Monday, September 26, 2011

My Teaching Materials: Xanth

One of the things I rather enjoy is making pertinent materials for my writing classes. Yes, I probably do way too much myself, and should save energy by finding or buying and using pre-made stuff, but I like it. So, I thought I would share a few of those with you.

This first one I usually give out the first week, and they mostly get credit for trying. However, it's a fun way to judge how well they edit, their "wordsmith" level, and give them a peek at what is in store for them. I didn't write this one, I borrowed the passage from Piers Anthony's Xanth series, credited at the bottom.

Let's see how many errors you can find! Leave your count in the comments. ;)

Name: ________________
Period:________________


Dor is a student in a land called Xanth, which is next door to a place called Mundania. His teacher asked him to write an essay about Xanth. Dor isn’t a good speller, so he got a “spelling bee” to help him. Thanks to the bee, nothing in his essay is misspelled, but he still didn’t get a very good grade. Can you do better than Dor? Find and correct all of Dor’s spelling mistakes. Here’s a hint: there are 52 of them!



The Land of Xanth
buy Door

Eye live inn the Land of Xanth, witch is dis-stinked from Mundania inn that their is magic inn Xanth and nun inn Mundania. Every won inn Xanth has his own magic talent; know to are the same. Sum khan conjure things, and others khan make a whole ore illusions ore khan sore threw the heir. Butt inn Mundania know won does magic, sew its very dull. They’re are knot any dragons their. Instead their are bare and hoarse and a grate many other monsters. Hour ruler is King Trent, whoo has rained four seventeen years. He transforms people two other creatures. Know won gets chaste hear; oui fair inn peace. My tail is dun.

From Centaur Aisle by Piers Anthony, p. 14

Monday, September 19, 2011

Writer's Update

School is back in, and I now have a schedule of writing on Saturday mornings for 3 hours. My goal is Hero Games. That project has been mostly stalled since the beginning of the summer. Every time I start to attack it, something else comes up. Just this week, I got an email from Cliffhanger Books about another publisher, Damnation Books, that had put out a call for submissions for a corrupted superhero anthology.

Naturally, it caught my attention. I even happen to have an unfinished corrupted hero story buried in my archives. But, I told myself, I am supposed to be working on Hero Games. I know that story would need dusting off and polishing, at the very least. So, I took a glimpse at it, and it could certainly use some work. It also, however, is a pretty good story.

Thus, I get caught by this little dilemma: novel-in-progress, or anthology submission? Not to mention trying to maintain this blog, keep up with Twitter, read my blogroll, etc. etc. At least NaNoWriMo isn't really until November, and I have time to plan for that during NaNoWriMo after school. (I have three students ready to write, so far!)

NaNo is November, the anthology due date is December, and Hero Games has no schedule but mine. So, for now, I go back to Hero Games until I can get it figured out.

I leave you this week with one thought: With so many irons in the fire, how does one find enough fuel?