Creative Writing with Harry, Ron, and Hermione

I wanted to share a writing exercise that I tortured gave my students today. It's all about rewriting for revision.

I admit, I used to be one of those people who would write something and then go back and revise those written words and revise THOSE written words and then THOOOOSE written words.

And the thing is, when you keep reworking the same words over and over and over again, you tend to get this:

A HOT MESS

It took me a lot of frustration and time and a lot of mentoring from other writers to let go of this habit and just throw out my mess and start fresh.

With a blank sheet of paper.

And that is scary!

But that's why I create these exercises. To make them a little less frightening and easier to do.

So here's how this one works.

Step 1: I had my students watch this clip from the Deathly Hallows. (sorry, no embedding allowed)

Step 2: I then asked them to write the scene, choosing to tell it from Harry, Ron, or Hermione's perspective, using either 1st or 3rd person limited, or an omniscient narrator.

Step 3: They had a chance to clear their minds with a different writing exercise--write about your outfit. I wanted something simple and easy.

Step 4: Put ALL the writings away in a place you can't see.

Repeat Steps 1-4: With some variations...

Step 1: Watch the clip

Step 2: Write the scene using a NEW perspective. If you wrote as Hermione, pick Ron this time, etc...

Step 3: Cleanse! This time I made them walk around the room.

Step 4: Put ALL the writings away in a place you can't see.

Repeat Steps 1-4 (original)

After a third viewing of the clip, they then had to write the scene from the original perspective, hopefully this time with new insights, details, feelings, and most importantly New and Fresh WORDS.

And there you have it. So if there's ever a scene you're struggling with, it may be time to try the scene from scratch (trust me, I know this hurts, but it's worth it), and this may make doing so feel less severe.

Enjoy!

P.S. If any of you try this, I'd LOVE to hear how it goes, or even see what you came up with--you can paste into the comments.

Happy Monday!