FRESH MAGICAL JOURNAL, PT.

1
ACTIVITY CHECKLIST

EQUIPMENT
[ ] Journal
[ ] Writing utensils
[ ] Access to different kinds of books (library card, home library, etc.)

CH. 1: THE WRITER

[ ] “About Me” Survey
[ ] Daily Thoughts (7+ days, prompts provided)
[ ] Personal History free-write (5 min.)
[ ] Two Truths and a Lie (200-400 words)
[ ] Write a letter to your future self (100 words)
[ ] A Chapter From Your Autobiography (250-500 words)

CH. 2: THE QUIET READING ROOM

[ ] Reading Log for each reading
[ ] Read 3 short stories
[ ] Read 1 novel
[ ] Read 1 nonfiction article/essay
[ ] Read 3 poems
[ ] Reflection (250-500 words)

CH. 3: POCKET NOTEBOOK

[ ] Review different poetic devices and create your own examples of 10
[ ] Two-word poem
[ ] Overturning commonly used phrases
[ ] Engaging the Uncomfortable
[ ] Write within a poetic form (min. 10 lines)
[ ] 20 lines (1-3 poems)

CH. 4: FOUNTAIN PEN

[ ] Ray Bradbury’s list-brainstorming method
[ ] 6-word story
[ ] The world around you
[ ] People-watching
[ ] Character study
[ ] Write a short story (500-1000 words)

BONUSES
[ ] EQUIPMENT: Find a writing partner/group or dedicated reader(s)
[ ] CH. 1: Write a letter introducing yourself to your favorite writer (200+ words)
[ ] CH. 2: Read 1 other novel---Classic
[ ] CH. 3: Write two sonnets
[ ] CH. 4: Write a 50,000+ word story in a month (NaNoWriMo)

Fresh Magical Year 1

POINT SYSTEM
- Having all Equipment is 1 point
- Completion of each Chapter is 1 point (no points for partial completion)
- Completion of each Bonus is 1 point (exception is CH. 4 Bonus---see below)
- Completion of CH. 4 Bonus (completing NaNoWriMo) is 5 points
- 14 points possible

TOTAL

_________ / 1 Equipment point + _________ / 4 Chapter points + _________ / 9 Bonus points

= _________ Total points

Fresh Magical Year 2

 Notes on Equipment

First: a journal. Or something like it. I like to write in A5 Leuchtturm1917 notebooks. Field
Notes pocket books if I’m on the go. You may prefer a Moleskine, or a composition notebook, or
sheets of loose-leaf paper gathered up in a binder. Like Nabokov, you might like writing on
index cards. What’s important is you have something to write in and look back on and draw
ideas and inspiration from on mucky days. You’ll do all your writings and musings for the Fresh
Magical Year activities in your journal. Don’t be afraid to get messy, it doesn’t have to be
organized or aesthetically-pleasing. Starting out with all those blank pages will be daunting, but
filling them all up will be well worth it!
This means you need writing utensils of some sort. My favorites are the Blackwing line of
pencils (regular and 602). Buttery smooth graphite and a sleek design. The yellow Ticonderoga
is another excellent tool. Some writers prefer pens—gel or ball-point or, if you’re feeling fancy,
fountain. And for those in an especially vintage mood: typewriters. Can’t go wrong with those,
right?
Third, you need access to books. A home library, a library card, and access to a local bookstore
are all great. Something to expose your mind to new styles and themes and characters. Your
teachers and friends and co-workers may recommend books, which is great and blessing. I think
one of the best ways to find a new love, though, is to just browse the shelves. I can say with
confidence that a lot of the books I love are the results of hours spent pulling books off a shelf
and reading first pages! So many good books get overlooked either because they’re not within
the consciousness of one’s social circles or they’re just not well-known in general. Be the reader
who rediscovers the forgotten quality literature. Take a chance! Explore new waters!

