Happy
Scream
Guard
Evil
Whirlwind
Cactus
King
Chaos
Angry
Desert
Laugh
Heart
Give each participant a couple of pieces of paper at random. The first person says the first sentence of a story and they must use their first word as part of that sentence. The second person then continues the story and must include their word in it, and so on. Go round the group twice to complete the story.
You can also do this creative writing exercise with story dice, your own choice of words, or by asking participants to write random words down themselves, then shuffling all the cards together.
If you're looking for more writing games, checkout the following:
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Want some quick games to share with your students during transitions or as attention-getters. Play these fun games independently or with groups! Here are a few of my favorites 10-minute writing games to play with your students. This post uses some affiliate links. Purchases from these links result in a small commission to help sustain this site.
Word association games are perfect for 10-minute writing games! Start by giving students a random word and ask them to write down the first word that comes to their mind when they hear it. Then, have them pass their paper to the person next to them and repeat the process with the new word. Set a timer for 10 minutes and see how far around the circle they can go, building off of each other’s words. This game is a blast for generating vocabulary words or words to use in future writing prompts or stories.
My students beg to play writing roulette! I give each student five different colored sticky notes (or use this FREE Jamboard template ).
Each sticky note has a different topic. For example, here are the literary elements I use for my students. You can change these up depending on your grade level.
Have your students each generate one of the literary elements on each colored sticky note. Make sure they write only one idea per note. Mix up the sticky notes, then give the students five sticky notes (one on each topic) to generate their own story. We LOVE sharing these with the class. As a bonus, expand on the quick stories and create a published, polished piece.
Literally playing a game when writing is so much fun! Write creative writing prompts on the sides of Jenga blocks (such as “Write a story in which the main character is an animal” or “Describe a place you’ve never been”) and stack them up. Students take turns pulling a block and then writing for 2-3 minutes based on the prompt they see. The game continues until the tower falls, and then students can read aloud what they’ve written.
This game is also called story or paper pass. I remember playing this writing game in school. I loved it then as much as I love it as a teacher! First, give students the first line of a story and have them write for 2-3 minutes. Then, have them pass their paper to the person next to them and that person continues the story for 2-3 minutes. Continue this process until everyone has contributed, and see how the story turned out in the end.
Use this random word generator to pick a fun, unique word. Have your students write a story using that word as a focus. You can have each student select their own word or use a class word.
Many ELA curriculums have descriptive writing as an assessment. Why not teach descriptive writing skills with a 10-minute writing game! First, ask students to close their eyes and imagine a scene you describe to them, such as a beach or a forest. Give them 10 minutes to write a detailed description of what they see in their mind’s eye. Encourage them to use sensory language and descriptive adjectives to really paint a picture with their words. Share the stories, and as a bonus, have students illustrate their writing. You can also adapt this and share a picture as a writing prompt starter. Show students a picture or image and give them 10 minutes to write a story or poem based on what they see. Encourage them to be creative and use their imagination to build a story around the picture.
Students love creating their own characters! Have students brainstorm a character by answering questions about them, such as their name, age, occupation, likes and dislikes, fears, etc. Then, set a timer for 10 minutes and have them write a short story or scene featuring that character. You can add to the fun by having two characters team up together to create a new story or have a conversation with one another based on their characters’ backgrounds.
Challenge students to write a complete story in just six words, such as “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Set a timer for 10 minutes and see how many six-word stories they can create.
The old Mad Libs games are so much fun! I remember having paper Mad Libs books that my siblings and I giggled over with delight. Online Mad Libs games let students work independently to create funny stories. I love using Mad Libs online !
My students absolutely love writing fan fiction. This gives them a chance to explore stories on a deeper level, and change the outcomes to what they really wanted to happen in the book! Have students choose a favorite book or movie character and write a short story featuring that character in a new adventure or scenario. Set a timer for 10 minutes and see how well they can capture the voice and personality of the character in their writing.
Use storytelling dice or story cubes with pictures on each side, and have students roll the dice to create a story. Set a timer for 10 minutes and challenge students to create a story that includes all of the pictures they rolled. Share the stories in small groups or with the full class.
Using writing prompts in the classroom is an effective way to encourage a love for writing in students. Here are five ways to inspire and engage middle school students:
Start the day with a short 10-minute writing exercise that covers various genres and themes. Use this list of 25 daily prompts to get started.
Use prompts as a starting point for more structured writing assignments such as essays or research papers. This encourages students to think critically and provides specific guidelines for the writing task. Use this list of 10 structured prompts to get started.
Encourage students to work together in small groups to generate their own writing prompts. This fosters collaboration and creativity.
Students can create their own writing prompt dares or use these 15 writing prompt dare examples to get started. These are great for group brainstorming prompts.
Try out this 52 writing prompt workbook . You even get an editable Canva link to add your own unique prompts!
Get ready for 10-minute writing games to use in your classroom! These games can be scaffolded and differentiated for all grade levels. What writing games do you use in your classroom!
Creative writing games: A great way to unleash your creative side @
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The best writing exercises bring out our latent creativity. Especially if you ever feel stuck or blocked, making creative writing exercises part of your daily writing practice can be a great way to both hone your skills and explore new frontiers in your writing. Whether you’re a poet, essayist, storyteller, or genre-bending author, these free writing exercises will jumpstart your creative juices and improve your writing abilities.
The best creative writing exercises will push you out of your comfort zone and get you to experiment with words. Language is your sandbox, so let’s build some sand castles with these exercises and writing prompts.
The English language is huge, complicated, and — quite frankly — chaotic. Writing with self-imposed limitations can help you create novel and inventive pieces.
What does “limitations” mean in this context? Basically, force yourself not to use certain words, descriptions, or figures of speech. Some writing exercises using limitations include the following:
Among exercises to improve writing skills, writing with limitations has the clearest benefits. This practice challenges your brain to think about language productively. Additionally, these limitations force you to use unconventional language – which, in turn, makes you write with lucidity, avidity, and invention.
What do you do when the words just don’t come out? How can you write better if you can’t seem to write at all? One of the best poetry exercises, as well as writing exercises in general, is to start your day by freewriting.
Freewriting, also known as “stream of consciousness writing,” involves writing your thoughts down the moment they come. There’s no filtering what you write, and no controlling what you think: topicality, style, and continuity are wholly unnecessary in the freewriting process. While the idea of freewriting seems easy, it’s much harder than you think – examining your thoughts without controlling them takes a while to master, and the impulse to control what you write isn’t easy to tame. Try these exercises to master the skill:
Among daily writing exercises, freewriting is one of the best writing exercises. Poets can use freewritten material as inspiration for their poetry. Prose writers can also find inspiration for future stories from the depths of their consciousnesses. Start your writing day with freewriting, and watch your creativity blossom.
Plagiarism is still off the table; however, you can learn a lot by paying attention to how other people write. This is what we call “reading like a writer.”
Reading like a writer means paying attention to the craft elements that make an excellent piece of literature work. Good writing requires different writing styles, figurative language, story structures, and/or poetry forms, as well as key word choice.
When you notice these craft elements, you can go ahead and emulate them in your own work. As a fiction writer , you might be drawn to the way Haruki Murakami weaves folklore into his stories, and decide to write a story like that yourself. Or, as a poet, you might be inspired by Terrance Hayes’ Golden Shovel form — enough so that you write a Golden Shovel yourself.
Among free writing exercises, this is a great way to learn from the best. The best kinds of exercises to improve writing skills involve building upon the current canon of works — as Isaac Newton said, you achieve something great by “standing on the shoulders of giants.”
The conventional advice given to writers is to “write what you know.” We couldn’t disagree with that statement more. The best creative works force both the writer and the reader to consider new perspectives and learn something new; writing from a new point-of-view makes for a great exercise in expanding your creative limits.
