WRITE 15 MINUTE A DAY CHALLENGE

Laurie Halse Anderson has published numerous writing prompts, as well as tips about the writing process, on her blog--Mad Woman in the Forest--where she challenges individual to Write Fifteen Minutes a Day for a full month.  Anderson tackles topics, such as writer's block, overcoming distractions, and making time to write.  Other writing prompts are more traditional, such as character or setting sketches.  

It's definitely the prompts about being a writer and engaging in the writing process that I was the most impressed with.  As teachers, I think we tend to focus on the process of writing without ever addressing the difficulty of writing and how to overcome potential obstacles.  Students begin to view as an innate skill that they are either born with, or are not; and they believe that good writers never deal with "issues."  Anderson, as a very successful author of young adult literature, does a great job of "naming the beast," so to speak, and getting writers to confront the difficulties associated with writing.

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