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Teaching descriptive writing is a craft and in this post I hope to show you how. The PDF document below entitled ‘Teaching descriptive writing’ has a number of grids and exercises for the students to accomplish.

The most important part of descriptive writing teaching is finding the pattern for each different scene. This makes it easy for the student to grasp it and actually engenders creativity. As Ernest Hemingway said: “Prose is architecture, not interior design”. By this he meant that all great writing should have a structure. Nature has a structure. It has colour, sound, sensation, smell and taste (or action/inaction if not). By using the grid system, in this case ‘Describing  a beach’, you are showing the students a pattern that will make it easier for them to remember. Because their creativity is rewarded with a points structure, they are also having fun!

There are free lesson plans with this PDF document also. It is from my new book, ‘Blue-Sky Thinking’ and the solutions are from ‘Blue-Sky Thinking: Teachers’ Guide’. I hope you enjoy the post and just click on the blue writing below entitled ‘Teaching Descriptive Writing’ to view it:

TEACHING DESCRIPTIVE WRITING

 

Just click on any of the book cover images to see them on Amazon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The best creative books for 11-16 year olds should have a mixture of the following: enabling their creativity to bubble up to the surface, to allow them to see the patterns in English, to provide a pedagogical approach which they will enjoy, to increase their fluid, critical and linguistic intelligences and, finally, to provide a platform for lifelong learning. This book, called ‘Blue-Sky Thinking’ will have this and much more.

It focuses in on punctuation in a student-friendly way. It also includes exercises on nutrition, personal and mission statements, Latin proverbs on living well, quotes from the most successful people who have ever lived and the metacognitive art of thinking how to think (appropriate to their age). It also has a poetry module that gives them a fool-proof method from which they can analyse all poems through the prism of technique.

Ostensibly, it is a book designed for the new Junior Cycle Student Award in Ireland. However, because of its unique structure, I am hoping English teachers in other countries can take something from it also. It has a Workbook and a Teachers’ Guide. The Teachers’ Guide shall include two months of lesson plans (September/October) and it may suit new teachers, as the plans are very comprehensive. The rest of the months contain lesson plans for teachers to fill in as they go, making it perfect as a book which dovetails with Inspectorate requirements.

It is available to buy on Amazon from May 23rd, 2014 and I will price it as cheaply as I can, as I did with my descriptive book and workbook, ‘Writing with Stardust’ (available to see here:  Writing with Stardust ).

Here is just a snippet from it. It is just a story about The Battle of Stamford Bridge. From that, the students can decide what project they wish to do on the development of the English language and the cultures that shaped it: The Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings, Normans, etc.

I will upload other snippets from ‘Blue-Sky Thinking’ soon.

 

THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

It is September 25^th and the Battle of Stamford Bridge is underway. It is not Chelsea versus Arsenal. The screams and war cries of men fill the length of the meadow. The smoke is thick from fire arrows and they fizz and frizzle as they whine through the air. Steel rings, swords bite and men die.

The flowers are still fresh on the grave of Edward the Confessor, but the battle to be the next king of England has started. On one side of the river is the Anglo-Saxon army led by Harold Godwinson, the new English king. He has 7,000 men, but they are exhausted. They have just marched an incredible 185 miles in 4 days to get here. They were carrying heavy armour on this miracle march and it has taken its toll. The year is 1066.

On the other side of the river is the Viking army of Harald Hardrada, King of Norway. He has 10,000 men. Unfortunately, the other half of his army is a day’s march away, so only 5,000 are with him. They are resting up on their 300 ships as no one expected Godwinson to get here so soon. The bad news for Harald is that most of the armour is back with the ships as well. This September has been unnaturally hot and the men were happy to discard their armour. The sun beats down on their bare flesh as they lounge around, laughing and donkey calling each other.

Godwinson’s army streams up from the south and the Vikings are stunned. How did he manage to arrive so quickly? Although his men are bone tired, Godwinson launches into battle. The Vikings on the west side of the bridge are quickly overcome by the front of Godwinson’s army. The rest flee over the bridge and gather more forces. They stop to get weapons and what armour they can. Then they face Godwinson’s army again. This time they will fight on the bridge. The bridge has only enough room for 4 men across and that suits the big, bloodthirsty men of the North.

