Pie Corbett

Pie Corbett: Writing games

The Simile Game

Look at the list of common similes below and ask the children to explain to their partner the story behind the simile. Try inventing new similes and listing them. Collect the best from scanning poems and novels. Make class lists. Discuss why a simile works - is it just a visual similarity? Create a simile alphabet in pairs or small groups within a few minutes.

As brave as a lion
As busy as a cat on a hot tin roof
As cunning as a fox
As deaf as a post
As dry as dust
As happy as Larry
As happy as a rat with a gold tooth
As hungry as a bear
As hungry as a wolf
As innocent as a lamb
As mad as a hatter
As patient as Job
As poor as a church mouse
As proud as a peacock
As scarce as hen's teeth
As silly as a goose
As slippery as an eel
As slow as a tortoise
As sly as a fox
As stubborn as a mule
As thin as a toothpick
As timid as a rabbit
As tricky as a box of monkeys
As welcome as a skunk at a lawn party
As wise as Solomon

Dead Metaphors

Dead metaphors are clichés - they are the ones that everyone knows and have been used so many times that they are just a part of everyday language, e.g.

Stone cold
A heart of stone
Apple of my eye
Boiling mad
Steer clear
Bear fruit
Hatch a plan
Difficult to swallow

Of course, the first time these were used, they would have been arresting - something new and apt. Now they have become stale - and have little fresh impact. They are part of our clichéd language - they communicate but not as powerfully as something freshly minted. Collect as many as possible from reading and noticing each other's speech. Make a list. Use these for a writing game by taking them literally, e.g.

I felt stone cold -
My arms were rock
And my legs were granite.

She was the apple of my eye -
But someone took a bite
Out of my sight!

My teacher was boiling mad -
Steam came out of her mouth!

I hatched a plan -
It is only just able to walk
And needs bottle-feeding daily.

This sort of language play helps children look anew at language that they may just be using without really thinking about its meaning.

Inventing Metaphors

First of all, identify something that you want to create a metaphor around - for instance - the stars. Now think of something that is like the subject or something to do with the subject - they shine, glitter, are like tin-tacks, like diamonds, like jewels, like fiery eyes. Now use an idea to make a metaphor, remembering not to use the word 'like', e.g.

The stars are shiny glitter.

The stars tin tacked to the night.

The diamond stars shine.

The jeweled stars.

The fiery stars eyed the world

Notice how one simple way is to:

Generate a simile - the stars are like diamonds.
Omit the word 'like' - the stars are diamonds.
Move the noun in front of the image - the diamond stars. Dylan Thomas uses this technique in his writing!

Extending the Metaphor

This is much easier than you may imagine. Take a simple simile, e.g.

My teacher is like an... eagle.

Turn this into a metaphor by removing the word like. Now think about what eagles do and just extend the sentence further, e.g.

My teacher is an eagle swooping around the room, hovering over his students, diving down on innocent prey and demolishing them with the terrible grip of his talons.

The Word Waiter

Brian Moses once write a poem along this line that involved a 'word waiter' who could serve up only a certain number of words. This can be used for short burst writing, haiku, letters or news items. The randomness of the selection adds a challenging edge that often forces creativity beyond the predictable. The word waiter might serve up a character, place and dilemma for storytelling. Here are some possible starters - but ask the children and add many more ingredients!

Character	Place	Dilemma
woodcutter farmer princess adventurer heroine Billy Jo teacher	hairdressers station bus stop cinema castle kitchen old bridge chip shop wooden tower	gets lost is chased steals something is trapped sees a fight finds a cave loses money finds an alien

Character

Place

Dilemma

woodcutter

farmer

princess

adventurer

heroine

Billy

teacher

hairdressers

station

bus stop

cinema

castle kitchen

old bridge

chip shop

wooden tower

gets lost

is chased

steals something

is trapped

sees a fight

finds a cave

loses money

finds an alien

Poetry Doors

The writer Stephanie Strickland says that, 'poems are words that take you through three kinds of doors: closed doors, secret doors, and doors you don't know are there'. Make a list of doors that poetry is.... Just be inventive - have some fun. It doesn't have to make sense. Indeed, logic and sense will probably lead to dull writing.

Poetry is a closed door.

Poetry is a secret door.

Poetry is a door that you did not know was there.

Poetry is a door of foxes, as a sly as sunlight.

Poetry is a door of dreams where thoughts hide.

Poetry is a door of disasters, where stories crumble.

Poetry is a door of kittens playing.

