Vagabond Writing Rituals: Daily Writing Exercises with Mr. J.

This is a repeating flex-course, that will start every four weeks, similar to an ongoing format. The basic structure will always be the same, but the specific topics will always be changing, meaning students can renew every four weeks and not experience the same prompts.

As a writer, it is always important to practice your craft, and that is what this course is about. This isn't about feedback or constructive criticism. This course is just about writing. I try to spend a few minutes writing every day. In this course, I will be sharing my routines and daily exercises, whatever they may be. In other words, when I wake up and start writing, whatever exercise I do that day, I will be sharing with you. I will even frequently post my writing to the classroom board.

This isn't a regular type of course. As far as the daily exercises go, complete what you want. Skip days if you want. Keep your writing in a journal or post it to the classroom board. Read what other people write.  Comment or don't.  I won't comment on everything that is posted, but I will comment from time to time. I will, however, read and comment on your weekly writing task.

The overall format is pretty simple.  Every day I will post a quotation for which students will complete a MADE activity. The MADE activity will provide students with a thought provoking or inspirational quote, ask them to explain it in their own words, then explain to what extent they agree or disagree with the quotation. In addition to the quotation, I will also post one simple writing exercise for the day. These are short exercises that should take about 10-15 minutes. There are a variety of exercises that are available and they are not planned in advance.  They will simply be whatever writing exercise I am doing for the day.  This might be poetry exercise with imagery, writing using a photo prompt, a would you rather question, a basic journal entry, writing from the perspective of an animal, etc. There are limitless possibilities, and often times I will simply draw something at random from my writer's box. Basically, whatever I write that day, whatever exercise I do, is what the students will be tasked with for the day. Write every day or whatever your routine you want to follow. In addition to these two daily writing tasks, every Tuesday I will post a weekly video with instructions for that week's writing prompt, one that is designed to be much longer. These prompts will be more story style prompts or poetry prompts, such as "write a story set in 2237 where dogs are ruling the world," or "write a love poem." These longer prompts should be posted to the classroom wall. Students are encouraged to read the writings of others as well as comment on the class page.

Since this class will run continuously, it is impossible to specify every day's specific quotation or task. For example. there are an unlimited number of quotations to choose from, and each day will be different.  These may be chosen specifically or generated randomly using a daily quotation website. This means that there will be 365 quotations during the course of the year, or 1460 quotes if a student were to take the class for four years (some are occasionally liable to repeat simply because it is too hard to keep track of that many, and some are worth repeating). Similarly, there are an infinite number of writing exercises, topics, and possible outcomes to choose from, so while an exercise may repeat in some ways, the exact nature should be different (eg: We write a haiku every week but the topic changes every week. One week might be about winter, the next week about food). While all of these prompts will be determined on a day-to-day basis, we will still follow a loose structure as outlined below.

Daily Quotations
Mondays: Inspirational quotes
Tuesdays: First and last lines from books
Wednesdays: Audrey Hepburn Quotes
Thursdays: Quotes from literature
Fridays: Funny Fridays
Saturdays: Movie Quotes
Sundays: Random/Teacher choice

Daily writing exercises
Mondays: Character writing
Tuesdays: Haikus
Wednesdays: Postcards from the edge (objects and setting)
Thursdays: Imagery Poems
Fridays: Would you rather...?
Saturdays: Emotions and senses
Sundays: Journal questions

Weekly long writing prompts
Week 1: Short Story Prompt
Week 2: Poetry Prompt
Week 3: Photo Stories (students will be given a collection of strange photos and challenged to use them to write a story)
Week 4: Two Options: 
Option A: Random/Teacher Choice   or 
Option B: Monthly Essay Topic

This class is basically what I do every day.  I am simply giving student the opportunity to join me on my writing adventure.