Reading Is Fundamental/Reading Planet/Game Station/Writers' Block

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Writers' Block

Help us finish a story by adding your own ideas. It's simple. Each month, we'll begin a new story.

Over the next several months, we’ll be doing something a little different with the Writers' Block. In order to promote “The Exquisite Prompt,” a cool new writing challenge from Reading Rockets and AdLit.org, we’ll be featuring a new story starter every few weeks. The story starters will come from really great authors like Kate DiCamillo, Steven Kellogg, and Linda Sue Park.

Use ideas inspired by these authors to generate some great writing here on RIF’s Reading Planet. Other kids can add to your story, just like always. This time, though, you can finish your writing on your own computer and e-mail or mail it to Reading Rockets, 2775 S. Quincy St., Arlington, VA 22206 in order to be eligible for great prizes. (Only send in your own original work.) We’ll be featuring the prompts for Level II (grades 3-5) on the Reading Planet but there are prompts for starting stories for grades K-12 on Reading Rockets’ site.

If you have any questions or comments, e-mail us at kids@rif.org.

Happy Writing!

The Exquisite Prompt

In a lecture at MIT on the writing of fantasy, Susan Cooper said, "When I first gave Margaret McElderry the manuscript of The Dark Is Rising she said to me, 'Susan, don't you think this book has too much weather?'" But the extraordinary weather plays a major role — an incredible blizzard is used as a weapon by the Dark to instill worry and fear.

Write a news story about an unusual or extreme weather event. It can be a real weather event from history or one that you experienced yourself. Describe your weather event. Was it a hurricane, tornado, dust storm, blizzard, hail storm or heat wave? What effect did this weather event have on individuals, communities, businesses and travel? Remember, you're not writing a weather forecast but a news article that answers the questions who, what, when, where, why and how about a weather event.

Add your story part here:

* Name:
* Age:
* Hometown:
Country (opt):

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