In the City of Rome

We used to play this old game in the back of the car on long journeys. It is ideal for building descriptions of settings. Think of a place and identify one thing that you can see (a park bench). Then say, 'in the city of Rome is a park bench'.

The next person has to repeat what you have said and add in something else, e.g. 'In the city of Rome is a park bench and under the bench is a sleeping dog.' A list of prepositions helps.

Pass the line on, with each child adding something else they can see or hear. Try playing the game in groups and pairs until the children can visualise and describe a scene in their own mind.

Instead of 'in the city of Rome', play the game using the setting in their story, e.g. 'in the haunted house'. Show children how to sketch the scene and annotate, adding in similes. Then practise turning the scenes into mini paragraphs.

Disasters

Children - indeed, most humans, - are fascinated by disasters. But what might be a disaster for superman or an ant?

5 Disasters for Superman.

His tights are in the wash.
The colour in his boxer shorts washes out and now they're pink.
His Mum says to be in by 8.00 and in bed by 9.00.
His Dad tells him not to start fights.
His Gran gives him Kryptonite pants for Christmas.

April Fool's Day

Write a list of April Fool's day tricks and jokes?
Put plastic bottles outside instead of milk bottles.
Put onions in Wendy's bed.
Wrap up a stone to make a big parcel.
Stick a penny on the path.
Put salt into a pot instead of sugar.
Hide John's trousers.
Stick a cup to a saucer with superglue.

Judy Jane, 7 yrs.

The Writing Box

Keep a 'writing box' in the classroom. Each week put in a new object that the children have to write about. They can take any angle that they wish. Steven, 7 yrs, wrote this short piece about an old watch that I popped in:

The silver watch

The back is smooth and round. It has hinges to open it. It has a gold wheel that spins round. It has springs. The spring beats out and in like a heart. It has a silver plate with patterns. The patterns are curls. The best part I like is the gold colour inside. The time is quarter past six. That is all I know of the silver watch.

Deborah, 8 yrs, wrote about the box itself and the unicorn that it contained.

What has the box ever held? A diamond? A ring? A heart of rubies? Or a unicorn with a sapphire collar? The inside of the box is as black as ebony. The unicorn can never feel happy or sad. The unicorn is trapped between both, never will he move again. The person who owned the box was a merchant who staggered around. The merchant rode a golden camel. The box was his favourite possession. Yet only he knew what it contained. He passed on the secret to me. Inside the box was a key, a key to let the soul of the unicorn out into the world...

Creating Potions

With one class we had been reading Terry Nation's book Rebecca's World. We wrote magical potions to cure Grisby's bad feet:

Potion to cure bad feet.

Take three drops of verruca cream, add corn plasters with a pinch of bunion powder and a squirt of foot cream. Mix it together and heat it up in a stained saucepan. It is called 'Footcure'. - Matthew, 9 yrs

Later on in the story Rebecca nearly falls prey to 'Bad Habits'.

Potion for curing bad habits.
Take six bitten nails,
Five sucked thumbs,
Ten chewed pens
And a bag of humbugs.
Mix them to make
'Habitcure'.
Julie, 9 yrs

For Sale

With that class we fell into the habit of selling things (see Creative games from stories). I think the idea came when one day someone put up a 'for sale' notice in the staff room - trying to sell off some disruptive year 6 pupil! In my class we tried writing notices to sell off pesky younger brothers and then we moved on to selling historical artefacts such as 'Pyramid for sale - genuine offer!'

Dream Jars

In Gulliver's Travels there is a good description of what he has in his pockets. This idea led into making lists of the contents of Mrs Thatcher's (the ex-Prime-minister) handbag and I seem to recall that one witty lad wrote a list of what was found in Emu's beak - Michael Parkinson's finger! Other stories often lend themselves to writing ideas. The BFG can be used to create Dream Jars. You could write about the contents or how to use the contents.

In the red nightmare jar
Is a drop of blood from the sword that killed St Thomas,
Is a drop of paint from the letterbox in King's Lane,
Is a traffic light's eye from the High Street,
Is a red card from the referee's collection.

Invented Insects

As a child I had a much prized copy of the Observer's Book of Birds. One year when I was working in a village school, I decided we would invent flies and create the Observer's Book of Invented Flies! We looked at several bird entries to get the gist of how to write our fly entries, drew invented flies and then wrote about them:

Red-backed Fly

So named because of the red stripes on its back. Flies between April and June. Eggs are seven and found underneath cars. Young found in sewers. It has scent glands on its head that give a pungent smell when alarmed.
Nancy, 9 yrs

The large-winged bird-eating fly.

