in his ink-stained hands.
• That white belly is a big deal detail! We need it.

Subject/Verb JAIL!

• My father is bending over a long sink. He is in the pressroom of The Sioux City Journal. It is 5 a.m. His grey long-underwear is peeled down over his white belly. He is using Lava. It is tumbling over and over slowly in his ink-stained hands.

EVERY TIME I SMELL...

THE STORY OF _____
Every time I smell ____,
it is _____.
(MORE WRITING HERE.)
But that is not my story.
______ is my story and...

QUICKWRITE

• Write fast. Go for it!
• Outrun your internal censor.
• Don't talk.
• Keep your pen moving.
• Cross out instead of erasing.
• Bad stuff gets you to the good.
• Adults: Bird by Bird by Anna Lamott

SHARING

FOR NEXT WEEK...

WHO GETS THE WORM?