Creative Writing Worksheet – Scene Writing (PDF) Here is a worksheet I needed to write for myself this week! Often when you create an outline, you know what needs to happen when, but not necessarily how the action should unfold, or in what way you should relate it. This worksheet will help you brainstorm some…

Sometimes it’s difficult to decide where to begin telling a story, and “begin at the beginning” isn’t always the best advice. Click here to download this writing worksheet (PDF) The beginning of your story need not take place in your opening scene! The opening scene can be used to… Capture the reader’s attention with an…

Creative Writing Worksheet – Quick Character Creator (PDF) The fact is, you can fill in every 100-item questionnaire about character creation in exhaustive detail and still end up with a character who is unsuitable for the story you’re trying to tell, who isn’t interesting, and who doesn’t feel real. Here’s what Aaron Sorkin (creator of…

Writing Worksheet – Licence to Write (PDF) This is my favourite writing worksheet EVER! It’s easy to compare your efforts to that of great writers and sink into despair, but I recommend that you give yourself a break and find flaws in them instead. Inspired by a famous author who shall remain nameless, this worksheet is a permission slip…

How to write a novel using the Save the Cat! method

This 3-part character conflict worksheet can help put your character in trouble... and pull them out of it!

A magic system is a set of rules, however strict or loose, that govern magic in a fictional world.

This can work for redemption arcs, or just for writing morally grey characters.

Your story's plot is more than just a string of events. Learn how to write the perfect plot for your story by crafting it into a meaningful whole.

Ah yes, torturing readers, your favourite hobby!

There’s nothing quite like a really memorable villain to add drama to a story! Who can forget Count Fosco, or Moriarty, or Sauron? Use this worksheet to craft the perfect villain. Click Here to Download This Worksheet (PDF) If you’d like a more well-rounded villain, you might consider plotting their character arc. You can also…

Creative Writing Worksheet – Make Trouble (PDF) The trouble with writers is that they’re sometimes too nice to their characters. Unfortunately, while this is admirable practice in real life, it hardly makes for a good story. Use this worksheet to brainstorm ways to make the worst case scenario even worse. It’s character-building stuff! Tweet:“Make trouble…

Writing Worksheet – Rites & Rituals (PDF) I’ve talked of my love of Joseph Campbell before, and I would be remiss if I didn’t at least quote him at this apposite juncture: No tribal rite has yet been recorded which attempts to keep winter from descending; on the contrary: the rites all prepare the community…

There are two sides to every novel: plot versus character. There’s no doubt that these two elements are fundamental components of every story, however...

Creative Writing Worksheet – Expressing Emotions (PDF) Emotions dictate our actions more than we would like to admit, and for the writer, they’re an integral part of creating character motivation. Of course, they’re also very important for hooking the reader, and while you can certainly play it by ear, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised…

Writing Worksheet: Character Naming (PDF) Character names can be surprisingly useful for characterisation, worldbuilding, and even plotting – if you’re enrolled in How to Be the Heroine of Your Own Story, be sure to read the textbook chapter titled, ‘How to Discover Your (Character’s) True Name’. If you need to set some naming conventions for…

A summary of the comprehensive outlining method developed by Youtuber and writer, Kat O’Keeffe.

In this blog post, read about my best teaching strategies to teach writing narrative endings. Grab all the freebies to help you teach.

Ring in the new year with these January Writing Prompts! Fun, educational, and imagination building ideas for Opinion, Narrative, and Informative writing.

When I think about student writing, one of the most difficult concepts to teach is sentence fluency. Much of excelling at fluent writing revolves around students’ background with literacy. Certainly,...

When you craft a strong atmosphere within your scenes, you have an emotional effect on your readers. Emotions are memorable. Strong emotions are unforgettable; that’s why you need to build atmosphere into your writing.

What are pinch points? Of all the important moments in your story, they are most likely to be neglected. But they're crucial to your story structure.

