Happy Tuesday! Guest author Madelyn Rosenberg joins us for today’s quick-write. Madelyn is the author of the Nanny X books, HOW TO BEHAVE AT A TEA PARTY, and HOW TO BEHAVE AT A DOG SHOW. Her quick-write today is about postcards!
Postcards
Last summer I came up with a new writing prompt and I had so much fun with it, I did it all summer long. I’m calling it “Postcard.” When I have students do the prompt in a classroom, I pass out index cards. When I’m doing it myself, I just scrawl on a page of my writing notebook.
The rules are simple: Describe the scene around you, using only 10 words or short phrases. Put one word or phrase on each line, so you’re laying it out like a poem. Think about your different senses as you study your scene and write it out. It’s a good way to practice working varied senses into whatever you write. Especially smell – I hate how often we leave out the sense of smell when it is so evocative/linked with memory. I like to include scraps of dialogue in my postcards, too.
You can use this exercise not just to write about the world around you, but to write about a scene in your current work in progress.
A few examples are below. Sometimes it’s more fun to put the title at the end, especially if you’re sharing with others.
Pool
Wet
Coconut
Non-greasy UV protection
Float
“Marco.”
Blue
Sunshine
Umbrella
“Polo.”
Splash!
Plane
“Drink or snack?”
“We are experiencing turbulence”
A carpet of clouds
Recycled air
Gingerale and tea
Angry stomach
Look for the exit over the wings
Books, kenken, in-flight magazines, barf bags
“Adjust your seatback position”
Map of the world
And here’s one from my daughter:
San Francisco Streetcar
“Three rights make a left”
Roller coaster
“Don’t block the exit!”
Wind
Screech!
Cold
“Hold on!”
Hills
“Just sayin’”
Slow. Fast. Slow.
Today’s Assignment: Write your postcard! Describe the scene around you, using only 10 words or short phrases. Put one word or phrase on each line, so you’re laying it out like a poem. Think about your different senses as you study your scene and write it out. And feel free to share your ten lines in the comments today!
Dear Madelyn, thanks for sharing. What a cool idea. I think my students will enjoy this. Here is mine:
PANIC
Twisty
Sweaty
Tight
Debilitating
Dark
Isolation
Grasping
Gasping
Pleading
Pulsing
I hope that’s ten I couldn’t get my cursor to scroll up. My next postcard should be on frustration.
Thanks again for this terrific prompt.
As someone who often wakes up at 4 a.m, I got this. (Or this got me?)
This was perfect for me tonight as I made my overnight oatmeal inspired by a friend far away!
Yellow
Pink with green stripes
Orange
Wobbly table
Windowsill full
Green
Hot
Mild
Chop
Spice, just right!
Love the colors in this one.
I love seeing/hearing these! And I do think it helps you strain words the words for a scene to find the right ones when you go back to your WIP. (Also,perhaps oatmeal for breakfast.)
Home
Fan
Fuzzy poodle
Fluffy kitties
Blocks and toddler toys
Barney and Elsa
Mickey
Uh Oh stinky diaper
Comfy Couch
Clinking wind chimes
Dancing blue eyed little girl
Glad you let us hear your wind chimes!
Thank you, Madelyn! What a terrific exercise that I will surely use myself and with my students. Here is my Postcard:
Summer Camp Bliss
Breezy zephyr through doors and windows
Two hummingbirds flitting
Motor boats zipping after, “Hit it!”
Snoring lab
Campers cheering sailing by
Lake, waves unfolding
Mountains cloaked in blue
Swinging birdhouse
Kayaks in color
Dirt road is our highway
I’d like to change the title from Summer Camp Bliss to Memories for January
Oh, yes to that title!!
Madelyn, what a great challenge to start my morning! I wrote my Postcard on my blog, but did not include a title as I wanted people to guess my location based on the descriptive words. Can you guess where I am? Let me know what you think! Here’s my blog post: http://bit.ly/postcard16
Madelyn, this was a fun exercise. My fifth graders create postcards that they send to other fifth graders across the country, so this is a great activity to help them internalize the power of a few words. I really enjoyed it and will use it this year. Thank you. Here is my attempt:
https://mackaylogue.wordpress.com/2016/07/26/hammock/
What a fun start today!
Kitchen
Sticky
Syrup
Smears
Overflowing
Dishes
Bubbling
Boiling
Clunking
Wriggling
Eggs
Loving the sounds and textures here!
Partly cloudy
Slight breeze
Scent of fresh air
Slices of sunshine
Steaming cup of coffee
Word clouds
Memory
“To Do” list
A good book
Summer Mornings
Oops erase that first line….I am not sure where that came from?
Slices of sunshine is such a great line.
