Realistic Fiction Story Due Date

First Draft Due: Friday, November 22nd

Second, Edited Draft due: Tuesday, December 3rd

First Trimester ends: December 6th

Grammar Games and other Online Resources

Road to Grammar

Wacky Web Tales

Sheppard Software: Grammar






To Appropriately and Legally Use Images

Google Images Safe Search

Scene Writing

Creating Great Leads

Leads need to hook the reader, and get them to keep reading!

Sachar, Louis. Holes. Dell Yearling, 1998.
“There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. There once was a very large lake here, the largest in Texas. That was over a hundred years ago. Now it is just a dry, flat wasteland. There used to be a town of Green Lake as well. The town shriveled and dried up along with the lake, and the people who lived there. During the summer the daytime temperature hovers around ninety-five degrees in the shade-if you can find any shade. There’s not much shade in a big dry lake. The only trees are two old oaks on the eastern edge of the “lake”. A hammock is stretched between the two trees, and a log cabin stands between that. The campers are forbidden to lie in the hammock. It belongs to the Warden. The Warden owns the shade. Out on the lake, rattlesnakes and scorpions find shade under rocks and in the holes dug by the campers.” 

Blume, Judy. Superfudge. Puffin Books, 1980.
“Life was going along okay when my mother and father dropped the news. Bam! Just like that.” 


Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy. Yearling, 2002.
“Here we go again. We were all standing in line waiting for breakfast when one of the caseworkers came in and tap-tap-tapped down the line. Uh-oh, this meant bad news, either they'd found a foster home for somebody or somebody was about to get paddled. All the kids watched the woman as she moved along the line, her high-heeled shoes sounding like little firecrackers going off on the wooden floor.” 

Writing scenes that move your story forward!

Action=Change:

When is a scene a scene? When something changes. 
What defines the completion of a scene? The moment of change.

Character:
Consider your character traits
Words: What does the character say throughout the story?

Actions: What does the character do throughout the story?

Feelings: How does the character feel throughout the story?