THE COWS ARE GOING TO PARIS ORIGINAL BOOK PROJECT, PART 2   WRITING THE ROUGH DRAFT OF YOUR STORY   Students in group:___________________________________________________   Directions: Review the information that you wrote on "Original Book Project, Part 1," and look at your graphic organizer, then put your heads together and begin to write the first (rough) draft of your story.   Everyone in your group should share their ideas. One person should do the writing as others speak.   Important Stuff for Writers to Know   1. SHOW, do not TELL!   Before writing what the characters are doing or where they are, close your eyes and SEE it for yourself, then use specific DETAILS so that your readers can see, hear, smell, taste and feel what you do.   Choose your words carefully. This is a picture book. That means you will describe each scene and what happens in just a few sentences, then the illustrator will paint or draw a picture to go with (illustrate) the text.   DO NOT BEGIN TO ILLUSTRATE (DRAW OR PAINT) UNTIL YOU HAVE THE FINAL COPY OF YOUR STORY.   Below are two descriptions of an experience a little girl had when she went owling with her father. How are they the same? How are they different? Which one can you "see" more clearly? Why?   A. My father and I went owling at night. Although there was moonlight, it was pretty dark and very cold. We heard a train far away.   B. It was late one winter night, long past my bedtime, when Pa and I went owling. There was no wind. The trees stood still as giant statues. And the moon was so bright the sky seemed to shine. Somewhere behind us a train whistle blew, long and low, like a sad, sad song. ------------------------------------------- Read the following page from author Virginia Hamilton's description of an African game preserve. She uses sense details to help her readers SEE and FEEL the scene she is describing.   This is the largest wild-game preserve in South Africa and the eighth largest in the world. It couldn't be a better day. The colors are greens and browns, bush and grasses - they fade to gray without sunlight. It is a gray day with misty rain. The animals love it! Mist keeps them cool, especially the elephants, whose ears never stop moving as they fan themselves - keeping down their body temperature. It is near 90 degrees here. ------------------------------------------- Describe the characters as well as the setting. Let your readers see what they look like. Are they tall or short? Chubby or skinny? Do have they have dark hair and blue eyes, or blond hair and brown eyes? ----------------------------------------------   2. USE DIALOG   Don't TELL your readers what the characters are saying. Let them HEAR it for themselves. Also, let the readers SEE, HEAR, FEEL, etc. the scene through the characters' diaglog.   Example: Jennifer Collins stared through the car window at the ancient Wimberly mansion and mumbled, "Everybody knows Mrs. Wimberly's house is haunted. It's creepy with that ugly, round tower and those windows over the door that look like staring eyes."   "I can assure you," her mother said, "there are no ghosts in Mrs. Wimberly's house."   Remember: * Direct quotations (words that are spoken) are surrounded by quotation marks. * Periods and commas always go inside the closing quotation marks. Other punctuation marks go outside the closing quotation marks." * Each time the speaker changes, begin a new paragraph.   3. Write an opening sentence that will capture your reader's attention.   First sentences should be interesting enough to grab readers' attention and make them want to read the rest of the story.   Here are opening sentences to two mystery stories:   I don't like the way he's looking at me.   This opening immediately introduces the main character, tells how she is feeling, and lets readers know the story is going to be a mystery:   Through the late afternoon she sat along on the steps of the seawall, listening to the gulls' cries and watching the boats bob and rock at the moorings; so she didn't know about the murder.   This opening lets the reader immediately see the setting.   The town of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota lies on the shore, looking east across the blue-green water to the dark woods. It is a quiet town, where much of the day you could stand in the middle of Main Street and not be in anyone's way.   4. The story should make sense, even if it is fiction (made up).   5. You should not have to write "The End." Don't write "The End." Your story should have a definite ending, like someone closing a door. wildclassroom.net