Kaitlin Bevis

Today is the last day of the Creative Writing Camp program. Students opened the day with their choice of creative writing games. Then we had a mini lesson on revision and editing, and students spent the rest of the day finishing their writing piece for the creative writing camp anthology. We closed the day with a student author signing and publishing Q&A. Click through the slide show to follow…

Today, in Advanced Topics in Creative Writing, we started class by taking a look at how word choice, on a microlevel conveys mood. The students had to rewrite a description from a horror novel to a description with a romantic lens. Afterwards, we looked at the scene/sequel format and had a talk about pacing. The rest of the day, students worked on revising their pieces for the camp anthology.…

Today, in Creative Writing Camp, we focused on writing vivid descriptions, blocking, and internal reactions. Then we combined them all into different writing exercises and scenes. The big idea here is every word should do multiple jobs. If you describe something, there should be a reason it’s described and that description should tell you more about the character, their state of mind, the world…

Today, in Advanced Topics in Creative Writing Camp, campers learned to weigh every single word by taking part in a writing challenge where they tried to cut a piece of flash fiction into exactly half the words without sacrificing clarity. This is a great exercise for really evaluating the words on the page on a microlevel. I encourage everyone to try it on a regular basis to continue honing their…

It’s a new week of camp, and this week we’re learning about advanced topics in creative writing. This camp used to be called Economy of Language because at its core, this week’s lessons focus on getting the most out of every word in your book, story, or poem. There’s a finite number of words in every piece of writing, so each word needs to do multiple jobs. After some initial getting to know you…

Today was the last day of Creative Writing: World Building Camp. We spent the morning learning about constructed languages. In the afternoon, the students were cautioned about world builders disease, and then put the finishing touches on their maps. Then we did a solar system walk, where the kids got to present the worlds they created. Click around the slideshow to follow along, and be sure to…

Today, in World Building Camp, students spent the morning adding fine details to their world maps. After lunch, we added people by learning about different rules of thumb for history, culture, and society. Click around the slideshow to follow along!

Today, in Creative Writing: Worldbuilding, we learned all about how to populate a world with flora and fauna. Then we went on a walking field trip to the trial gardens to see some interesting plant hybrids and get inspired. We combined that with what we learned yesterday about geographic features, and went over some techniques for map making. The students spent the rest of the time with leaves,…

Today in world building camp, we opened with the hard science of building a world from the ground up using actual science and probability. This activity comes from a series of unit plans on roleplaying science lessons I did with my daughter during covid homeschool. This particular activity, called roll up a planet 1-3, is free. I simplified it a bit for camp purposes (mostly by creating a…

Today we started Creative Writing World Building Camp! After a what-if creative writing technology, where we imagined the ripple effects from a physical change, social change, magical change, and technology change (pulled from current events) and how they’ll impact the future 50, 100, 500 years from now, we went over some basic terms of Speculative Fiction. Then we discussed the continuum of hard…

Today was the last day in plot and structure camp. We reviewed  The Snowflake Method, the Pixar Story Spine, the three act structure, and other plot structures. We also reviewed some world building, characterization, description writing, and scene building. Most of today was dedicated to finishing up our writing anthology, and we closed with an author signing. Did you enjoy this creative writing…

  Today, in plot and structure camp, we reviewed  The Snowflake Method, the Pixar Story Spine, and the three act structure. Then we broke down the movie Lilo and Stitch into the three act structure. We saw the live action one, but this link to the animated version will mostly match. For additional resources on endings, click here and here where I break down Lilo and Stitch (which is what we saw…

Today, in plot and structure camp, we reviewed  The Snowflake Method, the Pixar Story Spine, the first act and the second act of the three act structure. We also reviewed try fail cycles, the darkest night, and character goals. We also went over Act 3, which includes The Road Back, the climax, and the ending. For more details, click the links to view my other posts on this topic. For additional…

Today, in plot and structure camp, we reviewed The Snowflake Method, the Pixar Story Spine, and the first act of the three act structure. We also went over the second act of the three act structure which includes try fail cycles, the midpoint, fun and games, and the darkest night. We also discussed character goals and how they add tension when they conflict with each other. For more details,…

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vQqqZjeh2C9U-PjsQJk2JijtyBPeIWpIk86T51slRY3-n5CgKo69pG6O39g9AcBsg/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000 Today, in plot and structure camp, we went over the Snowflake Method, the Three Act Structure, and the Pixar Story Spine. For more details, click the links to view my other posts on this…