Try these ideas as daily writing exercises:
While playing with perspective makes for a great fiction writing exercise , poets and essayists can do this too. Patricia Smith’s poem “Skinhead,” for example, is a persona piece written from the perspective of a white nationalist, but the poem clearly condemns the speaker’s beliefs.
Thus, perspective writing also works as a poetry exercise and an essay writing practice exercise . If you’re stuck in your own head, try writing in someone else’s!
All creative writers need figurative language. While metaphors, similes, and synecdoches are more prominent in poetry , prose writers need the power of metaphor to truly engross their reader. Among both exercises to improve writing skills and fun writing exercises for adults, writing metaphor lists is one of the best writing exercises out there.
A metaphor list is simple. On a notebook, create two columns. In one column, write down only concrete nouns. Things like a pillow, a tree, a cat, a cloud, and anything that can be perceived with one of the five senses.
In the other list, write down only abstract ideas. Things like love, hate, war, peace, justice, closure, and reconciliation — anything that is conceptual and cannot be directly perceived.
Now, choose a random noun and a random concept, and create a metaphor or simile with them. Delve into the metaphor and explain the comparison. For example, you might say “Love is like a pillow — it can comfort, or it can smother.”
Once you’ve mastered the metaphor list, you can try the following ideas to challenge yourself:
Any free creative writing exercise that focuses on figurative language can aid your writing immensely, as it helps writers add insight and emotionality to their work. This is an especially great creative writing exercise for beginners as they learn the elements of style and language.
Of course, the best way to improve your creative writing skills is simply to write every day. Keeping a daily journal is a great way to exercise your writing mind. By sitting down with your personal observations and writing without an agenda or audience, a daily writing practice remains one of the best writing exercises , regardless of your genre or level of expertise.
Consider these ideas for your daily journal:
Learn more about keeping a journal here:
How to Start Journaling: Practical Advice on How to Journal Daily
Many of these writing exercises might feel challenging at first—and that’s a good thing! You will unlock new ideas and writing strengths by struggling through these creative challenges. The main point is to have fun with them and use them to explore within your writing, without indulging too many monologues from your inner critic.
Are you looking for more exercises to improve your writing skills? Our instructors can offer prompts, illuminating lectures, one-to-one feedback, and more to help you improve your craft. Check out our upcoming creative writing courses , and let’s put these skills to practice.
Thank you for this. I’ve been stuck for months—more than that, actually, and you’d think that a pandemic stay-at-home would be the perfect time to do some writing. But no. I’m as stuck as ever. In fact, the only time I seem able to write consistently and well is when I’m taking one of your classes! I’m still saving my pennies, but these exercises will hopefully get me writing in the meantime. Thanks again!
Hi Kathy, I’m glad to hear some of these tips might spark your creativity 🙂 I feel the same way, I was hoping the stay-at-home order might spark some creativity, but we shouldn’t push ourselves too hard – especially in the midst of a crisis.
The best part about writing: all you have to do is try, and you’ve already succeeded. Good luck on your writing endeavors!
Bravo….!What a great piece! Honestly I learnt a lot here!
I picked interest in poetry just a week ago after reading a beautiful piece which captivated my mind into the world of writing. I’d love to write great poems but I don’t know anything about poetry, I need a coach, a motivator and an inspiration to be able to do this. This piece really helped me but I will appreciate some more tips and help from you or anyone else willing to help, I am really fervid about this.
Hi Anthony,
Thanks for your comment! I’m so excited for you to start your journey with poetry. We have more advice for poetry writing at the articles under this link: https://writers.com/category/poetry
Additionally, you might be interested in two of our upcoming poetry courses: Poetry Workshop and How to Craft a Poem .
If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at [email protected] . Many thanks, and happy writing!
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Hi, kinsey there. Thanks for giving information. it is a very informative blog and i appreciate your effort to write a blog I am also a writer and i like these type of blogs everyone takes more knowledge to check out my essay writing website
As a writer, I often struggle to break free from the chains of writer’s block, but this blog has gifted me with a map of inspiration to navigate through those creative storms. It’s like being handed a box of enchanted writing exercises
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Good question.
Creative writing exercises are designed to teach a technique. They are highly specific, more specific than creative writing prompts, and much more specific than story generators.
Creative writing exercises for adults are not designed to lead the writer into crafting a full story, but are only designed to help them improve as a writer in a narrow, specific category of writing skills.
I’ve broken the exercises below into categories so you can choose what category of skill you’d like to practice. Can you guess which category in this list has the most prompts?
If you guessed characters, then you’re right. I think characters are the heart blood of every story, and that a majority of any writing prompts or writing exercises should focus on them.
But I also think any of these will help you create a narrative, and a plot, and help you generate all kinds of dialogue, whether for short stories or for novels. These writing exercises are pretty much guaranteed to improve your writing and eliminate writer’s block.
Also, if you’re a fledgling writer who needs help writing their novel, check out my comprehensive guide to novel writing.
Enjoy the five categories of writing exercises below, and happy writing!
1. Think of the most deafening sound you can imagine. Describe it in great detail, and have your character hear it for the first time at the start of a story.
2. Have a man cooking for a woman on a third date, and have her describe the aromas in such loving and extended detail that she realizes that she’s in love with him.
3. Pick a line from one of your favorite songs, and identify the main emotion. Now write a character who is feeling that emotion and hears the song. Try to describe the type of music in such a beautiful way that you will make the reader yearn to hear the song as well.
4. Have a character dine at a blind restaurant, a restaurant in pitch blackness where all the servers are blind, and describe for a full paragraph how the tablecloth, their clothing, and the hand of their dining partner feels different in the darkness.
5. Select a dish representative of a national cuisine, and have a character describe it in such detail that the reader salivates and the personality of the character is revealed.
7. Describe two characters having a wordless conversation, communicating only through gestures. Try to see how long you can keep the conversation going without any words spoken, but end it with one of them saying a single word, and the other one repeating the same word.
8. In a public place from the last vacation you took, have two characters arguing, but make it clear by the end of the argument that they’re not arguing about what they’re really upset about.
9. Write a scene composed mostly of dialogue with a child talking to a stranger. Your mission is to show the child as heartbreakingly cute. At the same time, avoid sentimentality.
10. Have two character have a conversation with only a single word, creating emphasis and context so that the word communicates different things each time it is spoken. The prime example of this is in the television show “The Wire,” where Jimmy and Bunk investigate a crime scene repeating only a single expletive.
11. Pick an object that is ugly, and create a character who finds it very beautiful. Have the character describe the object in a way that convinces the reader of its beauty. Now write a second version where you convince the reader (through describing the object alone) that the character is mentally unstable.
12. Write down five emotions on slips of paper and slip them into a hat. Now go outside and find a tree. Draw one emotion from the hat, and try to describe that tree from the perspective of a character feeling that emotion. (Don’t mention the emotion in your writing — try to describe the tree so the reader could guess the emotion).
13. Describe a character’s bedroom in such a way that it tells us about a person’s greatest fears and hopes.
14. Root through your desk drawer until you find a strange object, an object that would probably not be in other people’s drawers. Have a character who is devastated to find this object, and tell the story of why this object devastates them.
15. Go to an art-based Pinterest page and find your favorite piece of art. Now imagine a living room inspired by that flavor of artwork, and show the room after a husband and wife have had the worst fight of their marriage.
16. Pick a simple object like a vase, a broom, or a light bulb, and write a scene that makes the reader cry when they see the object.
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17. Make a list of the top five fears in your life. Write a character who is forced to confront one of those fears.
18. Write an entire page describing the exact emotions when you learned of a happy or calamitous event in your life. Now try to condense that page into a single searing sentence.
19. Think about a time in your life when you felt shame. Now write a character in a similar situation, trying to make it even more shameful.
20. Write a paragraph with a character struggle with two conflicting emotions simultaneously. For example, a character who learns of his father’s death and feels both satisfaction and pain.
