Other
Writing World: Four Ways to Bring Settings to Life
A great resource outlining four major ways to make settings appear more real and genuine in fiction. Deals with themes such as motion, experience, mood, and the senses. W.11-12.3d Sensory/precise lang narratives
Other
Writing Is Exciting!
Students and teachers can use this site to find detailed information on effective and creative story writing.
Caro Clarke
Caro Clarke: Pacing Anxiety, or How to Stop Padding and Plot!
This is the seventh installment of a series giving advice to the author who is new to writing novels. This article focuses on how to take your characters and use them and their conflicts to develop the plot of your story. W.9-10.3b...
Caro Clarke
Caro Clarke: Writing Advice: Beginner's Four Faults
This site is a personal site from Caro Clarke. The third installment in this series looks at the four major mistakes made by beginning authors. The main idea of this article is that the author needs to be able to combine dialogue with...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Scrapbook Book Report
After reading independently a novel or biography, students in this creative writing activity demonstrate their understanding of characterization and point of view by creating the main character's personal scrapbook.
ArtsNow
Arts Now Learning: Super Gene [Pdf]
In this lesson, 5th graders learn about basic genetics and how genes can affect someone's behavior. They will write their own narrative about a character they create as a class in order to illustrate the effects of inherited traits and...
British Library
British Library: Teaching Resources: Macbeth: Lady Macbeth
This varied series of activities is designed to encourage learners to exercise independence of thought when exploring the presentation of Lady Macbeth throughout the play. The tasks draw learners' attention to the varied ways in which...
Caro Clarke
Not Stopping the Reader: How to Avoid Stumbling Blocks
This is the eighth article in a series that focuses on helping the new novel author. This article looks at how the author can avoid creating stumbling blocks that disrupt the flow of the novel.
Caro Clarke
Explaining Too Much: Why More Is Less
This is the eleventh article in a series that is designed to help the new novel author. This article focuses on how to eliminate needless information in your novel. The key is to not explain too much about the action.
Caro Clarke
Historical Fiction: Who Rules?
This is the fifteenth article in a series designed to help the new novel author. This article focuses on the genre of historical fiction and the role of the author. Is the author a researcher or a story-teller?
Other
Fiction Factor: The Importance of Setting
An interesting article concerning the importance of setting to any piece of fiction. Gives good information about how setting affects characters and "world-building."