An hour later, Godwinson shouts out: “In the name of all that’s holy, what is happening up there?”

He knows the Vikings have sent word to the ships and that more men are on the way. It is vital that they get over the bridge and defeat this half of the Viking army before the reinforcements come. It is a lot easier to defeat 5,000 men in two separate battles than 10,000 in one. His horse is jittery but he reaches up on his stirrups and strains his neck to see. There must be a hundred of his men pressed together on the bridge. They are fighting in deadly hand-to-hand-combat and the sounds drifting back to him are sickening: bones cracking, shields splitting and flesh slicing. Then he sees what the holdup is.

There is one man on the bridge who is a head taller than the next tallest man. He is a titan of a man, a true giant, and he is causing havoc. This man would not have put on his armour even if he had it. He is a Viking berserker, a special breed of warrior who doesn’t care whether he lives or dies. His berserker name comes from two Norse words, ‘berr’ (bare) and ‘serkr’ (shirt). He is the lunatic on the bridge and, besides the battle axe he wields, he also has the fate of the English language gripped in those huge, clumpy paws of his….

THE BERSERKER ON THE BRIDGE

His axe smoked with steam and blood. He was weary beyond measure but they kept coming. The Vikings around him had withdrawn from the bridge because he was swinging his weapon in such huge arcs. He was also blood-drunk and they knew better than to be around him.

The world had narrowed down to two slits in the helmet he wore. It was an old bear skull fitted with metal plates and his father’s father had worn it before him. He was proud of his ancestors. He wanted to meet them with pride in his heart when he walked to the gates of Valhalla. That would be today, he knew, but he did not mind. He was born for this life of fighting and he would die well today no matter what happened.

His great chest heaved like a bellows as he drew in horse-breaths of air. The English dogs were moving back from the bridge! Then he saw the size of the men who were replacing them. His heart sank as he realised they were sending all their champions at once to face him. He knew his time was short so he took one last look around.

The trees were a-fire in a patchwork of colour and the light-haze of the sun on the corn was spectacular. Then the sun dimmed behind the hills and the Technicolor faded.        COLOUR

The noise of battle turned down like a switch as the two armies waited to see what would happen. A Viking titan fighting against the best of the Saxon army. A pin drop silence descended. There was no insect-hum, no leaf-rustle, no wind-music.                           SOUND                    

He touched the cold, smooth steel of his axe head as he sharpened the edge of the blade with his whetstone. It felt like pond ice. He laughed at the memory of his father falling into the frozen pond when the snow dragon had come in May all those years ago.             TEXTURE

The memory released his tension and he inhaled the sweet, September air for the last time. Above the stench of horse bowels and blood, pollen drifted in the air. Air gold, the Viking women called it, but gold didn’t smell of red poppies and white lilies.                         SMELL     

The Saxon champions were ready. The last one was clomping up in his battle boots and they were forming in line to face him. He looked down and saw a sleek trout lazing in the river. Its spots were blue and red and white and he knew he would look like that tonight.         IMAGE

He only knew one Latin phrase. His son in Norway had it now. It was hundreds of years old and it was engraved on a Roman coin. It was a metaphor for how his family had lived its life. “Melium est nomen bonum quam divitae multae,” he whispered and charged up the bridge. “Will I be remembered?” he wondered, as he swung his axe in frenzy. Voices rang, swords sang and men died.                                                                                               METAPHOR         

Find out what happened next by typing it into Google. Then write the ending once you get all the facts. What is for certain is that the Battle of Stamford Bridge had the potential to change the direction of the English language. Less than 3 weeks later, the winner of this battle fought the king of France in the Battle of Hastings to see who would rule England for once and for all. You should consider doing a project on these battles and relating them to English class.