21. Write a paragraph where a character starts in one emotional register, and through a process of thought, completely evolves into a different emotion.
22. Create a minor character based upon someone you dislike. Now have your main character encounter them and feel sympathy and empathy for them despite their faults.
23. Have a kooky character tell a story inside a pre-established form: an instruction manual, traffic update, email exchange, weather report, text message.
24. Write about a character who does something they swore they would never do.
25. Have a character who has memorized something (the names of positions in the Kama Sutra, the entire book of Revelations) recite it while doing something completely at odds with what they’re reciting. For instance, bench pressing while reciting the emperors in a Chinese dynasty.
26. Write a paragraph where a character does a simple action, like turning on a light switch, and make the reader marvel at how strange and odd it truly is.
27. Have a couple fight while playing a board game. Have the fight be about something related to the board game: fighting about money, have them play monopoly. Fighting about politics, let them play chess.
28. Write about two characters angry at each other, but have both of them pretend the problems don’t exist. Instead, have them fight passive-aggressively, through small, snide comments.
29. Describe a character walking across an expanse field or lot and describe how he walks. The reader should perfectly understand his personality simply by the way you describe his walk.
30. Write a first-person POV of a character under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and try to make the prose as woozy and tipsy as the character.
31. Describe the first time that a character realizes he is not as smart as he thought.
32. Describe an hour in the life of a character who has recently lost their ability to do what they love most (a pianist who has severe arthritis; a runner who became a quadriplegic).
33. Write an argument where a husband or wife complains of a physical ailment, but their spouse refuses to believe it’s real.
34. Write a scene where a stranger stops your main character, saying that they know them, and insisting your main character is someone they are not. Describe exactly how this case of mistaken identity makes your character feel.
35. Describe a small personality trait about a person you love, and make the reader love them, too.
36. Write a personality-revealing scene with a character inside a public restroom. Do they press a thumb against the mirror to leave a subtle mark? Do they write a plea for help on the inside of the stall door? Do they brag about the size of what they’ve just dumped off?
37. Give your character an extremely unusual response to a national tragedy like a terrorist attack or natural disaster. Maybe have them be aware their response is unusual, and try to cloak it from others, or have them be completely unaware and display it without any self-consciousness.
38. Have one of your main characters come up with an idea for a comic book, and tell a close friend about the idea. What about this idea would surprise the friend, upsetting what he thought he knew about your main character? Also, what would the main character learn about himself from the comic book idea?
39. Think of an illness someone you love has suffered from. How does your character respond when someone close to them has this illness?
40. Have your main character invent an extremely offensive idea for a book, and show their personality faults through discussing it with others.
41. Have your character write down a list considering how to respond to their stalker.
42. Write a scene where a man hits on a woman, and although the woman acts repulsed and begs her friends to get him away from her, it becomes apparent that she likes the attention.
43. Write about a 20-something confronting his parents over their disapproval of his lifestyle.
44. Have your character write a funny to-do list about the steps to get a boyfriend or girlfriend.
45. Have a risk-adverse character stuck in a hostage situation with a risk-happy character.
46. For the next week, watch strangers carefully and take notes in your phone about any peculiar gestures or body language. Combine the three most interesting ones to describe a character as she goes grocery shopping.
47. Buy a package of the pills that expand into foam animals, and put a random one in a glass of warm water. Whatever it turns out to be, have that animal surprise your main character in a scene.
48. Have your character faced with a decision witness a rare, awe-inspiring event, and describe how it helps them make their decision.
49. Imagine if your character met for the first time his or her long-lost identical twin. What personality traits would they share and which ones would have changed because of their unique experiences?
50. If a character got burned by a hot pan, what type of strange reaction would they have that would reveal what they value most?
Once you’ve taken a stab at some of these exercises, I’d recommend you use them in your actual writing.
And for instruction on that, you need a guide to writing your novel .
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John Fox, you have some excellent resources, and I thank you. I read your comments, then scrolled down to glance at the list of 50 exercises. The FIRST one, “loud noise’ is already in my head. My Hero is going to be side swiped in my Cozy. I was side swiped on a state highway here in Virginia a couple of weeks ago and, although the damage was minor, the sound of that big SUV “glancing” off my little car was SCARY!!! I once heard a fast-moving car REAR-END is stand-still car; that sound was something I’ll never forget. So, your exercise is very timely. THANK YOU!!!
This is a great list! Thanks!
You know what would be motivating? If we could turn these in to someone and get like a grade lol
I can really see the benefit of doing these writing exercises. (Versus using prompts) The purpose is so much clearer. Some I can imagine my response fairly easily. (Though the task of not jumping on the obvious might make it harder than I imagine at this point) Some however I would struggle with ( number 42 for example), where I have zero sympathy for the main character’s plight. Hhhmmmm. But maybe they are the very ones I should be tackling – to see if I can develop them in a way that explains their behaviour and so creates sympathy. Thank you. Much food for thought.
I’ve been thinking a lot about “how to master writing,” and this is the first time that I found an article that makes it clear the difference between prompts and exercises. I fully agree with you. These are bound to make you a better writer if you focus on doing a variation of them daily.
An excellent list – thank you very much. I run a small writing group and we’ll be trying some.
Yes, thank you. I too run a small writing group and you got me out of a slump for tomorrow’s group!
yes,thank you . It’s good for improve your writing skills.
What a lovely list! I am working on the final draft of my very first novel, and am constantly working at improving the final product. Your exercises are just what I need to kickstart my writing day. Thank you so very much.
Thank you very much When I turned50 I received my diploma from Children’s Institute in West Redding Ct I got my inspiration from being near water however now that I am in Oregon I have had a writing block thanks to your list my creative juices are flowing
I suppose I better have good punctuation, seeing this is about Writing. Thank you for this great list. I am the Chair of our small Writing group in Otorohanga and we start again last week of Feb. I have sent out a homework email, to write a A4 page of something exciting that has happened over the holiday break and they must read it out to the group with passion and excitement in their voices. That will get them out of their comfort zone!
A formidable yet inspiring list. Thank you very much for this. This is really very helpful. I am from India, and very new to writing and have started my first project, which I want to make it into a Novel. This has been very helpful and is very challenging too. Prompts look sissy when compared to this, frankly speaking. Thank you very much again.
Where can I get the answers for these?
There aren’t “answers.” You create responses to these exercises.
Thank you so much for the detailed suggestions focusing on HOW to put the WHAT into practice; really helpful & inspiring.
Just started rough drafting a story I’ve always wanted to write. Do you have any advice for someone writing their first real story? I’m having trouble starting it; I just want it to be perfect.
I consider this very helpful. Just started my journey as a creative writer, and will be coming back to this page to aid my daily writing goal.
I have always loved writing exercises and these are perfect practice for my competition. I have tried lots of different things that other websites have told me to try, but this by far is the most descriptive and helpful site that i have seen so far.
This is really a creative blog. An expert writer is an amateur who didn’t stop. I trust myself that a decent writer doesn’t actually should be advised anything but to keep at it. Keep it up!
I’ve always enjoyed writing from a little girl. Since I’ve been taking it a bit more seriously as does everybody else it seems; I’ve lost the fun and sponteneity. Until now…..this is a marvelous blog to get back the basic joy and freedom in writing. Or should that be of?:) These exercises are perfect to get the creative juices flowing again…..thank you:)
These are interesting exercises for writing.
These are fantastic! I started reading a really awesome book on creative writing but it just didn’t get any good or easy to follow exercises. So I found your site and having been having a lot of fun with these. Exactly what I was looking for, thank you!
creative and inspiring, thank you
I always wanted to have an exercise where a friend and I each wrote a random sentence and sent it to each other to write a short story from that beginning sentence, then exchange the stories for reading and/or critique. Maybe both writers start with the same sentence and see how different the stories turn out.
