Websites to inspire creativity

I’ve always wondered what would have happened if I discovered NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) when I was still at school. If you ever desired writing a book but aren’t sure if you could, then NaNoWriMo is something to consider. Each November thousands subscribe to reach the goal of writing 50,000 words. The goal is to get your first draft written—no editing. It’s to motivate you to transform the idea in your head onto paper. You win if you reach 50,000 words within the month.

While that goal can seem daunting, it’s much the same for some students when faced with writing an “average” creative paper.  The good news is, some of the strategies that work for getting out of a writing rut for large projects also work for smaller ones as well.

Here is a roundup of some website resources that your students (and yourself, if you write) will find useful if looking for a boost to their writing creativity.

Writing Prompt Websites

Writing prompts work for all types of writing exercises. Teachers who teach writing to students use writing prompts to inspire their students. Here are a few websites with writing prompts.

Journaling is one way to practice writing. Journal Buddies has 57 writing prompts related to their teacher.  Writing prompts are divided into topics, grades, seasons, and holidays.

Daily Writing Prompts provides daily writing prompts grouped into monthly event calendars. These events include important days in history, celebrations, holidays, and birthdays. Use these daily writing prompts to practice for in prompt assessments, warm-up activities, “when you’re done” activities, and as a substitute teacher activity.

Unique Teaching Resources provides a large list of writing prompt topics. Created by a teacher with 22 years of teaching experience, the prompts are grouped into topics. There are monthly web pages for each month of the year, and general writing prompts. Included are links to related lesson plans.

Teaching Ideas and Resources contains creative writing ideas for students from 5 years to 11 years old. Various downloadable teaching resources like the Narrative Writing Pack help students to write stories.

We Are Teachers provides ten writing prompts to create enthusiasm for writing assignments in high school. Writing prompt include ideas from TED Talk, Video prompts, emails, and other creative resources.

Think Written lists 300 fun writing prompts for kids. These prompts include journal prompts, ideas, and story starters. These prompts can inspire kids to complete homework assignments, write a short story, a poem, or even a book.

Teaching Writing Resources Websites

Resources on the various writing topics help teachers with enough information for lesson planning and creating exercises.

The Write Practice has 11 writing resources to help teachers teach writing more effectively. These downloadable articles are free to use in classrooms or to develop lessons from. Each article contains practical exercises that are ideal for homework assignments.

National Writing Project is a network of websites with resources for teaching writing from early childhood to university. Federally funded, the NWP focuses on the teaching of writing. The site delivers customized in-service programs.

Writing A-Z is a resource guide with a collection of online writing resources to improve writing skills. The writing resources include lessons, instructional teaching tools, writing tools for practicing writing skills and creating online books.

Time 4 Writing have 15 writing courses to improve writing skills interactively. The courses contain lessons, quizzes, and assignments to be reviewed by the teacher.

Creative Writing Inspiration and Prompts

Creative Writing Workshop is a downloadable PDF that shows how to teach creative writing from primary school to high school students. Included are creative writing activities, ways to teach writing creatively, teaching ideas and course plans, and creative writing lesson plans with activities.

Global Digital Citizen Foundation suggests creative writing activities and prompts to inspire the imagination of students.  From personal experience of how, a teacher can inspire a student’s creative writing, Lee Watanabe -Crockett encourages teachers to continue to share their passion for creative writing.

Story Starters Teaching Guide includes hundreds of writing prompts. Themes include fantasy, adventure, and sci-fi with character, plot and setting ideas. Students choose a theme that generates story starter prompts.

Literate for Life offers five free story writing websites that will inspire kids to write their stories. These free websites allow kids to create, write, and publish their stories.

I hope these websites will inspire teachers to share their passion for writing with their students. What is your favorite writing prompt? Are there websites you use that we should include in the list?

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.