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This is a sample chapter from my new book ‘Writing with Stardust’. It is now available on amazon.com and amazon.uk. To see the book cover and read about it, just click the title:

Writing with Stardust

                                         

                                        DESCRIBING FEMALES

                                                     RED HAIR

 

LEVEL 1         LEVEL 2         LEVEL 3         LEVEL 4         LEVEL 5          OTHERS

mercury-red hair	magma-red hair	ruby-red hair	solferino-red hair	vermeil-red hair
molten-red hair	lava-red hair	rouge-red hair	Titian-red hair	vermilion-red hair

1. Her hair was mercury-red and it tumbled over her shoulders.

2. Her hair was magma-red and it crashed over her shoulders.

3. Her hair was rouge-red and it spiralled over her shoulders.

4. She had tresses of Titian-red and they plummeted over her shoulders.

5. She had swirls of vermilion-red and they cascaded over her shoulders.

                                                   BLACK HAIR

midnight-black hair	kohl-black hair	coral-black hair	sable-black hair	vulcanite-black hair
ebony-black hair	moon shadow-black hair	cobalt-black hair	maw-black hair	obsidian-black hair

1. Her hair was midnight-black and it flowed over her shoulders.

2. Her hair was kohl-black and it plunged over her shoulders.

3. Her hair was coral-black and it toppled over her shoulders.

4. She had locks of sable-black and they surged over her shoulders.

5. She had tresses of obsidian-black and they swooped over her shoulders.

BLONDE HAIR

sunrise-gold hair	moon gleam-gold hair	star flame-gold hair	ore-gold hair	Arc-of-Covenant gold hair
sunset-gold	moon glint-gold hair	star beam-gold hair	harp string-gold hair	Valkyrie-gold hair

1. She had lush, sunrise-gold hair.

2. She had lavish, moon gleam-gold hair.

3. She had luscious, star flame-gold hair.

4. Her hair was ore-gold bright and luxurious.

5. Her hair was Arc-of-Covenant gold and luxuriant.

BROWN HAIR

locks of chestnut-brown hair	wisps of auburn-brown	tumbles of russet-brown	swirls of caramel-brown hair	skeins of copper-brown hair
coils of leaf-brown hair	ringlets of tawny-brown hair	tresses of mousy-brown hair	spools of nougat-brown hair	Restoration curls of   cinnamon-brown hair

1. Locks of chestnut-brown hair curtained her oval face.

2. Ringlets of tawny-brown hair veiled her heart shaped face.

3. Tresses of russet-brown hair shrouded her Slavic face.

4. Swirls of caramel-brown hair wreathed her moon shaped face.

5. Restoration curls of cinnamon-brown hair garlanded her angular face.

                                            COLOUR OF EYES

dreamy, bliss-blue eyes	alluring, galaxy-blue eyes	lambent, jade-green eyes	dewy, mist valley-green eyes	effervescent, champagne-brown   eyes
languorous, rapture-blue eyes	enticing, constellation-blue eyes	fulgent, beryl-green eyes	nebulous, Eden-green eyes	vivacious, virility-brown eyes

1. She had dreamy, bliss-blue eyes. They were globe round.

2. She had alluring, galaxy-blue eyes. They were orbit round.

3. She had lambent, jade-green eyes. They were pond round.

4. She had dewy, mist valley-green eyes. They were duck-pond round.

5. She had effervescent, champagne-brown eyes. They were dew-pond round.

LIPS    

puffy lips	bee stung lips	oxbow lips	trout pout lips	silicone enhanced lips
pouting lips	heart shaped lips	Cupid’s bow lips	botox boosted	collagen enhanced lips

1. She had puffy lips. They were kiss-inspiring and satin soft.

2. She had bee-stung lips. They were sugar plum sweet and silk soft.

3. She had Cupid’s bow lips. They were plummy, plump and suede soft.

4. She had trout pout lips. They were succulent, sultry and velvet soft.

5. She had silicone enhanced lips. They were sumptuous, sensuous and velour soft.

 

                                                        SWEET LIPS

honey sweet lips	strawberry sweet lips	sugar sweet lips	cherry sweet lips	nectar sweet lips
syrup sweet lips	saccharine sweet lips	sugar candy sweet lips	melon sweet lips	sherbet sweet lips

1. She had honey sweet lips. They were lilac soft.

2. She had saccharine sweet lips. They were blossom soft.

3. She had sugar sweet lips. They were butter soft.

4. She had cherry sweet lips. They were beeswax soft.

5. She had sherbet sweet lips. They were pillow soft.

 

                                                  PERSONALITY

a cheerful personality	a bubbly personality	an elegant personality	a demure personality	a winning  personality
a joyous personality	a bouncy personality	a ladylike personality	a genteel personality	an infectious personality