Thanks for these exercises. Some are really challenging. To truly tackle them I’m having to spend as long beforehand thinking “how the HECK am I going to do this?” as I do with ink on paper. Would be a great resource if other authors submitted their replies and thoughts about how they went about each exercise.
Start the conversation: submit one of yours.
I think I can use these to inspire my students.
Hi there. Thank you for posting this list- it’s great! Can I ask you to consider removing number 42 or perhaps changing it somewhat? I teach sex ed and every year am shocked by how many young people don’t understand issues around consent. Stories about woman who ‘say no but really mean yes’ are deeply unhelpful. Really appreciate your post but felt I had to ask. Thanks.
What’s wrong with the number 42?
It promulgates the belief that when a woman says no, she doesn’t mean it, potentially resulting in sexual assault.
I just make this list a part of my teaching in Creative Writing Classes. Very good list of ideas!
Thank you so much for posting this! I have used it to create a creative playwriting activity for my high school creative writing class–so much good stuff here for me to pick through and select for my kiddos that will allow them to shine and improve their knowledge of writing as a craft!
These exercises are amazing! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
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Categories Creativity , Entertainment , Inspiration , Writing
Writing games are an excellent way to improve and hone your writing skills while having fun at the same time. These games not only enhance your creativity but also help in developing a strong foundation in grammar, punctuation, and storytelling.
From classroom activities to online platforms, there’s a wide variety of writing games available for learners of all ages and expertise levels.
Educational writing games provide an engaging and interactive approach to teaching language skills, making the learning process enjoyable for both students and teachers.
These games often focus on key aspects of writing, such as sentence structure, word choice, and narrative development, adapting to the needs of each individual learner.
Story and letter writing games, in particular, provide a structured yet creative environment for aspiring writers to put their thoughts into words and channel their inner storyteller.
One fun and engaging way to strengthen your writing skills is through adjective games . These activities help you expand your vocabulary and make your sentences more descriptive. For example, try “Adjective Showdown,” where you take turns with a partner, picking a noun and brainstorming as many adjectives as possible to describe it.
Another game is “Adjective Charades,” where players take turns acting out adjectives, while others try to guess the word.
To make your writing more dynamic and action-packed, try practicing with verb games . “Verb Relay” is an entertaining option where you form two teams and race to list verbs that fit a given category, like “things you do in the kitchen.”
Another game, “Verb Tenses Race,” challenges you to write sentences in different tenses, like past, present, and future, for a selected verb. These games not only enhance your use of verbs but also improve your understanding of grammar rules.
Pictionary games are not just fun, but also great for developing your writing skills. Combining drawing and writing, these activities encourage creativity and boost your ability to visualize ideas. One example is “Illustrated Stories,” where you draw a simple doodle or picture, and then write a story inspired by your drawing.
Another option is playing a traditional game of Pictionary focused on literary themes, like characters, settings, or objects from famous books. By transforming your ideas into visual representations, you’ll unlock new perspectives and improve your ability to craft engaging stories.
Noun games are a fun way for children to practice their writing skills while learning about the basic building blocks of sentences.
One great example is the Nouns and Verbs Sort Game , where players categorize words into the correct column. This activity works well in homeschool settings and helps children identify nouns easily. Another interesting option is the “Name It” game, in which the child looks at pictures and writes down the nouns they represent.
Teaching pronouns can be engaging and enjoyable with creative games. Your child can practice replacing noun phrases with appropriate pronouns by playing the “Pronoun Swap” game. In this activity, you provide sentences with underlined nouns, and your child replaces them with the correct pronoun, such as he, she, it, or they.
For an online experience, ABCya is an excellent resource for writing games, including those that serve as pronoun exercises.
Grammar games incorporate various aspects of writing, such as punctuation, capitalization, and conjugation.
Fun Factory is a great example you can use, where children practice adding the correct punctuation or capitalization to sentences. To work on verb tense, try the “Tense Transformation” game, in which sentences are provided in one verb tense, and your child must rewrite them into another tense.
These games are a valuable addition to your homeschool writing curriculum, providing an exciting way for kids to learn and practice grammar.
Engaging in story writing can be a great way to spark creativity and improve literacy skills. To make it fun and interactive, try playing some storybuilding games with your students or kids.
One cool example is Storymaker from ABCya, where young learners can create their own unique tales using a variety of characters, objects, and backgrounds.
Another entertaining game is sentence stretching. This game encourages players to expand short, simple sentences into more detailed and descriptive ones. Simply start with a basic sentence and take turns adding adjectives, adverbs, or other words to make it more interesting.
Letter writing is an essential skill to master, and it can be just as enjoyable as crafting stories.
To liven up the learning process, check out Write a Letter to Santa from ABCya, catered to children in kindergarten to grade 3. This interactive game guides youngsters through the process of composing a letter while covering vital aspects such as addressing, greeting, body, closing, and signatures.
Another fun letter composition game is “Grammar Toss – Sentence Making.” In this activity, players toss a ball or beanbag to each other while they construct sentences. Each person must include a correct grammar element, such as a noun, verb, or punctuation mark. As the players continue tossing the ball, they work together to form a coherent sentence that incorporates the various grammar components.
By incorporating these games into your teaching or parenting approach, you’ll make story and letter writing more enjoyable and engaging. So go ahead, give these games a try, and watch as your young ones become more confident and proficient in their writing skills!
Unleash your inner astronaut and delve into the world of space-themed creative writing games! By focusing on this exciting topic, you can explore endless possibilities and fuel your imagination. Try crafting short stories about intergalactic adventures, alien encounters, or futuristic space technology.
You can even engage in a group activity where each person writes a paragraph, building a collaborative cosmic tale. Remember, there are no limits to where your creativity can take you – all you need to do is let your mind wander through the vast universe.
Developing intriguing characters is crucial for successful creative writing, and character interview games are your fun ticket to achieving that.
These games challenge you to think deeply about your character’s traits, backstory, and motives, through a series of interview-style questions. Start by creating a list of questions that your character might be asked, focusing on their personality, life experiences, and relationships.
Then, answer these questions as if you were the character, ensuring to write in a friendly, conversational tone. You’ll be surprised how these insightful answers deepen your connection with your character and enhance your overall writing. So go ahead, and enjoy the journey of getting to know your characters better through these entertaining exercises.
As a journalist, it’s essential to keep your writing skills sharp and engaging. Writing games can be a fun and interactive way to enhance your abilities. In this section, we will discuss two types of writing games specifically tailored for journalists: Article Drafting Games and Headline Creation Games.
Article drafting games are designed to help you practice crafting well-written and engaging newspaper articles. One idea is to create a communal story, where you and your fellow journalists take turns adding sentences or paragraphs to a shared document. This can be a great way to collaborate on a story and see how different writing styles blend together.
Another useful game involves focusing on the details. Pick a specific event or topic and challenge yourself to write a news article filled with vivid and accurate descriptions. Be sure to include quotes from relevant sources and present the information in a clear, concise manner.
You can also try rewriting the endings of existing articles. Find a newspaper article whose conclusion doesn’t satisfy you and rewrite it in a way that you find more compelling. This will help you practice creating strong, impactful endings for your stories.
Crafting attention-grabbing headlines is a key skill for journalists. One simple game to improve your headline writing skills is to pick a random newspaper article and brainstorm at least five alternative headlines for it. Try to create headlines with varying tones (serious, humorous, or informative) to practice adapting your style to different situations.
Another game is called “Headline Roulette.”
Gather a group of fellow journalists and give each person a stack of cards with intriguing single words written on them. Then, challenge everyone to create a unique headline using the words they’ve received. This exercise is fun and encourages creativity in crafting engaging headlines.
By participating in these writing games, you can hone your journalism skills and ensure that your newspaper articles are always well-written, engaging, and informative. Have fun, and remember that practice makes perfect!