I have so much to share with you about writing interventions, but first things first: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW BLOG DESIGN?!?!? Please share your thoughts! Every year, I meet lots of middle schoolers who struggle with writing. And every year, I play around with lots of different interventions to meet their needs. Last year, I made establishing sound writing interventions one of my big goals. I spent lots of time (and money!!) on resources that I could use, and by about March, I had something that I thought I was pretty happy with. This year, I'm starting off with those interventions that worked so well last year and I couldn't be happier with the results! In fact, I'm so pleased with how they are working, I feel confident enough to share my practice with my blog readers. I can say that these are definitely KID TESTED, TEACHER APPROVED!! Creating a Time and Space for Intervention within your Classroom I teach by myself. There are no aides, special ed teachers, BSI teachers... just little, ol' me! So, when I want to create and manage small groups, I'm on my own. This is hard. It would be so much easier if there was another adult in the room to help, but there is not, so I just have to deal! It's work, but it absolutely can be done! A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Power of Bell-Ringers. Establishing a quiet and smooth transition into writing class is a great way to get started, but it also provides me with a window of time where I can pull a small group! By mid-October, my bell-ringer time gets extended to 15 minutes. The kids get started immediately and are clear on the expectations during this time. Now the environment for working with small groups is set: the room is quiet and engaged, allowing me to focus my time on the handful of kids in my group. I pull my kids to a table that I have set up in front of our classroom library. I have a "teacher station" at one end where I do my instruction. I usually stream some jazz or piano music during this time so my group doesn't distract the rest of the class. Establishing Interventions In my district, by middle school, there are no longer district-mandated interventions in place. There are no clear resources for teachers to use or personnel to help. So, when we have a struggling reader or writer in 7th or 8th grade, it's the job of the classroom teacher to meet their needs. In my tenure of working with middle schoolers, I've found that there are two types of students who need more support than my writing curriculum provides (and please remember... I am not a researcher/specialist/writer of books/etc. I'm just a teacher, like you, who loves my job, tries to do the best by my kids, and is compulsively reflective about what I see happening... to me, teachers are the best EXPERTS, but I know that we are hesitant these days to trust a "lowly" teacher and rather find ourselves relying on big publishers and educational researchers to show us best practices... I don't have lots of "data" to support what I'm sharing with you... just my actual observations I've made while working with real, live kids in an average classroom setting!!). Type One: Students Who Struggle with Structure The first type of students who need intervention are those who struggle with structure. These are the kids that can't organize their thoughts in a way a reader could follow. They simply write whatever their brain thinks at the time. They can generally stick with a broad topic, but because they are just writing whatever pops into their head at the time, there are lots of places where their writing veers off track and becomes confusing. Here is an example written by a former student struggling with structure: My dog Henry is my most special treasure. He is always there for me whenever I need him in sad times and happy. In many ways, he's my best friend. He has brown fur and a white chest. He is such a good dog to have around when you are sad because he always knows just how to cheer you up. His eyes are brown, like a Hersey bar. His favorite toy is a yellow tennis ball. Once he almost got hit by a car chasing the ball down the street. I have loved him ever since he was a puppy and we first got him. I was only 4-years old when that little ball of fluff was brought home by my parents to be best friends. His soft fur is always so smooth and warm when you pet him while watching TV on a cold night. He is my best friend and that is why he is my special treasure [sic]. This student is clear about his topic - his dog, Henry - but he cannot organize his thoughts. He is thinking about his dog and writes down everything he knows about his buddy exactly as it comes to his mind. Clearly, he has mechanical and conventional skills, and you can see evidence of where he is practicing what we learned in our mini-lessons and from studying our mentor pieces. But, because there is no organization, it is too difficult to follow and all of the skills he has are lost to the untrained, teacher-eye. Kids who write like this need an intervention that focuses on structure and organization. Typically, I LOATHE teaching step-by-step process writing, but in cases like this, I'm left with little choice. The lessons that I put together for kids in need of this intervention consist of learning how to write a well-organized paragraph. Together, we will work on writing topic sentences, creating strong and clear supporting sentences, and finish up with writing a closing that sticks with our reader. My favorite plans for this type of writing come from Michael Friermood. His Fact-Based Opinion Writing products are geared toward teaching elementary students (grades 3-5) how to write a good opinion paragraph, and they are PERFECT for my struggling 7th graders. They also lack a lot of the "cutesy" images that you find with products for this age group, so my big kids don't feel like I'm making them do "baby stuff." (I do not use the stationary he provides for the final writing piece... it's adorable, but it would be pushing in with my kids! So, we just do our paragraph writing in our intervention notebooks!) My plan is to pull the intervention group for one week (at 15 minutes a pop, this comes to 1 1/4 hours of learning). Long before I ever pull a group, I work hard to make sure that my lesson is broken down into five succinct 15-minute increments. Since time is so precious, you need to make sure not one minute is wasted! I can say that it takes me much longer to plan for a small-group lesson than a 50-minute whole-class lesson because efficiency is so crucial. The first few times you plan a small-group lesson, don't be surprised if your timing is mess. It definitely takes practice to be an effective small-group instructor! After their week is up, then I send them back to completing the bell-ringer at the start of class. I will watch them closely and conference with them lots to make sure that I am seeing a transfer of skills. If I don't, then it is likely that I will put them back in an intervention group in a few weeks to practice again. This intervention model will continue all year. Right now, I have 8 intervention students in one writing class, and 6 in another. By the end of the year, those number should reduce to 3-4 and 2-3. Never in all my years of working with small groups, have I had 100% of my intervention students "graduate" from small group. Don't be frustrated if this is the case! If you can improve 50-60% of those kids, then consider that a huge success!! Type Two: Students Who Struggle with Motivation The next group of kids that I work with are those who struggle with motivation. These are the students who complain a lot about not having anything to write about, spend more time doodling or coloring in their notebook than writing, and who will write the absolute bare minimum for any writing assignment. Many times, these kids produce too little for me to gauge whether or not they also need help with structure. But typically, once I can get them writing, they will likely find themselves in a small group for structure work :) Come October, after we've spent lots of lots of time list writing, the kids who are still struggling to get their pencils moving find themselves using a very special Interactive Writer's Notebook called "Musings from a Middle Schooler." This product contains loads of interactive writing pages that will motivate even the most reluctant writers. The pages can be printed out and glued into a marble notebook. (Most often, I'll have the kids create their own... I don't always have them use all the pages, rather I let them pick and choose the ones they like!). Cover Table of Contents page Table of Contents cont. and an "All About Me" page "My Life Story in Two Pages" My Favorite Thing Comics I created this project just last school year and it's been an absolute smash! The kids (especially my boys!) LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! In absolutely no time, they are writing like crazy. And once I can get their pencils moving it doesn't take me long to get them producing some actual pieces. I don't necessarily pull these kids and work with them in a small group. The first few days, we will assemble our books all together at the back table, but then they go right back to the big group. Rather than do the bell-ringer with the rest of the class at the start of the period, they will work in their "Musings" notebooks. Fifteen minutes of that is usually enough to get them into writing mode for the rest of class. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * So, that's how I make writing intervention work in my classroom. Phew!! That was long, folks!! I apologize for my wordiness and I am grateful if you stuck it out until the end! Also, I'm sure that I've left out some crucial details of my practice, so please do not hesitate to ask me any questions you still have! Do you have any good intervention tips or strategies that work for you? I'd love to hear about them. Drop me a comment and share! Happy Teaching!!

