Scenery, setting, and Sci-fi/fantasy were the focus today. From the get go, students were immersed with natural scenery to evoke ideas for settings. We played freeze dance while waking up a bit with beautiful scenery in the background.
Next, campers viewed various prompts, scenery, and quotes from Sci-fi and fantasy novels to help them develop characters who would burst into action with an immediate conflict.
We were then asked to delve deep and to focus our stories through the genre of Flash Fiction — short stories (500 words or less) that get into the action right away and pack a punch with selective word choice and environments that create strong emotions.
Almost every camper climbed into the author’s chair today, eager to share their creations.
The afternoon was spent honing our word choice and cutting out words that slowed down our prose to make our stories more poetic and succinct. Revision partners helped each other find those perfect, strong verbs and other word choice to keep the stories lively and the readers attentive.
Lesson Learned: “Use descriptive words in your writing; your writing does not have to be long to be powerful.”
Quote of the Day: “You really packed the page!”