One exciting method is to participate in creative writing exercises that challenge you to think outside the box, whether you’re writing alone or with a group.
Examples of these exercises include writing prompts or activities that focus on specific writing skills. Giving your imagination free rein will undoubtedly make the writing experience more enjoyable.
Another way to spark your creativity is by creating an Island Story Map. Begin by marking a starting point with a star and an endpoint with a red cross. Then, fill the map with obstacles, challenges, and interesting events for your characters to overcome. This approach allows you to visually explore and engage with your story world, making the writing process more exciting.
Don’t forget writing games that can entertain while improving your literacy skills. These games can be simple to play and easily adapted to suit different age levels. Whether it’s using random words to create a story or starting a sentence that your friends must finish, writing games help you think on your feet and keep your creative mind engaged.
As a teacher, you can incorporate various writing games into your classroom to make the learning process more engaging and fun. Writing games are versatile and can be utilized in almost any subject or course.
By integrating these enjoyable activities into your teaching strategy, you are not only making the learning process enjoyable but also helping your students develop their writing skills in a playful manner.
One fantastic tool to check out is BookWidgets , which allows you to create different types of interactive activities and assessments that can be easily assigned to your Google Classroom. This platform brings the convenience of creating and managing all your interactive activities in one place.
A fantastic app to improve your students’ writing skills is the Writing Challenge App . This app is designed as an interactive game that provides prompts to get the students started, and as they write, it supplies new prompts to add ideas, characters, and actions to the plot.
Incorporating this app in your classroom will encourage students to explore their creativity and improve their ability to generate unique ideas.
Another highly recommended app is Story Builder , designed to help students with paragraph formation, integration of ideas, and abstract thinking. It uses audio clips to promote access to writing, making it an engaging tool in the classroom.
Friendly competition among peers can make learning grammar more enjoyable, and advanced writing games that focus on adverbial phrases are no exception. Here are some interesting and creative games to challenge your writing skills and deepen your understanding of adverbial phrases:
Remember, adverbial phrases add depth and excitement to your writing, making your story or essay more engaging. By incorporating these games into your practice, you’ll not only have fun but also improve your writing skills in no time.
You might be wondering how to step into the world of writing games. Well, we’re here to help! In this section, we’ll cover the main fundamentals of game writing to give you a strong foundation.
First, let’s talk about your writing skills. It’s important to have solid writing abilities when tackling game narratives. You need to create compelling stories, characters, and dialogues that engage players. Remember, practice makes perfect, so honing your craft by writing daily can make a big difference.
Now, let’s dive into the world of game writing. It is unique from other forms of writing, as you need to integrate the story into the interactive and dynamic nature of video games. A game writer must keep in mind the player’s choices and the non-linear story structure and plan multiple narrative paths accordingly.
With resources like Video Game Writing Essentials available online, getting started shouldn’t be a problem.
When writing for games, you must consider the game’s mechanics and design. This means understanding how gameplay elements, challenges, and environment fit into the story. Collaborating with game designers will help seamlessly weave the story into the gameplay.
During the game development process, it’s essential to be flexible and open to adaptation. Game writing involves a lot of iterations and refining. As the game design evolves, your story may need to change as well. Listen to feedback, stay receptive, and be a team player to create a captivating game.
First off, always familiarize yourself with the basics of game writing. You can find inspiration and great examples by looking at the instruction manuals of some of your favorite games. Analyze how they format instructions and take note of any elements you particularly enjoy.
When starting your project, make sure to have a solid plan for your story and characters. A practical guide to game writing can be a valuable resource to help you get started on the right foot. This guide will give you insights into collaborating with design, production, and writing staff during the pre-production and production phases of your game.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with various writing techniques. Sometimes, incorporating things like sentence stretching, rebus writing, or touch-and-tell activities can add excitement and engagement for your players.
To explore more writing games, check out this list of 10 quick and fun writing games to improve students’ literacy skills, which you can adapt to fit your game concept.
Finally, always keep your audience in mind. Write for your target audience and tailor your game to their interests, preferences, and skill levels. Remember, your goal is to create an enjoyable and memorable experience for your players.
There are plenty of enjoyable writing games available for children. Some popular options include Five-Word Story, where kids use prompts to create brief stories like these , and Poetry Strips or Word Banks, in which children get inspired by pre-selected words or create word banks themselves. Experiment with different games to find the ones your child enjoys the most!
To play writing games with friends, choose activities that involve collaboration and group participation. One example is Secret Pictionary, where players write a random phrase, pass it along, and the next player attempts to draw it. You can also try Word Association games where friends take turns writing words related to a common theme.
Many writing games can improve various aspects of writing, such as vocabulary, grammar, creativity, and storytelling. Engaging in different writing activities like using themed word banks, creating poetry, or in-depth stories can help children develop and enhance their skills. Keep an eye out for games that target specific areas your child needs to improve.
Middle school students can benefit from writing games that encourage creativity, teamwork, and critical thinking. Options like group storywriting, where each participant contributes a sentence or paragraph to form a coherent narrative, can be both engaging and educational. Other activities like collaborative poetry, writing dialogues, and adapting stories into scripts can also be suitable for middle school students.
Fun writing activities for 4th and 5th graders can include creative storytelling games, where they use prompts or images as inspiration; poetry creation with various forms like haiku or limericks; and word games that involve making sentences using specific letter combinations. Always encourage them to use their imagination and creativity, as well as focusing on proper grammar and punctuation.
While writing games might be too advanced for toddlers, you can introduce activities that help develop fine motor skills and a love for storytelling. Encourage them to draw simple pictures depicting stories, dictate stories to you, or engage with letters and numbers through play. As they grow older, you can gradually introduce more complex writing activities.
In this six course Professional Certificate Program hosted on Harvard and MIT’s innovative edX learning platform , you’ll learn the tools and techniques of writing for video games in a comprehensive program designed by successful, working game writers and UBC teachers. From story and character development to worldbuilding and interactive narrative, this Certificate will help you excel in an industry that rewards creative, flexible team players.
What You’ll Learn
Course Length: self-paced (estimated at 5 weeks each). Cost: Free to audit. Verified certificate cost from $99 to $249 per course (USD). Schedule: Sign up any time. Courses are self-paced and open now for registration.
Learn the essentials of writing for video games: from the game development process to the ways that game stories differ from other kinds of stories.
Writing for video games is truly a new frontier, a place where writers and game developers are still learning, innovating and pioneering bold approaches to telling stories.
This course is your introduction to this frontier. We’ll look at what interactive storytelling is as well as touch on the history of video games and the kinds of games that have been developed since the medium was born. We’ll discuss the complex, collaborative process of game development and hear from working game writers about their jobs. Then we’ll dig into the way game stories are built, where they come from, and how they are changing.
Learn how to make effective, memorable video game characters, from protagonists and antagonists to npcs.
You might spend two hours with a character in a movie, but you can spend hundreds of hours interacting with the player character, antagonists and all the non-player characters (NPCs) in a video game. Getting character right is a vital part of getting the game right.
This course will teach you how to create a player character who fits into the mechanics of a video game and all the limitations of the medium, as well as how to create memorable player characters and how to deepen and develop them.
We’ll discuss how characters relate to gameplay, working with existing intellectual property (I.P.) and how a great game needs a great villain. Finally we’ll dive deep into the world of NPCs, exploring the tremendous variety of characters who can populate a video game, and how to make them distinct and interesting.
Learn the fundamentals of writing cinematics, cutscenes, and in-game dialogue.
In this course we will explore how to create compelling, vital scenes, and how to use dialogue to support gameplay, deepen character, and advance the game’s story. Early career game writers will often get their first experience writing dialogue for NPCs, especially the infamous barks and taunts. We’ll show you how to make this dialogue work, when it should sing and when it should be invisible.
Learn the fundamentals of building video game worlds, from a writer’s perspective.