1. She had a cheerful character.

2. She had a bubbly outlook.

3. She had a ladylike temperament.

4. She had a genteel persona.

5. She had a winning disposition.

                                                  A SWEET VOICE

a soothing voice	a sugary voice	a nectarine voice	a dulcet voice	a melodious voice
a songbird sweet voice	a syrup sweet voice	a saccharine voice	a dulcimer sweet voice	a mellifluous voice

1. She had a songbird sweet voice and her hair blazed in the sun.

2. She had a syrup sweet voice and her hair flashed in the sun.

3. She had a nectarine voice and her hair glinted in the sun.

4. She had a dulcimer sweet voice and her hair gleamed in the sun’s rays.

5. She had a melodious voice and her opulent hair glittered in the beams of the sun.

                                                      CLOTHES

grungy	vibrant	chic	voguish	cosmopolitan
gothic	kidult	retro	fluoro	naff

1. She wore gothic clothes in a rebellious way.

2. She wore kidult clothes in an offbeat way.

3. She wore chic, shredded clothes in a mutinous way.

4. She wore fluoro clothes in a non-conforming way.

5. She wore bleached, naff clothes in an out of kilter fashion.

LEVEL 1: BASIC SENTENCES

1. She had a shapely figure. FIGURE

2. It was imp-thin. BODY

3. She was wasp-waisted. WAIST

4. She had glossy skin. COMPLEXION

5. She had slender eyebrows. EYEBROWS

6. Her eyelashes were velvety. EYELASHES

7. She had sea-nymph ears. EARS

8. She had a dainty nose. NOSE

9. She had shiny, halo-white teeth. TEETH

10. Her fingernails were varnished. FINGERNAILS

11. Her hair was molten-red. RED HAIR

12. Her hair was ebony-black. BLACK HAIR

13. Her hair was sunrise-gold. GOLD HAIR

14. She had coils of leaf-brown hair. BROWN HAIR

15. She had rapture-blue eyes. BLUE EYES

16. She had pouting lips. SHAPE OF LIPS

17. She had syrup-sweet lips. SWEET LIPS

18. She had a joyous personality. PERSONALITY

19. She had a soothing voice. SWEET VOICE

20. She wore grungy clothes. CLOTHES

 

                                        LEVEL 2: A BASIC PARAGRAPH

She had a sculpted figure which was twine-thin. Her waist was tapered and she had a burnished complexion. A pair of arched eyebrows looked down on sweeping eyelashes. Her delicate ears framed a button nose. A set of dazzling, angel-white teeth gleamed as she blew gently on her carmine-red fingernails. It was a pleasure to see her flowing, moon shadow-black hair. Her enticing, constellation-blue eyes gazed at me over her puffy, heart shaped lips. Her lips tasted strawberry sweet when I kissed her. She had a bouncy personality and a sugary voice, which I adored. Not content to be just another drone, she wore vibrant clothes.

LEVEL 3: CREATIVE PARAGRAPHS

I first met her on a holiday to an exotic country. The moons delicate light had just turned the world a-flame with silver when I saw her. She had a comely figure which was stem-thin. Her curvilinear waist didn’t surprise me as much as the saffron tint to her complexion. She must be a native, I thought to myself. Her crescent shaped eyebrows inclined slightly as she saw me staring at her. I yelped at being caught. Her languid eyelashes of velvet-black blinked once slowly, as if to invite me over.

When I came closer, I noticed her scrolled ears and her elegant nose. She nuzzled me with her nose and I couldn’t believe it. It was the custom for her people, I reckoned. It was love at first light. Her luminous, heavenly-white teeth flashed as she pawed at me with her film star nails. Her hair was a glorious tumble of star beam-gold and her virility-brown eyes set my heart a-thump. Her oxbow lips positively drooled with goodness. Oh! Those sugar candy-sweet lips, her elegant personality, all mesmerized me. She may not have had a saccharine voice or retro clothes, but what do you expect when two Labrador pups meet in a dog pound?

                       

                                        LEVEL 4: ADVANCED PARAGRAPHS

Her Amazonian figure sat well on her wafer-thin body. She had a decanter shaped waist and her complexion had an impeccable, ochrous hue. Her pencil-thin eyebrows eased down gently to her black, beetle’s-leg eyelashes. A sculptor could not have fashioned her seraph’s ears and pixie’s nose any better.

