Writing Prompt - What a Cliche'!

According to an article on About.com titled What Are Clichés and Why Are We Supposed to Avoid Them? - a cliché is any overly familiar word or phrase. As writers we are often warned to avoid them like the plague. However, like most rules, it's sometimes fun to break them. Especially if you can do it without causing any harm.

Our writing prompt this time is to write a short story or poem using as many cliches as you like.

My dog is happy as a clam,
My cat as fit as any fiddle.
You see what a  bad poet I am?
Perhaps next time I'll try a riddle.

A Great Online Writing Workshop for Kids

The Young Voices Foundation, a 501 c 3 educational nonprofit is offering an online writing workshop for young writers in grades 2-4.  Complete details about the course are provided on the workshop page website.

Pencil to Paper - the 4 P's of Creative Writing -Online Course

INSTRUCTOR: Moira Rose Donohue, Children's Author http://www.moirarosedonohue.net/ DATE: January 2 - January 23, 2012 LIMITED CLASS SIZE: Click Here to Enroll Now Fee: $60.00 ENROLL NOW AND SAVE $10.00 Early Registration $50.00 Early registration closes December 25, 2011.
Course Description

This online course will cover: Person, Place, Plot, and Punctuation Session 1 - Jan. 2 Person or Character We will look at ways to describe a person beyond how a person looks (e.g.: voice, action, what the person says). Session 2 - Jan. 9 The Second week will address: Place (setting) including time (past, present or future), fantasy v. reality, and descriptive words. Session 3 - Jan. 16 The third week will be about plot or story. It will give tips about how to make sure the story has a beginning, middle and end and why there needs to be a problem at the beginning. Session 4 - Jan. 23 The last week will be a fun lesson in punctuation, including a "What Punctuation Mark Are You?" quiz. There will be short (5 sentence) assignments for the first three weeks, with feedback, the chance to ask questions and an option at the end to submit a story of any length for a critique.

Read All About It!

On December 1, 2011 there was a wonderful article about Storee Wryter in the Washington Post
You never know what a reporter will choose to include in a piece so I didn't know what I would find when I opened the paper that morning but this far exceeded my expectations. And the print edition included a full size image of the book cover. I was doing a Snoopy Happy Dance for hours after seeing it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/loudoun-author-bobbi-carducci-inspired-by-childhood-passion-for-writing/2011/11/28/gIQARI5bDO_story.html

And a very positive review of Storee Wryter Gets a Dog appeared on the blog, Oh My Dog! in November.   I am thrilled to report that the author of Oh My Dog!, Maggie Martin, will be guest blogging here in mid January so be sure to come back then.

Merry Christmas Everyone!