Basic 5-step Exercises

A Lesson by Missy Lorraine

These exercises are geared toward developing rhyming skills and other important skills such as rhythm. As we all know, children's stories involve a lot of rhyming and silly words. This should help a lot.

Exercise #1 Utilizing Randomly Chosen Words in Literature

Step1 The first thing you must do is get together in a group of your writing friends and chose someone to be the secretary. The secretary will need to have two separate pieces of parchment.

Step2 Each person in the group, including the secretary, must take turns calling out random words and phrases. Make sure that they all get written down. Try to come up with at least fifteen different words/phrases.

Step3 When done, place the paper where you can all see it, or write all the words at the top of your paper (this method is a little more "messy").

Step4 Next, write a poem, story, etc. utilizing each and every one of these words. If you really want a challenge, time yourself.

Step5 I suggest reading your stories aloud to one another. This will allow each of you to observe the different ways in which the same series of words can be used.

Note: By each person choosing words, the exercise will be a little more difficult, because you don't know what words will be chosen. Make sure to use words describing the five senses as well as objects and emotions. This will make for a better piece.

Exercise #2 Rhyming Random Words

Step1 The first thing you need to do is to get a piece of parchment, a pen (or pencil), and a dictionary.

Step2 Open the dictionary to a random page, and closing your eyes, select a word by putting your finger on the page you turned to.

Step3 Write the word on your piece of paper at the very top. Make sure to leave lots of room.

Step4 Now, try to come up with at least five different words that rhyme with your initial word.

Step5 As time goes on, try to think of more and more words that rhyme.

Note: By choosing a random word from the dictionary, your brain will have to work harder. Anybody can come up with words to rhyme with things such as "cat" and "ran". But not everybody can rhyme more complicated words.

Exercise #3 Developing Rhythm

Step1 First, think about your favorite song. No matter what it is, it has some kind of rhythm, right?

Step2 Think about the songs rhythm and hum the melody, or listen to the song.

Step3 Once you do that, write a poem with that very same rhythm.

Step4 Follow the same rhyming pattern.

Step5 Sing your poem out loud, paying attention to the rhythm.

Note: Keep syllables in mind, the amount of syllables in each line should be parallel to those of the line in question in your chosen song.