The Writer's Notebook, My Style

Rixy's Students' Writer's Notebook

1. Get a notebook--Something around the 9.5 x 7.5 to 8.5x 11 size. I like these sizes because they fit in purses or computer cases. Then divide it into six sections: Prompts, Lists, Ideas, Crafting, Pictures, Miscellaneous. Tie a pen or pencil to it so you'll always have one. Some enjoyed decorating the outside of their notebooks.

2. Prompts: I have scads of prompts topics I had for my students that I can draw on if I like. One I liked was: You are a trash can in an alley outside a New York City restaurant How's your night going?

Journal Topics/Story Starters/Etc.  (E) 300+ Journal Topics/Story Starters/Persuasive Prompts #1738717 by Rixfarmgirl

3. Ideas. This is where we put our writing ideas. Personal stories they might want to tell. I like to read newspapers or magazines for stranger than fiction ideas I could use in a story. For instance, I found one about a soldier our government is charging him for his destroyed bullet proof vest when he was injured! For ideas, you this: "I don't know why I remember this, but...."

4. Lists: We divided these pages into smaller groups of pages ( two or three). Then, name these small divisions with topics like: sayings they like; Words I run across that I like and want to use sometime; pieces of conversations I hear that are intriguing; Names for people I might use; quotes I make up; descriptions I think of; descriptions I have liked in other author’s work, etc.

5. Crafting; This is all about the craft of writing. Overcoming writer's block; poetry forms; How to edit; How to review a piece for others, information from famous author interviews that might help them, articles on characterization, plotting, and finding plots.

6. Pictures: We found that pictures helped us in writing poetry, especially. When I wrote a novel once, I had pictures of all my characters, homes where they lived, city maps, school buildings and other buildings and places in the book. That was helpful for descriptions. If we ran across clothing or room designs that we might like to use this is a handy place to tape them in.

If you don’t like these ideas for sections, make up your own. Sometimes just leafing through my Writer’s Notebook brings to mind a story I want to tell.

Some of my students added a couple of pages for onomatopoeia--words defined by their sounds--buzz, swoosh, trill, etc.

Gestures they found in books, thought of, or observed in others. I had them * (star) the ones from other authors so they wouldn't use them because over time they forget which is or isn't their own.
ex. *his half close fist rested naturally on his knee
*Gus smiled his way across the street.

Some added a sheet for similes and metaphors.Once again, I asked them to use the stars to indicate which ones were not their own.
-She looked like a wrinkled sheet hung out to dry.
-He appeared as a modern day Huck Finn.

Some had pages for the "Not the ___ in/on the ___. These were their favorites to brainstorm together. Some of their examples are the following:
**Not the smartest kid in the class. (Remember the stars if the words are not your own, but you just liked it a lot.)
Not the hottest marshmallow on the stick.
Not the sharpest claw on the paw.
Not the prettiest page in the book.
Not the freshest apple in the sack.
Not the hottest burner on the stove.