Writing Assignments

Random Wikipedia Writing

There is a page on Wikipedia, called Wikipedia:Random, where you can click the link and get brought to a random page on Wikipedia. For this assignment, go to the link and then click on the words Special:Random. Whatever page you get, somehow incorporate it into a short story involving whatever theme your class has. Feel free to use other Wikipedia pages and other programs such as Google Earth to research more about your page if you have no idea what it is or if you want to find more information for your story. After writing your story explain what page you got and your thought process in figuring out your story and incorporating your random page into it. See if your readers were able to figure out what random page you got! There’s no maximum or minimum number of words or paragraphs, just make sure your story is longer than what you post on Twitter, so it counts as an assignment, not a Daily Create!

 

Here’s the url for the Wikipedia page if the link isn’t working-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Random

Thumbnail image from here-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia-logo-en-big.png

Facing Your Fears

What is your biggest fear? Is it spiders… heights… snakes… needles? Have you ever thought about what your fear might think of you?  Write a short story of a terrifying event from the perspective of your fear.  You never know… they might be just as scared as you are!

Nonhuman Perspectives

What if plants and animals could all communicate without humans understanding? Write either about a conversation between two non-human living things or through the point of view of one non-human witnessing people go about their daily lives. How would a really old tree feel about having always been in the same place but everything change around it? What would a squirrel feel towards pesky humans who always scare them away? Be creative, go deep or go humorous, have fun!

The End is for Everything

When the apocalypse happens, it won’t just happen to humans. Everything on Earth will feel the effects. Write a story from the perspective of a non-human thing or being. Tell us how the end of the world has changed their existence for the better or worse. 

Apocalypse Terms of Service

We all agree to them, but who among us reads them? Terms of Service are baked into our lives, no matter how hard we try to ignore them. For this assignment, imagine it’s your job to write the Terms of Service for the apocalypse. What does that mean? We have no idea — but we’re sure you’ll figure something out.

Products of the Apocalypse

Find a product on Amazon that could help you survive the apocalpyse. Then write a product review that explains how it actually has helped you survive the apocalypse. See an example. Share what you did on your blog (with a screenshot of your review and link to it).

Tell It / Tweet It

First, go to your blog and tell us a story. Any story. Fact or fiction. Make it as long as it needs to be to tell it well. 

Then, go to Twitter and retell your story, distilling it down into a single tweet. Embed your tweet at the end of the original blog post. 

Day in the Life of a Superhero

Using this Superhero Name Generator website to generate a superhero name as well as your powers, write a short story about the day in the life of YOU but as a superhero. What do you do when you wake up? How do you know when duty calls? Who will you save today? You don’t even have to save anyone. Maybe you’re a super chill superhero who saves themselves by being content (self care is ALSO important!). Or maybe you have a disguise and work a 9 to 5 but by night you battle the villains who cause destruction in your hometown. Who knows! The possibilities are endless, so get creative!

SuperStory Generator

You are a superhero. Develop the details surrounding your story (i.e. your background, personality, and superpowers) using the results from online word/phrase generators.

Some great places to start:

This assignment was inspired by Changing Fortunes (http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/changing-fortunes/)

Up-Goer Five Your Writing

Pick a topic that you can write about. It can be anythign: a short bio, a description of a job you do, a short story about something that happened to you. Then go to http://splasho.com/upgoer5/ and use the editor to write/re-write your text only using the top most common 1000 words. The editor will tell you when you violate the rules. 

The challenge (and editor) are based upon this xkcd comic