Smiley Face Tricks for Writing

Based on the writings ofMary Ellen Ledbetter

REPETITION FOR EFFECT

☺Repeat a symbol, sentence starter, important word, etc.

☺Repeat specially chosen words/phrases to make a point/to stress certain ideas

☺Decide purpose before you begin writing

BEFORE

I hate writer’s block!

AFTER

I hate writer’s block! I can’t think of anything to write. I can’t come up with words for this crazy assignment. I can’t create anything new. I can’t, and I won’t!

BeforeI love my cell phone.

AfterYour turn!

I love my cell phone…

HYPHENATED MODIFIERS

☺Connect two or more adjectives together with a hyphen to describe a

noun

Before• She rolled her eyes at her

mother and turned her nose up with a sniff.

After• She rolled her eyes at her

mother and turned her nose up with an I-can't-believe-you-actually-said-that sniff.

Before• The hallway smelled like

onions.

After• The hallway had that mama-

don't-cook-nothin’-without-onions smell.

Before

I will be a college freshmannext year.

Your Turn

I will be a

__-__-__-__-__

freshman

next year.

SPECIFIC DETAILS / IMAGERY

☺Helps your readers visualize

the person, place, thing, or idea

you’re writing about

☺Appeal to at least 3 of

the 5 senses

Before:

My grandma’s house is nice.

Your TurnMy grandma’s house is …

After: I am sitting out on an old Dixieland porch in Mississippi. The twin rocking chairs glide back and forth, speaking to each other in the tongue of “rickety-rack”. Making itself a web in the corner of the wrought-iron railing is a small black spider. Hanging from a weeping willow, an emerald birdhouse sways in the wind, as the robins sing their never-ending song. I throw up a wave as a muddy 4 X 4 passes the farm. Down here in Mississippi we share Southern hospitality.

Your Turn

Write your own description of this.

Be creative; be humorous; have fun.

MAGIC 3

☺Three items in a series

☺Separated by commas

☺Creates a poetic rhythm

☺Adds support for a point

Examples

I was so excited that I

jumped, cried, and smiled.

I was so excited that I jumped

up and down, cried huge tears

of joy, and plastered a big

smile on my face.

BEFORE

AFTER

 

Before:

Cooking requires chopping, seasoning, and sautéing.

Your TurnCooking requires chopping, seasoning, and sautéing.

After:Chopping vegetables into bite-

sized pieces, adding herbs and

spices to “kick it up a notch”, and

sautéing until the tidbits are juicy,

make cooking an enjoyable

pastime for me.

Your Turn – pick one

Alliteration

Before:

Thunderstorms hit central Indiana

yesterday.

After:

Storms socked the state’s middle

on Saturday. V for Vendetta

Alliteration

YOUR TURNWrite about your

favorite place

to eat – include

an example of

alliteration

  Simile – a comparison between two unlike things using “like” or “as”

Before: It’s a simple plan.

After: The plan is simple, like my brother-in-law Phil.

Similes in songs

Simile YOUR TURN -- Write a simile -- same topic – your favoriterestaurant

Metaphor

☺ States a comparison between

two unlike things without using any

special words.

She is a walking dictionary.

My husband is a couch potato.

Before:

The detective listened to her story with disinterest.

After:

The detective listened to her tales with a wooden face.

Blake Shelton

Metaphor

YOUR TURN -- Write a metaphor-- same topic – your favorite restaurant

  Personification☺Gives a non-human thing,

human characteristics or human

actions.• Look at my car. Isn’t she a beauty?• The wind whispered through the dry grass.• The flowers danced in the gentle breeze.• The fire swallowed the entire forest.

Before:

I scratched my arm on the twig.

After:

Your turn…

After:

Racing toward the house as the storm

approached, I was delayed as the trees

reached for me. They began to wrap

their twisted arms and gnarled hands

around me. I fought back, but they didn’t

lessen their grip; instead, they began to

screech at me as they pulled me into

their grove.

Personification

Onomatopoeia• Words whose SOUND imitates

the sound of the thing being named

Batman

Your turn

  HYPERBOLE

hyperbole

HUMOR

☺When possible

☺When appropriate

☺Inject a little humor to keep your reader awake

  HumorousBefore:

Chinese food seems to last forever in the refrigerator.

After:

I believe the only food that should be kept around is take-out Chinese, which contains a powerful preservative chemical called “kung-pao” that enables it to remain edible for several football seasons.

PUN☺A joke that comes from a play

on words

☺It can make use of • a word’s multiple meanings • a word’s homonym • a word’s rhymes

Before: Sir Lancelot told us the bad

dream he had about his horse.

After: Sir Lancelot told us the bad

dream he had about his horse; it was a real knight mare.

Puns in the grocery store