Hints & Tricks

To Help Your Writing Come Alive!

Believe it or not, this is my class syllabus.  The class is described as my six hints and tricks to help you write in 3D instead of flat. I love to see how long it takes the students to correct me that there are nine hints. These hints are actually topics. Small video presentations for each are included here. Take a look. Click on one over at the left margin.

I enjoy helping new writers almost as much as I like writing. After Windstorm Creative published my first book, “The Book of Second Chances,” a couple middle schools invited me to speak to some classes. I really had fun and began to visit lots of classes with lots of students with lots of questions. I read student writing and gave gentle suggestions. Soon I was invited to teach a one-hour class at at conference for young writers. Students from many schools in the district came together to attend. Two or three hundred kids attended classes taught by authors, poets, oral storytellers and more. The conference was a day long. The school district held the writer conference once each year. I was fortunate. My class became popular, and I was invited to participate in similar conferences in other school districts. I became an “Author in Residence,” at two schools and did many class visits.

 

I learned much from the students. They taught me that a class in form, pacing and structure was boring! They taught me that a class about “Oh, oh. No oh no!” was fun. I tried my best to keep my classes interesting, fun and uncomplicated. One student told me that he realized being creative was thinking about something being “not what is but is what it isn’t.” Below is the result of my efforts to make classes that were fun, memorable, and helpful.

 

I printed the “syllabus,” on a peel-and-stick shipping label. I told the students it was so I could stick it to my desk and not lose it. Not really the truth, but part of the fun. I hope you find my short videos helpful.