Game writing is a collaborative process, and worlds are designed with input from art directors, level designers, and even marketing teams. But writers have an integral role in making these worlds feel rich, deep and believable. In this course you’ll learn to use the tools of environmental storytelling, lore, readables and audio/video logs to help create a memorable game setting.
Learn how to use player choice and interactivity to create compelling game experiences.
The primary difference between video games and other art forms is interactivity. Players embody the characters in a game; instead of watching the protagonist make choices, they actively make choices for the player character.
For writers, choice takes on a different meaning in games that allow players to control the outcome of the plot. How do you ensure that game choices are meaningful, have consequences, and also don’t require an impossible amount of work for the game development team?
In this course we will explore how choice works in games, how branching plots work, and how to manage them with tools such as pinch points, bottlenecking and story silos. We’ll look at characters and dialogue, then get you writing your own interactive narrative with commonly available online tools.
Learn what it takes to work as a video game writer: from resumes to writing tests to contracts and ndas.
What is it like to work as a video game writer? How do you even apply for a game writing position? Is it true that you might have to take a writing test?
This capstone course puts everything you’ve learned in the previous courses together. Each assignment has helped you produce material that is suitable for a portfolio. Now we’ll show what to do with it.
We’ll explore what it takes to get a position as a video game writer or narrative designer, including how to get experience that will make you stand out. We look at what the hiring process is like, what sort of writing tests you may be asked to perform, and how to connect with people in the industry.
The Michigan Wolverines football program received a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA on Sunday, pertaining to an alleged sign-stealing scandal that came to light last fall, months before the team won the national championship .
A team spokesperson confirmed the news to the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press , which is part of the USA TODAY Network. According to the Free Press, seven Michigan staffers from the 2023 team, including first-year coach Sherrone Moore , are implicated for allegedly violating NCAA rules.
The Wolverines will now have 90 days to respond in writing to the Notice of Allegations, followed by the NCAA then having 60 days to respond to that. The NCAA would then determine whether a hearing in front of the Committee on Infractions is necessary.
Former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions was accused of buying tickets to games against Michigan's conference – and possible future College Football Playoff – opponents with the sole purpose of sign stealing and scouting so the Wolverines could have an advantage in games.
According to ESPN , an early draft that the outlet obtained in the beginning of August of the NOA indicated that Moore could face a suspension and a show-cause penalty for allegedly deleting a thread of 52 text messages with Stalions in October 2023, on the same day that the alleged sign-stealing scandal came to light. The early draft is subject to change.
Per ESPN, the draft indicated that Moore could be accused of committing a Level 2 violation for the deletion of the text messages, which were later recovered via "device imaging."
Moore could potentially be considered a repeat offender, after the NCAA in April resolved a separate investigation into the football program, this one related to recruiting violations during a COVID-19 dead period in 2021.
According to ESPN, former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, former linebackers coach Chris Partridge and former assistant director of personnel Denard Robinson are each accused of Level 1 violations, the most serious.
Stalions eventually resigned and Harbaugh was suspended by the Big Ten for the final three regular-season games in the aftermath of the investigation.
Harbaugh became the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers in January.
Yahoo Sports was the first to report the news of Michigan receiving the NOA.
Contributing: Scooby Axson and Steve Gardner
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We invite students to explain how to do any task in 400 words or fewer. Contest dates: Feb. 12 to March 12, 2025.
By The Learning Network
Do you know how to fix a brake light ? What about how to memorize Shakespeare ? How to keep a goldfish alive ? Spot a shooting star ? Write a love letter ? Forgive someone ?
These are just a few of the many skills explained in Tip , the how-to column by Malia Wollan which ran weekly in The New York Times Magazine from 2015-2022.
Inspired by this column, which took on topics both serious and silly, we are challenging students to write their own “how-to” for (almost) any task.
As long as the topic is appropriate for a family newspaper, students can explain whatever they like, including tasks that Tip has already taken on. But, just as the column did, they must also find, interview and quote one expert on the subject.
Take a look at the full guidelines and related resources below. Please post any questions you have in the comments and we’ll answer you there, or write to us at [email protected]. And, consider hanging this PDF one-page announcement on your class bulletin board.
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by Misha Grifka Wander
When I teach video game analysis to college students, I sometimes tell them that they’re going to make their own games—and their eyes glaze over in panic, thinking of the intense production requirements of a video game: music, voice acting, animation, design, and so on. If you’ve ever been curious about writing interactive stories, you might have been similarly discouraged. However, there are a lot of tools now to simplify the process of making interactive fiction! In this article, I’ll go over two options for starting to write text-based interactive fiction, eliminating the need to do anything other than what you already do: write a compelling story.
Interactive fiction, adventure games, and hypertext stories are all versions of the same thing: text-based stories where the primary method of play is choosing what to click on, and reading the outcomes. They allow you to use your existing talent for description, dialogue, and prose in general to create an immersive and engaging experience for players.
Creating other kinds of games often requires a large budget and expertise in such esoteric skills as 3D rendering and stats-block writing. But interactive fiction requires very little financial investment or technical expertise. It offers the chance to write nonlinear stories, stories with multiple potential outcomes, and more. Experiments that are difficult to carry out in a word processor document can be easily accomplished with interactive fiction. While most other types of games require extensive coding skills, interactive fiction requires very little—it often uses simple formats that act like code but allow the user to minimize the amount of special characters and complex lingo they have to memorize.
There are many types of interactive fiction. Some are all text; some have images or even fully animated characters and backgrounds. This article focuses on text-forward methods . Some of these stories are action-packed and demand the player make difficult choices or suffer even more difficult consequences. Some are more gentle and encourage exploration and meditative descriptions of places or people. The medium can encompass any genre. The only requirement is that the reader/player has some sort of agency over how the story unfolds, even if only over the order in which portions are read.
Intrigued? Here are two ways to start creating your own text adventures.
Twine is a treasured tool in parts of the indie game design community. It allows anyone, without coding experience, to write an interactive text-based story and save it in HTML format, making it easy to publish online. By default, the exported version looks clean and minimalist, creating an unobtrusive backdrop for your words. The primary mechanic is to create pathways from one page of text to another, traveling via clicking on highlighted words. For example, when I open a Twine game, I might see a simple paragraph introducing a woman and her dog. The word “dog” might be a different color, and when I click on it, I’m taken to a different page with text about the dog—which has further highlighted words that I can click on to go elsewhere, and so on. These pathways can diverge, converge, loop back, and create a story in any configuration.
You can use Twine in your browser or download the software for free for offline use. There’s a robust support community and extensive documentation. It has four different story formats that come with preset defaults and tools for making certain kinds of stories.
The thing that makes Twine particularly useful as a tool is how much it scales. It’s very easy to start creating right away—there are very few things you have to remember in order to use the software. However, once you’re comfortable with the basic format, you can add more mechanics, such as an inventory system or events that only happen if you’ve already done something to trigger them. This flexibility means that Twine can make everything from minimalist short stories to traditional text adventures to full-fledged RPGs. It’s not suited for 3D immersive gameplay, but it’s surprisingly robust for being a free, easy-to-learn tool.
Choice of Games is a popular company that makes interactive fiction and games—a game hosted by them was even on the most recent Nebula ballot. The company makes and sells its own games but also makes ChoiceScript , its in-house game-writing system, available for free. Similar to Twine, it’s a coding-lite platform, but you do have to work with a little more typical code formatting. However, it’s well-documented and not too complicated. It’s also a system more suited to making dramatic choices (hence the title) than Twine, which requires a little bit more work on the backend to make those same choices have any mechanical impact.
