Writing projects are fun for all ages! They allow every member of the family to be creative, slow down and be thoughtful, engage collaboratively with others, and just have fun. Don’t consider yourself the creative writing sort? No worries; there are fun activities below for everyone!
- Try writing a 6 word story! Yes, it’s possible; you can actually convey a great deal in 6 words. It’s a very creative challenge. Share your stories with friends and family via voicemail, text messages, social media, or even a postcard!
- Here’s a fun, social (while physically distanced) community writing project: In your neighborhood, each Monday, ask neighbors to post 3-5 letters in their front windows or doors. Throughout the week, neighbors can walk around and find the letters. Each player creates words, phrases, short poems, or sentences using the letters they found. Players then share their writings in a private Facebook group. Then it starts up again the next week!
- Another social option is to write a story collaboratively online with an interested group. One group member starts by writing the first sentence, then each member adds a sentence; repeat until you have a complete story!
- For every age person in your household, try writing an alternate ending to a story; how do you think the story should (or could) end?
- Similarly, write a story from a different perspective, perhaps from the point of view from a minor character, or an outsider watching the action.
- Write a letter to your younger–or older–self. Choose an age you’ll be writing to. What messages will you share with yourself?
- For those artistic or visual folks, “write” a story using images. These images could be ones that you create yourself, put together using an app, or cut from a magazine.
- Write haiku, a Japanese poetry form. A haiku uses just a few words to capture a moment and create a picture in the reader’s mind. Traditionally, haiku is written in three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line. Share your haiku with neighbors by writing them with chalk on a neighborhood sidewalk (and encourage your neighbors to do the same!).
- Creative writing prompts can be fun, and can really spur your imagination. Here’s a fun one: Choose an animal that interests or intrigues you and write about it. What would it be like to wake up as a bighorn sheep, magpie, rainbow trout, or worm? Or this one: Create a cookbook in which every recipe reflects a person or specific moment or event in your life. Or try: What would it have been like to grow up in your community–100 years ago? Or 100 years in the future? Make up your own prompts, too; share them with friends and family, then exchange your writings to see what they’ve come up with. For those with young children, have them tell their adults a story to write down for them; then the kids can illustrate them!