Writing Exercise 5: An Animal’s Quest

This exercise is one that children might enjoy as well as adults. You could make pictures instead of writing or produce a short graphic novel. This would also work as a story for children, a story for adults or a poem. See how it works for you and adapt the exercise if you like.

 Stage 1.
Choose (or imagine) an animal or bird or fish or insect. Find out as much about it as you can. This might involve observation if the animal is your pet, searching the internet for information or imagining where and how the animal lives.

 Stage 2.
Now you know about your animal, answer these questions about one individual animal:
What does your animal want? (You can use your imagination)
Where would your animal most like to be?
What does your animal think and feel about the world around it?
What does your animal think and feel about human beings?

Stage 3.
Now imagine your animal is on a street or path. Imagine its journey to find what it wants and the place where it wants to be. What obstacles does it face? How does it overcome them? Try to write and/or draw the whole journey from the animal’s point of view.

 Think of someone who will enjoy what you are creating. Edit keeping them in mind.

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