ChoiceScript has two primary advantages over Twine. One, it comes with more preexisting systems—most Choice of Games works have stats and inventory systems, and ChoiceScript comes with easy ways to add these to your code. Two, the company provides a hosting platform for any games made with its system. You can add your finished product to their marketplace, and you get a portion of the revenue generated by sales. While the platform takes part of the revenue as well, they also provide an easy place to host, as well as a certain number of customers from people browsing the site.
There are many other tools, but these two are excellent free introductions to the medium. Play around with them, try writing something interactive, and you too may come to love the diversity of stories to be found in interactive fiction.
In this vibrant and approachable book, award-winning writers of black speculative fiction bring together excerpts from their work and creative reflections on futurisms with original essays.
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Robyn Dabney, an author and freelance copyeditor, is known for her fantasy trilogies, The Soul Mender Trilogy and The Daughter of the Summit & Sea (The Ascenditure), as well as her sci-fi short Cracked and horror short The Utburd.
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Product Dimensions | 1.2 x 5.8 x 6.7 inches |
---|---|
Item Weight | 1.19 pounds |
ASIN | B0BPJZC26G |
Item model number | 02355 |
Manufacturer recommended age | 6 years and up |
Batteries | 3 AA batteries required. (included) |
Best Sellers Rank | #2,383 in Toys & Games ( ) #30 in |
Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars |
Release date | July 12, 2023 |
Language | English |
Manufacturer | Basic Fun |
Now you can experience everyone’s favorite Lite-Brite toy in a whole new way - this time, without the pegs! Create art with light by pressing the color-changing buttons on the board and watch as they light up. Keep pressing to change to one of seven colors as you create new pictures! Use the included, easy-to-follow instructions to create dazzling works of art. Or have fun and design your own masterpiece! Play games - this exciting Lite-Brite toy also comes with three fun and addicting games to play (Lite Break, Match and Snake) . Play alone or compete with a friend. Animate with the 5 different modes - perfect for wow'ing your friends or using as fun backdrops for any social content! And with its lightweight, portable design, this Lite-Brite is perfect for long car rides or a quiet afternoon in the living room. Ages 6+
Safety information.
WARNING! Not suitable for children under 36 months. Small Parts. Choking hazard.
From the manufacturer.
There are 12 art guides included that you can follow along to create your art. Or get creative and make your own pictures with light! | There are 3 fun games to play, including Lite Break, Lite Match, and Lite Snake! Play on your own, or join a friend for even more fun! | Choose from 5 ready to go animations to light up your room or any social video you have in store! |
Lite-Brite has been a kid-favorite toy for generations. Enjoy the nostalgia of your childhood memories and create beautiful works of art with Lite-Brite! With its vibrant, colorful pegs and iconic light-up board, Lite-Brite is the perfect way to spark your child’s creativity.
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SammyLu Reviews ✅
Caitlin Best
Minnesota Mama
🌟 Joost Nusselder
Basic Fun, Inc
Amanda Gracey
Customer reviews.
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Customers like the age range, creativity, and ease of use of the toy. They mention that it's perfect for older kids, littles, and autistic children. They also appreciate the size, saying it'll fit in a car or plane. Some are happy with the quality. However, some customers have reported issues with the performance, saying the lights didn't work.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers like the quality of the toy. They mention that it's super entertaining, challenging, and fun. They also say that the different game modes keep them entertained for a long time.
"...I like that there’s options to play games and do other things besides making pictures...." Read more
"...Not only are the different game modes incredibly entertaining but even the normal game mode is fun to make patterns with...." Read more
" Product is cute and we will have fun with it but just an fyi that although it comes with batteries, they were dead when we received the item." Read more
"...The lights are vibrant, and honestly the snake game on it is actually super fun . Best of all no little pegs to have to pick up." Read more
Customers find the size of the toy perfect for traveling, car rides, and plane rides. They appreciate the compact size and no loose parts.
"This is the perfect size for traveling & if you’re a huge lite-brite fan you really like this style...." Read more
"This is compact , no loose parts or small parts to keep track of, and multiple ways to play.Very clever...." Read more
"Bought this for my 5 year old granddaughter. Her parents appreciated the size and no loose parts.Nice gift that will get a lot of use." Read more
"...It was perfect for rides in the car !" Read more
Customers find the product creative and fun. They say it's a screen-free activity that they have a blast making shapes and even changing the colors. They also mention that they can create their own animations.
"...modes incredibly entertaining but even the normal game mode is fun to make patterns with...." Read more
"...It is screen free and a creative activity that she will sit down and play for a while." Read more
"...There are three modes: create, games, and animate ...." Read more
"...She can even create her own animations . I wish there was a way you could turn off the beeping. Otherwise, great product." Read more
Customers find the age range of the toy and game perfect for older kids, littles, and autistic children.
"... Keeps my 6 year old busy !" Read more
"...4 stars only because hard for a two year old. But perfect for older kids ." Read more
"This was perfect for my autistic child ...." Read more
" Perfect for littles ..." Read more
Customers find the toy and games easy to use. They mention that the create mode is great and easy for them, but the games are a little tricky for them to do.
"...The buttons are soft/squishy and easy to press . I like that there’s options to play games and do other things besides making pictures...." Read more
"...The create mode is great and easy for her but the games are a little tricky for her to do (she is 4) but she still enjoys trying to play them...." Read more
"Bought these for my grand kids ages 5 and under. Easy to use and they loved them!!" Read more
" easy to use ,no lost parts...." Read more
Customers appreciate the size and no small pieces to lose.
"This is compact, no loose parts or small parts to keep track of, and multiple ways to play.Very clever...." Read more
"...Her parents appreciated the size and no loose parts .Nice gift that will get a lot of use." Read more
"This toy was a big hit with a toddler boy who loves lights, no small pieces to lose . When he finally set it down the older kids loved it too." Read more
Customers are dissatisfied with the performance of the toy. They mention that the batteries and USB cord didn't work, the lights didn' t work at all, and the product malfunctioned.
"Great for restauraunts. Only downside is it doesn’t work in daylight but otherwise it is amazing!! Keeps my 6 year old busy!" Read more
"...I put new batteries in it it played for abt 1 minute and it’s dead nothing works " Read more
"...Tried new batteries and USB cord, but still didn't work . I wanted to return for a new one but couldn't return after Nov. 28th." Read more
"Was broken when opened on Christmas. Didn’t work . Unfortunately I ordered too early to return for refund by the time we realized it was broken...." Read more
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Since 2018, if not earlier, Rwandan President Paul Kagame has been trying to make religious groups (mostly Pentecostal churches) in the country bend the knee. If he appears not to have succeeded thus far, it is not for want of trying. In that year, the Rwandan government had replaced a 2012 law regulating the activities of religious groups with a new one directing all faith-based organizations to “obtain legal status” from the Rwandan Governance Board (RGB).
Any lingering doubts as to the government’s intent were soon dispelled by the conditions for obtaining legal status, which varied between the intrusive, the legally dubious, and the outright ridiculous. For example, an average faith-based organization was required to submit a notarized statement explaining its doctrine(s); a notarized document describing its “annual plan of action and source of funding;” “a letter issued by district authorities agreeing to collaborate with the organization;” and “the address of its head office and the names of its legal representative and his/her deputy, their duties, full address, and criminal records.”
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If the legal burden on the organization seeking registration was onerous enough, its leader didn’t have much joy either. As the law stipulated, “preachers with supervisory responsibilities must possess a degree in religious studies from an institution of higher learning or any other degree with a valid certificate in religious studies issued by a recognized institution.” This educational requirement extended to the faith-based organization’s legal representative, who was similarly expected to “hold a degree from an institution of higher learning.”
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Perhaps to demonstrate that it was not all bark and no bite, the Rwandan government went ahead and suspended the activities of seven hundred fourteen churches in various parts of Kigali, the capital city, for what it described as “noncompliance with the new legislation.” The Brussels-based Human Rights Without Frontiers International (HRWF) estimates that almost nine thousand places of worship were shuttered during the initial enforcement of the 2018 law, with more than six thousand still closed across the country by the end of last year.