This fly is the largest specimen of the bird-eating flies. The male has a small sting at the bottom of his abdomen which enables him to poison the bird. They lay over a thousand young but only about five survive. The female grows so heavy when she is pregnant that she can't fly and that is why the male makes the nest. Their legs are so powerful that they can carry a fully-grown eagle. They live in small areas of the mountains.
William, 9 yrs

Dragon's menu

Dragons are always popular with primary age children. The book Eragon by Christopher Paolini is a cracking good read. Each child could make their own dragon passport. An alphabet for a dragon's menu might also be fun:

A is for an angler's boot.

B is for a bull's horns.

C is for a car's back seat.

D is for dirty dish cloths...

Excuses

Excuses are always needed. When I was a child I was endlessly late and homework was a mystery to me! Make a list of excuses - the more exaggerated the better. Here are some year 4s in full flight...

This morning I was late for school because there was a knock on my door and I opened it to find that the local farmer had just dumped a lorry load of horse manure on my doorstep. I had to dig myself a route to the front gate.

This morning my head teacher was late for school because his Lotus Elan was jammed at the lights when star performers from Sir Serendipity's Travelling Flea Circus had escaped. They had to be hunted down and recaptured before the traffic could move...

The Trout Fishing Game

This game came from an idea in a Richard Brautigan poem that I have adapted. Richard Brautigan wrote Trout Fishing In America - hence the title of the game. To play the game, make a long list of possible subjects for writing, e.g. worries, bicycles, recipes, trout, clouds, bees. Choose one or two to work on as a class. Decide whether the subject is beautiful or ugly and write your opening line using this pattern:

A bee is not a beautiful thing.

Now make a list of contrasting subjects, using the following pattern:

A bee is not a beautiful thing;
It's not like a kingfisher
hurrying in its flashy coat of blues and scarlet.
It's not like a dandelion
Shaking its golden mane.
It's not like a Siamese cat's eyes
Of Egyptian sapphire.

A Nuisance of Nouns

Ask the children to explain the collective nouns in the alphabet below and then create their own alphabet - this might best be done in small teams, dividing the alphabet up between them.

An abandonment of orphans
A ballet dance of swans
A crush of rhinoceroses
A dose of doctors
An elephant of enormities
A fidget of school children
A glacier of fridges
A hover of hawks
An inquisition of judges
A Jonah of shipwrecks
A knuckle of robbers
A lottery of dice
A misery of bullets
A number of mathematicians
An outrage of stars
A prayer of nuns
A quake of cowards
A roundabout of arguments
A swelter of duvets
A tangle of tricksters
An upset of horoscopes
A vein of goldfinch
A wonder of stars
An xray of soothsayers
A zeal of enthusiasts

The Room of Stars

This game follows on from the invention of collective nouns. There are many possibilities. Split the class in two. One half has to rapidly make a list of places, e.g. room, town, city, village, mountain, river, star, sun, kitchen, alleyway, lawn, garden, castle, etc. The other half has to make a list of nouns and abstract nouns, e.g. memories, love, doom, sparklers, curtains, sunsets, wisdom, jealousy, disasters, grass, hedgerows, teapots, certainty, etc. Then put children into pairs and they match the words listed exactly in the order they write them down, e.g.

The room of memories.
The town or love.
The city of doom.
The village of sparklers.
The mountain of curtains.
The river of sunsets.
The star of wisdom.
The sun of jealousy.
The kitchen of disasters.
The alleyway of grass.
The lawn of hedgerows.
The garden of teapots.
The castle of certainty.

As well as places you could try vehicles, or 'the moment of...', or time, e.g. 'the day of...', 'the week of...', 'the month of...', the year of...'. You could leave this just as a list of surprising and interesting combinations. Interestingly, many seem to have a power of their own. Show the children how to take one of the ideas that seems to have promise and extend it. I find this easiest by taking on with an abstract noun. For instance, if you take the 'kitchen of disasters', you could list all sorts of disasters, e.g.

The kitchen of disasters is where -
The kettle's spout melted,
The teapot shattered into splinters,
The fridge shivered all night, The sink sunk!

The city of doom could be a list of things that have happened that are doom-laden. Try a different pattern by using 'in', e.g.

In the city of doom
The streets are awash with dead starfish
And the windows have wept tears of ice,
The shops are empty as silence...