Kim Firmston here and now
Like this site? Let others know.
  • The Home Front
  • Classes and Camps
  • My Books
    • Creep Con
    • Stupid
    • Boiled Cat
    • Touch
    • Hook Up >
      • Novel Study
    • Schizo
    • Current Projects
  • Fun
    • Multi-Media Projects
    • The Cork Board
    • Photos
    • Free Scripts >
      • Skits
      • One Act Plays
    • Teaching and Writing history
  • Contact Kim

A New Writing Game

12/4/2013

0 Comments

 
Wow! I had so much fun being Writer in Residence for Open Book Toronto last month. I'm so glad they invited me. If you missed it - you can see all my blogs in their archives here: http://www.openbooktoronto.com/kim_firmston/main

But on to that writing game. So the other day I was prepping for a writing class and I needed a simple writing game that could be done either individually or as a group - and here's what I came up with:

It's called THREE THINGS

Materials: A container with objects written on small pieces of paper. Things like skirt, open CD case, saddle, glitter, tire marks, empty wine glass, a book on how to build a raft, etc. You can make these ahead of time or get the class to help you out.

To play: The player draws at random three papers out of the container. They have to come up with a scenario of what might have happened if they had come upon a scene where those three objects were and the people are no longer around. What happened, essentially. Individually, each player can either speak the scenario or write it down as an opening to a story then read it out. As a group there can be a brain storm of all the possible things that could have led to these three things being left where they were.

Example: Say you drew glitter, carrot, and saddle. Perhaps someone was trying to make a real My Little Pony for their daughter but the pony hated the glitter, and the carrot wasn't enticing enough and it bolted out of the house. The dad didn't even have time to get the saddle on the thing!

A simple, quick, fun game that would make a good icebreaker to any writing group.
0 Comments

Summer Adventure Part One

7/20/2013

0 Comments

 
Summer is the time for adventures and I’m planning on having a ton of them. I started the summer by teaching at WordsWorth summer camp week one. I ran a class called Action Scenes. We used a lot of stage blood. A LOT. But it was fun. We learned how to write action scenes by toying with sentence length and pacing both on the page and using video. We watched a James Bond scene to see the visual equivalent of short sentences. It was pretty cool and something I just realized days before the class. I love teaching because it’s what helps me to write better.
After getting home I built a bush fort with my daughter. A bush fort is kind of like a tree fort, but on the ground. Anyway, it’s pretty cool and has a secret passage and built in snacks come August. Of course that wasn’t the only thing I was doing (it was mainly an excuse not to weed the garden). I’ve also been working on writing a new book called Stupid. I’ve been doing about a chapter a day, though I’ve hit a bit of a snag lately with my knowledge and my writing has come to loggerheads. So today I’m out to do some interviews in order to fix this issue.
Stupid is about a kid named Martin who has been misdiagnosed as having ADHD when he really has dyslexia. He’s a film maker and really smart – but because of his learning disability, everyone thinks he’s stupid, until he meets Stick. Stick does parkour and thinks Martin’s movie making is brilliant. This is new for Martin and he kind of likes having someone in his life who is on his side. Then bad things happen and Martin’s dad threatens to send him away. I’m about a third of the way through. The outline went through a lot of changes. I had to really focus on the hero’s journey archetype, something I’m still learning. I think really getting a handle on this may help me rewrite my February novel. Once Stupid is done – I’m planning on working on that trilogy once again.
In a week (just over) I’m going to be writing and producing a one act play with the DramAntics kids. This of course means I’ll have a new play to put up on the website for people around the world to use. It’s kind of cool to have my plays out in the world even if I don’t get paid for them. Money has never been the issue for me. I mean I forgot to pick up my check from WordsWorth and only got paid because Lisa Murphy-Lamb, the director, ran out and handed me the check in the car.
So far the play is thus – A giant has been killed, Jack is somehow involved. That’s it. The kids will come up with the rest. I’m looking forward to seeing where their imagination takes them. The interesting thing is we all get to learn how to write a mystery – something I’ve never really done on this level.
And that takes me half way through the summer. I’m doing another camp right before school starts. I wonder what kinds of adventures I’ll have in August. It’s going to be fun – I know that much and I’m looking forward to it.

