I’m happy to visit classrooms, scouting troops and other organizations to talk about writing, character, setting and details. Contact me at madelynruth (at) gmail (dot) com for more information.
My ideas for writing workshops are as follows:
Writing is a schmutzy business: For younger kids, ages 4 and 5, we talk about The Schmutzy Family, where the idea came from, and how to share stories about their own schmutzy experiences.
Promises, promises; For younger kids, ages 4 and 5. We talk about Happy Birthday, Tree, and the sorts of things we’d like to do to help the world, not just at Tu B’Shevat, but year round.
Make your own monster: Building a Character
Elementary School: We’ll talk about character, and how well we have to know people (or monsters) before we write about them. Students will imagine their own monsters and figure out what really makes them tick. Younger kids can draw pictures of their monster, and share their monster’s adventures. Older kids can work on written stories.
Make your own monster: Taking the Plot over the Top
This one is where I talk about what has historically been my own weakness in story writing and how I learned to bring things up to the next level. We will talk about plot, escalation and tension. Then we’ll take a normal situation and talk about how to make things go Over the Top for a more exciting story. We’ll write one together as a class