Infamous Southern heat
Salty swimsuit
Heat waves rising
Flipping and flopping
Coconut
Soft towel
Blinding sun
Squeaky plastic float
Splash
Sweet relief
Salty swimsuit says so much!
Hi, Madelyn,
I was poolside this afternoon, so my “postcard” is a lot like yours. I really enjoyed this activity and plan to use it with my sixth graders when we are working on descriptive writing. We write a descriptive piece about our Thanksgiving dinners, so this is the perfect pre-writing activity to get the creative juices (and the descriptive words) flowing. Thank you.
Poolside
Splish-Splash
Shriek
“Marco”
Hum of a distant lawnmower
“Polo”
Scent of sunscreen
Chlorine
“Fish out of water”
Moms staring at phones
Comfy beach chair
So glad it’s working for you!
Excited kids
Shelves of books
Clicking computers
Comfy chairs
Beeping self-checks
Reading eyes
Lit windows
Pattering rain
Musty carpet
Informative displays
Do you know where we are? Yep, the library! I took my four nieces and nephews today.
“Reading eyes” is my favorite line!
On the deck
Hawk screams
Slight breeze
Wind chimes sound
Love the contrast between the hawk and the chimes.
Kitchen table
Salt and pepper shakers
Candlesticks
Black chairs
Pink napkins
White tablecloth
Tervis tumbler
Carpet?
Beige walls
Square table
Apartment living
I see this room!
Madelyn, I am SO ridiculously in love with this writing exercise. Have been using it with credit to you!) in my in person writing workshops today — so wonderful to adapt to solving story problems or getting to know characters better. Describing a character’s bedroom or school, dialogue between characters! My teens are LOVING it tonight!! They’re writing away as I type this! Writing forward in their manuscripts based on their postcard poems. THANK YOU!
Wow, thank you so much for sharing that! Am so glad it is working for them! You totally made my night!
What an amazing quick write!
I spent a great day at the Library of Congress and was perusing some awesome activities of found poetry with primary source documents. Led me to think of my 10 words/phrases.
My Day as an Imperfect Reverso
My
Fragment of history
Lost map
Covered knowledge
Reverent learning
Teachers
Learning reverently
Knowledge revealed
Maps charted
Past of stories
Each piece
Ours.
Very clever. Love this <3
Love the way you did this. (Also, my husband works at the LOC!)
I just traveled from Washington state to new york today with a 2 year old so I think this is a perfect day for a 10 word poem!
Travel
Long
Tiring
Numb
Exciting
Anxious
Cramped
Lack of Personal Space
Bonding
Accomplishments
Finished
That about covers it =)
I’m a little late to the party, but thank you for the prompt! Here is my ten-line poem. It took several tries to get it ordered correctly to tell the story.
Fluorescent Lights
Hard chairs
Carousel of Computers
Click
Goosebumps under a sweater
Sniffle
Cold Coffee
Flip. Flop. Flip. Flop.
A late arrival
Yawn
“Teaching Summer School”
This definitely works!
Thank you Madelyn for this wonderful exercise. I took a recent memory (last week) of a trip I took to Maine to visit three dear college girlfriends. One friend’s dad lives there on a beautiful peninsula, a small finger of land surrounded on three sides by the sea, and hosted the four “girls”, our hubbies, and babies. One night, after the babies were in bed, we gathered around the dinner table to a big feast of lobsters, mussels, corn on the cob, blueberry pie, and good wine. We got messy, told stories, and breathed in the moment of being together…a rarity for all of us, living scattered around the world. This writing prompt helped me record those memories. Thank you!
Dinner Table at The Walker House in Maine
Scarlet, steaming lobsters
Slick fingers
Shells cracking
Zip of lemon
Briny bites
Splash of wine, splash of wine, splash of wine
Legendary stories spun
Belly laughs. No, souls in stitches!
Old friends gathered to break claws
A punctuation of voices, surrounded by the silent sea
Thanks for sharing this, Aliza. I try to record memories this way, too. I hope you send it to your college friends!
Thanks so much for the feedback, especially as I was a day late posting! I will definitely send it on to them. Being there is a place of peace, deep friendship and love, and memories.
Super late to this, because I just found out about the project. Mine comes from a float trip a friend took my family on the other day.
Float
Water
Daughter’s weight against my chest
Rapids
Bump
Laugh
Hawk circles in the brilliant blue sky
Spin
Drift
Peace
What makes my parent’s house in Louisiana “home”?
*The marble board made by a a great great great on the table ready for a game between me and Mom
*The plants….so many plants (and they’re ALIVE!!)
*Mom and Dad
*Going to the gun range with Dad
*Sleeping in
*A calm and relaxed, stress-free feeling
*Cooking, sewing, shopping with Mom.
*My fur sister, Callie
*ALL THE BOOKS