0 Comments

Play Writing

5/17/2013

1 Comment

 
Boiled Cat is launched. I’ve managed to get another book proposal in to my publisher for a little novel I call Stupid. Now it is that time of the  year when I start prepping my classes.
I work all summer. I teach at various summer camps such as WordsWorth, DramAntics, and RIO. And what do I teach? Writing of course. But not just any writing. I like to use play to teach. So in my classes we play  writing.
That probably sounds strange. I mean how do you play and write at the same time. Well, it’s pretty easy. I think of the lesson I would  like to get across, be it incorporating more senses into one’s work, or learning to pump more tension in to an action scene. Then I think of a way to get bums out of seats and up and moving. Bringing the lesson to life.
For senses I’ve done blindfolded hiking and  tasting/smelling/touching/hearing crazy stuff. For tension I’m thinking of firing live water guns at my students while they run around trying to write in  a notebook. Not everything I do works. But I do try everything. And even if it  doesn’t work 100 percent, we have fun and writing comes off as a positive  experience. Which is success in my book.
1 Comment

Fear

2/26/2013

1 Comment

 
Some of the people I most admire talk about fear. How they felt it during their work. How during a new endeavour, that later became such a defining moment in their career, at the beginning, terrified them. Many of them felt like a fraud about to be caught out. And it’s not the people you would expect. It’s people you look at now and say – wow, he or she really knew their path. But they didn’t. It was a gamble. But instead of running from their fear, they put forth extraordinary effort, stood steady in the trembling wind. And what I’ve learned from this is that you can’t fail without trying. And that failure is in itself a reward for trying. Therefore failure is not a negative thing. It is a leap. A badge proving you went forward. That you are more than the ones who turned away when the terrifying task was set upon the table. And do not forget that alongside failure is success – which you also do not gain without attempt.
So whether I succeed or fail, no matter how afraid or fraudulent I feel at the task set before me – I am going forward and I will see just what happens. Whatever it is, it may well be extraordinary.
1 Comment

It's Almost Time for Play Season

1/25/2013

0 Comments

 
It's almost time for spring break. And spring break means, play season for the under 18 class. It's the time when day camps are launched and kids are putting on costumes and makeup and learning to sword fight.
There are plenty of great play scripts written just for kids by kids on this website. Through the DramAntics program and an earlier incarnation of my playwriting program I ran with the Girl Guides - I have loads of scripts just waiting for another stage. So if you have a youth theatre, a youth group, a class, or a bunch of kids in a basement looking for play to put on - check out the scripts. They're free, easy to stage, and easy to memorize. In fact, the majority of the plays were staged in just one week.
If DramAntics can do it, you can do it too.
0 Comments

New plays on their way!

11/22/2012

0 Comments

 
After two seasons of kids' drama kamps and classes, I will soon have a couple of new plays on offer. One is a great Anime based play that ended up like Hamlet. The other is a monster play perfect for Halloween or, really, anytime. With luck, they should be up by next week. Yay!
0 Comments

History

10/29/2012

0 Comments

 
I didn’t go to university. When the time came to make those decisions I was taken into the guidance councillor’s office in my small town school, where she asked me what I wanted to do as my career. I told her I wanted to be a writer. She replied that I couldn’t be a writer, they didn’t make any money. So offered, prostitute. She gasped and said I couldn’t be that either. I told her, since she wouldn’t be satisfied with anything, I was leaving. I never got the university information. I had no idea how to apply. I had no money to go even if I could figure it all out on my own. And I didn’t even know they taught any kind of writing at university anyway. Had I known, I may have actually tried to figure out how to get there. Instead I moved into a small, one room apartment in Calgary, with the bathroom down the hall and a couple fighting in the next room, because it sounded like a place a writer could be born. Then I wrote. I wrote every day, two to twelve hours a day. I wrote plays to start with. Then I  traveled and wrote novels. I moved to Montreal, not speaking any French and  lived in the slums and wrote more. I sought out experiences and interesting people. I figured I’d be decent by the time I hit forty. Around thirty I decided to learn how to get published. And true to my career trajectory, I began to get published around forty. (I did have a few plays produced before then). Now I write full time and I’m working on getting an agent. I teach writing to youth and tell them that there are classes in University that teach all kinds of writing. I encourage the kids to go to university. I don’t know if it will do anything for them, or if it would have done anything for me. Maybe it would  have speeded up my learning curve. I can’t say, because I never went. But I’m pretty happy with how my writing life is and all the experiences I’ve had working to get where I am.