Why did the Rwandan government go to such lengths? One clue is to be found in its insistence that the churches comply with health and safety standards and noise pollution ordinances , a pointer to the deleterious impact that the explosion of the Pentecostal movement in the country, paralleling a continent-wide pattern, has had on both its landscape and soundscape. Similarly, the educational requirement apparently aimed at preventing “unqualified ministers from putting adherents at risk” invokes widespread concern at the range of “unethical and criminal behavior” that many Pentecostal preachers have been accused of.
Taken together, these signal Pentecostals’ creeping domination of the religious scene in the country, resentment of which in part explains a constant level of support for government legislation, particularly among leaders of the Protestant denominations. This domination, and the visibility, sociopolitical influence, and economic clout that tend to follow in its wake, would seem to be the real reason that Mr. Kagame is trying to bring his country’s Pentecostal churches under some semblance of control. The most recent RGB crackdown late last month resulted in the closure of at least five thousand six hundred churches , four hundred twenty-seven of which were reportedly “operating out of caves.”
At any rate, Rwanda is not the only African country where concern at Pentecostal influence (the continent is reportedly home to almost half of the world’s Pentecostals) has prompted a political backlash. In 2013, citing “criminal practices” likely to “threaten the security” of the country, Cameroonian President Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982, ordered the military to close down nearly one hundred Pentecostal churches in the capital Yaounde and the Northwest Regional capital, Bamenda. In Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania , respectively, legislations supposedly intended to “protect the people” from the “bad practices of cults and religious confessions” and “ensure that religious practices align with the law and contribute positively to social cohesion and public order,” respectively, have been put in place. Following the discovery in March last year of mass graves containing bodies of over four hundred suspected members of the Good News International Church, calls grew for the Kenyan government to create a regulatory commission to curb the supposed excesses of the country’s charismatic churches.
While those excesses may be beyond question—January’s British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) exposé on the late Nigerian preacher, T.B. Joshua, is the latest reminder of the reality of pastoral depravity in the Pentecostal world—it is by no means certain that endeavoring to drive the churches out of business (pun unintended) through the creation of a hostile regulatory environment is the way to rein them in.
For one thing, making religious organizations directly accountable to political authority, even when the theologies and liturgies of such organizations can be called into question, merely increases the danger of political centralization. The last thing that a country like Rwanda needs right now is more power accruing to a central authority which has been molded in the image of one man for the past three decades and counting. For another, making the state the spiritual caretaker of citizens, apart from reducing citizens to wards of the state, implies that the state is a better judge of people’s spiritual needs than they themselves. Furthermore, it distracts attention from the fact that, more often than not, the state is the problem that people are trying to get away from, and that its well-documented fecklessness is one reason why many Africans have continued to seek succor in sundry spiritual sources and establishments. Finally, it ignores the fact that religious organizations, especially Pentecostal churches, wouldn’t be the social force they are in many parts of Africa today without the active connivance of political leaders, many of whom continue to patronize them, either for the spiritual sanction of the “Man of God,” or the political support of his congregation.
For these and other reasons, Kagame’s clampdown on the churches is unlikely to produce the desired results, and if the example of the four hundred twenty-seven churches reportedly operating out of caves across the country shows anything, it is the extent to which members of a community will go in an effort to satisfy their spiritual cravings.
Which leaves us with one final puzzle: given the sociological commonplace about religion being a means of civic distraction and demobilization, why is Kagame (the same question applies, mutatis mutandis, to Biya in Cameroon) not satisfied to leave Rwanda’s churches alone? Why bother with a religious establishment that is, so far as we know, apolitical?
Three related hypotheses may be advanced as follows:
First, for as long as it remains “uncaptured,” the church, no matter how “conservative” or docile it may seem at the moment, can quickly transform into a space of “resistance.” Obviously, this is a risk the dictator cannot afford to run.
Second, places of religious worship like churches are places of spontaneous joy. The dictator does not mind his people being joyous; on condition that he is the trigger for that joy. Hence, it’s not so much the joy as that it is not “approved.” If people can be spontaneously joyous, who is to say what else they can do spontaneously? Revolt?
Third, the Old Testament injunction to Christians that “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” offends the dictator, who fancies himself as the final word and ultimate ground of appeal.
If these hypotheses are valid, we may rightly expect Kagame’s crusade against faith-based organizations to continue for as long as he is Rwanda’s God.
Nathan Schoonover contributed to the research for this article .
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The ceremony will see the athletes parade down a section of the champs-elysees..
PARIS (AP) — Creative director Thomas Jolly has some lofty goals for Wednesday’s opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games , when the heart of Paris will once again become the stage for a stunning artistic display.
The outdoor ceremony at the Champs-Elysees and Place de La Concorde — a site where several members of the royal family were beheaded during the French Revolution — is aiming to challenge and reshape society’s perceptions of disabilities.
“When we cut off the heads of the king and queen here, it changed society once. Maybe this ceremony will be the second time we change society,” said Jolly, who was also in charge of the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics last month.
On Monday, under the sweltering Parisian sun, a hundred dancers, including 20 performers with disabilities, gathered at La Concorde for a final rehearsal under the secrecy of huge banners closing the square. The site hosted several competitions during the Olympics and has now been transformed into a grand open arena centered around the ancient Luxor Obelisk, the French capital’s oldest monument.
Jolly said dance will be central to the show, celebrating all types of bodies through the universal language of movement. Swedish director Alexander Ekman has crafted a rhythmic spectacle where dancers — using crutches, wheelchairs, or adapted tricycles — will interact with pulsating beats.
The music of the event is once again in the hands of Victor Le Masne, who also composed the entire score for the Paris Olympics.
On the eve of the Paralympic rehearsals, Le Masne welcomed a group of journalists into a secluded Parisian studio, offering a sneak peek of the track titled “Sportography,” a blend of organic sports sounds and drum rhythms that captures the essence of athleticism, incorporating real-life elements like the screeching of shoes and the hard breathing of athletes.
Reflecting on his recent collaborations with Céline Dion and Lady Gaga for the Olympic Opening Ceremony , Le Masne shared a few insights into the intense creative process.
He vividly described attending a private rehearsal at the top of the Eiffel Tower, where Dion performed “Hymn to Love” at 3 a.m., just hours before the ceremony. Despite obstacles like rain and Dion’s ongoing health challenges, Le Masne knew that her performance would be nothing short of grandiose.
And he was equally impressed by Lady Gaga.
“I had to work on the ‘Mon Truc en Plumes’ arrangement and then flew to Los Angeles to pitch the idea to her management,” he said. “They loved it, and Gaga immediately immersed herself in learning about French cabaret culture, even perfecting the pronunciation of the old-timey French song. Her professionalism was awe-inspiring.”
For the Paralympics, Le Masne’s approach has evolved.
“This time, I wanted to put the athletes first,” he said, emphasizing the importance of incorporating the physical and emotional sounds of sport.
The ceremony will also see the athletes parade down a section of the Champs-Elysees, Paris’s most iconic avenue, and special efforts have been made to ensure accessibility. The traditional cobblestones have been temporarily covered with a thin layer of asphalt to accommodate wheelchair users. That asphalt layer will be removed after the end of the Paralympic Games, on Sept. 8, said Thierry Reboul, who oversees all Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies.
Unlike the Olympic Opening Ceremony on the Seine, which was marked by stringent security and pouring rain, this event will allow the public to freely watch from along the Champs-Elysees and near the Louvre Museum.
The weather promises to cooperate this time, too, with bright sunshine and clear skies in the forecast.
“But we’re still pretty cautious about that last part,” Reboul joked about the weather conditions.
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Creative director Thomas Jolly has some lofty goals for Wednesday's opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, when the heart of Paris will once again become the stage for a stunning artistic ...