A Ghostly Point of View

It's a crazy month of promotion here in my world and I apologize in advance for all the Crossroads Blog Tour and Spirited Anthology posts, tweets, Facebook updates, etc. However, if you're following the promo, you'll have loads of opportunities to learn about authors, writing and, of course, win SWAG.

October / Halloween is my favourite time of year, no more pesky bees or wasps, I get to embrace sweater weather and all things ghoulish that come out to play. Heck, today, October 8th, is even World Zombie Day (http://www.worldzombieday.org). What's not to love? Mr. Graves and I are plotting the decor for our front step in anticipation of trick or treaters, and at school I'll be working with a grade four class on a special project I call The Ghost Diaries. (See the SPIRITED tie-in there? I know, I'm shameless!)

Within our Ghost Diaries we'll be exploring both journaling and creative writing by capturing a day in the life of a ghost. Students will brainstorm different topics relating to ghosts – where they exist, what they do, what they eat, how they feel, what they hope for, dream of, etc., and then write journal entries based on a ghost they've created.

Before the actual writing starts we'll be brainstorming about key writing elements: setting (haunted places, haunted houses, haunted objects), character development (what they haunt and why, different kinds of ghosts – pets for example, shadow ghosts, ghosts that only appear on certain days – ghostly quirks, etc), plot (what kinds of things usually happen in ghost stories and how can we work that into diary format), vivid language (appealing to 5 senses, action verbs, spooky words…). Students will complete the project by drawing a picture of their ghost and including it with their diary entry as a completed page.

I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to work with classes this way – part of the benefit of being an author AND a library technician in a school library. Essentially this project is an exploration of point of view, getting under a character's skin and viewing the world – even a single day – from their unique perspective. It would serve any writer well in terms of character development. If you've got a character brewing, I suggest you try writing a diary entry from their point of view – who knows what skeletons you'll uncover? Bwahhhaaaa…