Mystery Writing
best for: Grades 4-12
Everyone loves to read a good mystery! Let's write one!
Steve’s unique methods and infectious enthusiasm motivates high school students to write on otherwise mundane historical topics.
-- Wayne Politelli, Social Studies, Toll Gate High School, Warwick, RI
That's what we do in this interactive and fun-filled "Nudging the Imagination" workshop! It won't be a murder mystery, but it will be plenty mysterious!
Steve encourages the students to generate characters and a setting with depth and detail strictly from their own imaginations.
See an example Mystery Story from the classroom.
With Steve recording the words on his laptop, the mystery is developed collaboratively by the students to the point at which a motive has been assigned to each character. The use of dialogue, as well as the concepts of revision and editing are focal points during the mystery's creation, as is the use of “word pictures” – writing so clearly and with so much detail that the words form clear pictures in the reader’s mind.
Then, it’s up to each student to write his or her own ending, determining not only "Who" did it, but also answering three other questions in their individual narrative endings -- two “Hows” and a “Why.”
How was the crime committed, in more detail? Why was the crime committed, in more detail? How was the thief discovered, in detail?
This workshop normally is an hour in length, but can be tailored to fit the school schedule.