0 Comments

Falling off the Earth

10/1/2012

1 Comment

 
Okay, so I didn't EXACTLY fall off the Earth. But I have been really busy. No, not your usual relatives are in town and I have laundry and dishes kind of busy. I've been teaching all summer. I ran three week long summer camps and taught at one. That's four camps. Not to mention my amazing daughter won a film making award so we had to go out to Vancouver to see her animation on the big screen. Pretty good for an eleven year old. Then September rolled around and I got to breathe for two seconds before RIO started up again as well as a Theatre class I'm teaching and school. Did I mention I home school? Couple all that with a novel deadline and a few rewrites and the fact that I'm also self publishing a novel and had a play in the Calgary Fringe festival. Yeah, so like I said, busy. But things are slowing down to a low roar and I've found a long ladder to hop back up on the Earth. Hopefully this blog will come more frequently now. In the meantime, for your entertainment - here is a good review I got of Hook Up. I'm so pleased: http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol19/no4/hookup.html
1 Comment

Setting and Senses

7/1/2012

2 Comments

 
Write what you know is an often repeated statement to young authors. But in the world of Speculative Fiction where we create other worlds, step into the future or change the past, writing what you know is harder than a simple phrase. However, the teachers of this philosophy are correct. You must know your environment before you can write about it.
So how does one get to know a space station on a distant, impoverished and forgotten asteroid? Senses and research. 
Our character’s senses are what connects our story to our readers. A derelict old space station will smell oily and musty. Head out to your uncle (the car fanatic’s) beat up garage to get to know that one. The space station will creak as things clatter and break. A trip down to the metal recyclers or into an old metal building that shifts with the wind can give you good sounds. How does stale, over-breathed air taste? Think of your school or an office building. Run your hand over some rusty, dusty, greasy metal to get the walls and floors of your spaceport. The look of your space station can come from what you’ve seen in your travels, your research from looking at real and imagined space stations and your own sketches.
To make a place that readers from here and now can imagine, we must use things they can relate to. We must take things from this world and place them in our imagined place. This will allow our readers to understand and walk within our story. Right where we want them.


2 Comments

Teaching - Different Styles

6/10/2012

1 Comment

 
I spent the weekend with over a hundred Girl Guides aged 4-17, though mostly I hung out with the younger set. Our them for this camp was the Queen’s Jubilee. The girls were challenged with learning twenty facts about the Queen and her family. And while most of the girls ran around reading posters and reporting the facts to earn small flags of felt, some girls ran into trouble. These girls had different learning styles than the rest. So, instead of insisting that they do the task as it was laid out, I adjusted it to fit their needs. For some it was as easy as teaming them up and walking them through the task. But for four girls, just thinking about finding twenty facts, answering all those questions, and sifting through so much information seemed overwhelming. They wanted to participate, but they were scared they would fail.

These girls have learning difficulties. It doesn’t mean they can’t learn, only that they learn differently. By adjusting the task and using positive words, high fives, and repeated success, the girls went from tears of frustration and the feeling that they were going to fail AGAIN, just like they had so many times before – to smiles, laughter, and a racing search for the next poster. In the end I heard the best thing a Girl Guide leader can hear,
“This is really fun!”

The girls thanked me again and again for helping them be like all the other girls with their flags pinned to their shirts. I just told them I knew they could do it. That they are smart. It’s something kids who have different learning needs don’t hear often enough.

So if you see a kid struggling, don’t write it off as not trying. Most of the time these kids have to try twice as hard as everyone else just to come up with average. Give them a hand, adjust how you present the task. Talk them through their fears of failure. Give them lots of praise. And don’t let their despondency turn you off of helping them – they are just afraid. It happens to us all.
1 Comment

    Kim Firmston

    Writer, Teacher, Mutant. What more could you want?

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    June 2018
    October 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    October 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012

    Categories

    All
    2012
    2013
    2014
    2015
    2016
    2018
    Animation
    Boiled Cat
    Book Launch
    Books
    Camp
    Characters
    Conflict
    Cork Board
    Creating Characters
    Creep Con
    Dear Lucky Agent Contest
    Doug Mccormic
    Editing
    Fear
    First Draft
    Free One Act Plays For Kids
    Free Plays
    Girl Guides
    Goal
    Hook Up
    Jamie Lewis
    Kids
    Kim Firmston
    Labrador City
    Lorimer
    Motive
    Plot
    Reading
    Rejection
    Reluctant Reader
    Resource Links Magazine
    Review
    Scenes
    Schizo
    Senses
    Setting
    Sidestreets
    Stupid
    #TDBookWeek
    Teaching
    Teaching Writing
    The Aversion Bureau
    The Canadian Children's Book Center
    Touch
    Wordsworth
    Writing
    Writing 101
    Writing Camps For Kids
    Writing Camps For Teens
    Writing Setting And Senses
    Young Writers

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.