105 creative writing exercises to get you writing again. Try these short, 10-minute creative writing exercises to beat writer's block.

The trouble with identifying the Inciting Event is that the term is applied rather wildly to half a dozen different moments in the story. Which is right?

Understanding the steps in the writing process is crucial to producing quality content. Read about the important writing process steps and stages for writers.

Writing Worksheet – Who Knows What When (PDF) I’ve covered plot holes before, but this worksheet is to help you specifically with the type of chronological lacuna that I fall into most often: mistakes arising from remembering which characters know what when. These errors are difficult to spot and can have some profound effects on the plot, so…

The setting of a story performs the vital task of transporting the reader into the story. Download this worksheet (PDF) Story Settings The questions in this 2-page story setting worksheet can help you hone in on the details of your character’s environment. Does the scene take place indoors or out? Is the space light or…

Download This Writing Worksheet (PDF) When it comes to writing dialogue, you could do worse than follow the rules of Just a Minute: no hesitation, no repetition, no deviation. Theatre scripts provide excellent inspiration for good dialogue, being composed of little else, and having been written with speech at the forefront, without film’s excessive reliance on visual…

Creative Writing Worksheet – Quick Character Creator (PDF) The fact is, you can fill in every 100-item questionnaire about character creation in exhaustive detail and still end up with a character who is unsuitable for the story you’re trying to tell, who isn’t interesting, and who doesn’t feel real. Here’s what Aaron Sorkin (creator of…

Download This Worksheet (PDF) How to Kill a Character All writers become murderous sooner or later, but it’s important to kill your character in the right way, at the right time and for the right reason. I hope this worksheet will help you premeditate the perfect coup de grâce.

Writing Worksheet – Fixing Plot Holes (PDF) How to Fill a Plot Hole Plot holes are almost inevitable at some stage in any piece of longer writing, and in my experience, fixing them can be the most disheartening job of the writer. Print out this worksheet, pour yourself a drink and sit down to untangle those snags!

Writing Worksheet – Solving a Mystery (PDF) You can use this worksheet to: Brainstorm solutions to a mystery that your story/character/life has graced you with. Work backwards from clues that interest you to develop a mystery. Draw up an overview of your mystery so that you can be sure that all your clues aren’t discovered…

Creative Writing Worksheet – Thoughts (PDF) Some characters’ minds barely make a peep – I always wonder whether their inner voice can really be so still. Other characters spend the entire story chattering away in italics – solving problems, questioning motives, or just reminiscing. What about your character? What do their thoughts sound like? I…

How to write realistic fight scenes including injuries, aftermath, action verbs, dialogue, and more. Read the whole article including out table of fight scene injuries →

Make the most of your writing block with these funny picture prompts! Go here:

The 5 items on this novel-writing checklist will impact every page. Whether you're writing or revising, make sure all your story's pieces are in place.

Download This Writing Worksheet (PDF) We’ve brainstormed point of view before, but once you’ve chosen your viewpoint, there are still many more decisions to make as to your narrator, and your narrator’s voice. Whether your narrator is a character in the story, or a version of your authorial self, it helps to make these…