When she broke into a smile, her beguiling, oyster-white teeth lit up the room. It could jolt you like an electric current when that megawatt smile gave you her full attention. Filed to perfection, her Venus-red fingernails ran through her nougat-brown hair. Spools of it plunged around her photogenic face and hid a swan’s neck, elegant and smooth. I loved her nebulous, Eden-green eyes which were a-sparkle with the ‘joie de vivre’. They were like two beryl-green jewels melted onto snow.

Her calamine-pink lips tasted like rose petals. It surprised me that they were plump and botox-boosted as she had a demure, timorous personality. She whispered to me in a dulcet voice as sweet as any songbird. Her voguish clothes still kept captive an aroma redolent of cinnamon and meadow-fresh mint. It lingered in the room long after she had gone.

                 

 

 

 

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BEST CREATIVE WRITING BOOKS

The best creative writing books inspire ideas in a writer. I’m hoping that my descriptive writing book can do the same. I categorised ‘Writing with Stardust’ in 5 different Levels of ability and below there are sample sentences from all five Levels, starting with the most advanced. I hope you enjoy them and, hopefully, the sentences will make you think about the different ways of expressing ideas.

1. The mist gave us a hint that we were still in the nether world between night and day. It lingered over the river like a phantom’s veil. Soundless, voiceless and soulless, it slowly slid away.    LEVEL 5- RIVERS

2. Above it, the sky leered down at us with a manacle-grey hue, like an ashen face. It seemed to compress down upon our minds, such was its throttling effect. Our hearts became heavy as both sky and mountain entombed us with an alien emptiness.    LEVEL 5- MOUNTAINS

3. We realised that we were standing in the gateway of paradise. The siren call of the sea was soothing, the wave music welcome. It was like being wrapped in comforting cellophanes of warm sounds and soft light.    LEVEL 4- BEACHES

4. Wagtails were bobbing and dipping on a rock, foraging for juicy flies. The tip of the rock pierced the rhapsody-pool like the upturned nose of a dwarf. Run off water tingled the rock as it seeped away, distilled as pure and clear as an angel’s tears.    LEVEL 4-WATERFALLS

5. Out on the lake, flopping trout were slapping the surface. They were hoping to catch one of the squadron of flies that buzzed about. The heaven-leaking light added a golden tint to the face of the lake and it was paradise.    LEVEL 3-LAKES

6. Plinking and pattering off the leaves, then fading into memory, the rain energized the flora. It left behind a world baptized and rebirthed by its liquid grace. Song thrushes trilled as the spectre-silver moon began to wane and the fog of flowers in the meadow slowly revealed itself. We could smell their aromas hovering in the air.  SPRING-LEVEL 3

7. The night sky was juniper-purple. The sound of intoning bees filled the air. The stars were glowing like beacons for the lost souls of the world. A feathered medley echoed through the trees. The garlic smell of ramsons drifted through the air.    SUMMER-LEVEL 2

8. The blazing-brown dome of leaves gave off a nice glow. Owls haunted and hunted through moon-splashed trees. We were spooked by their swivelling heads and lamp round eyes. A perfumery of scents hazed through the forest. The ravishing taste of freshly baked bread stayed in our memories.    AUTUMN- LEVEL 2

9. The empty skies were silent. BARREN SKIES

Winter squeezes everything to death. CHOKING WINTER

Peppery scents filled the room. SMELL

Our quivering bodies were cold. SENSATION

The seasoned vegetables were delicious. TASTE          WINTER-LEVEL 1

 

10. He had serpentine eyes. ANIMAL EYES

2. They were flaming with hatred. EVIL EYES

3. He had wintry eyes. COLD EYES

4. His voice was as lonely as a tomb. HEARTLESS VOICE

5. He had a greasy voice. SNAKY VOICE                   MONSTERS-LEVEL 1

‘WRITING WITH STARDUST’ by Liam O’ Flynn is now available to buy on Amazon.

Please check out  Writing with Stardust by clicking the book title or images beneath..

                       

The ‘WRITING WITH STARDUST WORKBOOK’ by Liam O’ Flynn is now available to buy on Amazon also.