At its core, writing should be fun! I remember the first time I read a story aloud to an audience and received a positive response. It was an assignment in sixth grade to write a tall tale, and it really lit a creative writing fire in me, and made writing fun. It might do the same for you...
I was living in Oscoda, Michigan at the time, and our teacher taught us about tall tales. A good example is Paul Bunyan, a fictional legend of a giant lumberjack. How big was he? Well, legend had it that it took five storks to deliver him to his parents. And you've heard of the Grand Canyon, right? Well, did you know it was accidentally carved when Paul Bunyan walked along dragging his axe behind him?
See, that's a tall tale. The idea is to write the most unbelievable story you can imagine. That assignment - and the reaction from my classmates at my own tale - taught me that my imagination could really soar. It was as if I was given permission to go crazy, as long as my story made sense, and had a beginning, a middle, and an end.
From that point on I had the confidence to write anything. I knew that my imagination was under my direction, and I could take it anywhere I wanted.
Your exercise for this month is to take that same assignment and see how much fun you can have. Create a wild, unbelievable tale. That might mean a boy who snores so loud it's heard on the moon, or a girl who runs so fast that her heels start fires whenever she zooms past. Perhaps it's a dog so big that his owner's family lives on his back, their house buried in his hair.
The point is, there are no limits to how bizarre your characters - or your setting - might be. That's why it's a tall tale. It's entertaining because it's so obviously ridiculous. The idea is to have fun by stretching the boundaries. So go have a blast!
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