Story Writing: The Resurrection

This week is Holy Week for Christians. We remember and celebrate Jesus’ Triumphal Entry, Last Supper, trial, death, and resurrection.

All the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) have accounts of the resurrection, but none of the accounts are written in first person.

Point of View

First-person point of view is when the narrator is telling the story, like this: “I saw the angels,” “I walked up to the tomb,” or “When we saw that it was empty, he went in and I backed away.”

The disciple John, when mentioning himself, writes of himself in third person as “the other disciple,” like this: “So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first” (John 20: 3-4). What would his story be like if he had written it in first person?

Many people are mentioned in the accounts of the resurrection: Mary Magdalene and other women, guards, angels, disciples such as Peter and John, chief priests, Cleopas and the other man walking to Emmaus, and Doubting Thomas. What story could they tell?

A Topic Sentence at the End?

You are familiar with topic sentences, how they come at the beginning of paragraphs and tell readers what the paragraph is all about.

But what if the topic sentence came at the end of the paragraph? And what if that paragraph described something from a story?

Topic sentence at the end

Here’s part of a paragraph from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Notice the topic sentence at the end of the description:

What Are You Afraid Of?

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

What are you afraid of Everyone has stuff they don’t like doing or stuff that creeps them out.

That’s true for Howie Mandel, comedian and former host of the TV show Deal or No Deal. He hates shaking hands with people because of all the germs he can get from one handshake. Now he uses a fist bump.

“I do it because it just uses the outside of my hand. I can do it and still hold a sandwich. But when I get home,

What’s Your Secret?

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

secrets image Some people believe they’re boring. They have no story to tell. They’ve done nothing interesting.

But a wise man named Ryter thinks they’re wrong.

In Rodman Philbrick’s The Last Book in the Universe, old man Ryter is talking to the young teen Spaz, the main character. Here’s what Ryter says to him:

Your New Dr. Seuss Book

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

Dr. Seuss’s real name is Theodor Seuss Geisel, and he’s the author of The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, Horton Hears a Who, and many other books.

A commemorative postage stamp, which you see here, was issued by the United States in 2004 on the anniversary of his 100th birthday.

And now, more than a quarter of a century after his death, Dr. Seuss was published again! The complete manuscript and sketches for What Pet Should I Get? was found in an old box and was published in 2015. It became a #1 New York Times Bestseller!

‘Twas Brillig: Create a New Word

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

What?!

That’s the first verse of the poem “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll. You can read the whole crazy poem by clicking here.

Surprisingly, if you read the whole poem, you really can tell what is going on, despite all the new words.

Lewis Carroll, author of the Alice in Wonderland stories, enjoyed making up words, as you can tell by his poem. In fact, one of the words he concocted for this poem is a word we still use today:

Create a Wacky Character!

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

Have you ever read any books about Amelia Bedelia, the young housemaid who takes everything literally?

When Amelia Bedelia is instructed to pitch a tent, she throws the tent into the woods! When she bakes a sponge cake, she uses real sponges, according to publisher HarperCollins Children’s.

To Sled or Not to Sled—Is That the Question?

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

Cities like Dubuque, Iowa, are banning sledding in their city parks.

Why? Is sledding dangerous?

Recently in the United States, more than 20,000 children were hurt while sledding, according to a report on NPR. But they also report that about 82,000 kids are hurt each year on trampolines, and over 275,000 children have accidents on bicycles.

Do You Have a Dream? Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, let’s get to know King’s most famous speech a little better.

To hear the audio and read the transcript of “I Have a Dream,” click here. To view the speech on YouTube, click here.

This moving speech was originally given August 28, 1963, in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C. As Martin Luther King spoke of freedom for all Americans, regardless of their color, the statue of the Great Emancipator Abraham Lincoln was seated behind him. This gave even more meaning to King’s powerful speech.

What was King’s dream?

Write a Christmas Carol

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

Which part of the Christmas account do you like the best?

Is it the Annunciation where an angel announces to Mary that she will have a child?

Is it the long journey to Bethlehem with no inn available when Mary and Joseph arrive?

Could it be when the angels burst into the night sky and sing to shepherds? Or perhaps when those exotic kings find the real King as a baby and then fool Herod to make their get-away?

Many of our Christmas carols highlight one part of the Christmas story. For instance, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” focuses on the night Jesus was born.