Fresh Magical Year 3

 Notes on “The Writer”

“About Me” Survey

Name:
3 Favorite books:
Why I like writing:
Favorite place to write:
Favorite thing I’ve written:
Favorite writers:
What I hope to accomplish this year:

Daily Thoughts (7+ days, prompts provided)

Daily journaling for a week (or more). They can be as short or as long as you want. A half page
works well enough. If you’re short on ideas, you could write about:
- what you’re grateful for today
- what you’d like to improve on today
- goals for the week/month
- something new you’d like to accomplish this week
- descriptions of the sunrise
- what you saw on your walk around the neighborhood / city / countryside
- what you dreamt about last night

Personal History free-write (5 min.)

Spend five minutes writing about your past. That’s vague, but that’s the prompt. No editing, no
second guessing. You could write about a certain era in your life (“early teens”) or you could
write about one specific experience (“the night my cat brought a ferret home”). It doesn’t have to
be good. But it has to be written.

Two Truths and a Lie (200-400 words)

Write a piece about yourself that incorporates two truths and one lie. The lie should be
interwoven with the truth so as to convince the reader that it’s all true. Then, at the end, reveal
the lie.

Write a letter to your future self (100 words)

What would you like to say to your tomorrow self? To yourself in one year? In ten? Write out a
letter and place it in an envelope. On the envelope write: TO [YOUR NAME], TO BE OPENED
AND READ [ONE YEAR, TEN YEARS, ETC.] FROM [CURRENT DATE]. Seal the envelope
and place it in a hidden but safe place. Make note of the envelope’s location in your journal.

A Chapter From Your Autobiography (250-500 words)

We’re all living out our own stories. Yes, right now. Where do you come from? What were you,
and what have you become? If you divided your life up to this point in chapters, what would they
be called? What would they be about? Pick a chapter and write it.

Fresh Magical Year 4

 Notes on “The Quiet Reading Room”

Reading Log for each reading

For this Chapter, you will read short stories, a novel, nonfiction, and poetry. For each, dedicate
some space in your journal (a half page or page or full spread) to record your thoughts. Jot down
lines you think are worth remembering, note interesting stylistic techniques the writer employs,
record words and concepts to look up later. Write down questions and diagrams. Enjoy the
works, but also learn from them.

Reflection (250-500 words)

Think of this as an informal book report. You can write about one work or several. Some
questions you might consider: What did you like about the work(s)? What themes did you come
across? If writing about more than one, what themes were common in the works you read, and
how did they manifest? Which were your favorite characters? Your least favorite? What did you
learn by reading the works you read?

Fresh Magical Year 5

 Notes on “Pocket Notebook”

Review different poetic devices and create your own examples of 10

You’ve probably learned them before, but it doesn’t hurt to go back and refresh. Poetic devices
you could look up: hyperbole, metaphor, simile, synecdoche, alliteration, assonance, consonance,
enjambment, rhyme, irony, metonymy, onomatopoeia, repetition, personification, symbolism,
connotation, paradox, and more! After reviewing, go ahead and write up your own examples of
10 poetic devices.

Two-word poem
Is it a poem if it’s just two words? Why not? This is a good warm-up challenge for getting your
brain to come up with uncommon word pairs. Example of a common word pair: “heart broke.”
Less common: “berries stewed.” Play around, get weird. This will help you write interesting
longer poems. “Gulls glorified.”

Overturning commonly used phrases

Take a common phrase and spice it up. You ever read a poem and come across a line that you
feel like you’ve read before? Have you ever written such a line yourself? This is a good
opportunity to take the cliché and really make it your own. “Stars in your eyes” could be
something like “an exploding rocket in your eyes.” Maybe not as lame, but you get the gist.

Engaging the Uncomfortable

Have you ever caught yourself writing about the same topics and using the same imageries, over
and over? Spend 3-5 minutes listing out themes you’ve never written about, either because you
never seriously considered them or because they make you uncomfortable. For example, you
might list an embarrassing experience, or you might have an opinion on a political issue that’s
contrary to those your friends have. After writing your list, choose one thing you wrote down and
write about it.

Write within a poetic form (min. 10 lines)

Let’s play by the rules first before breaking them. We might find something we like. And also:
writing within a form—within set boundaries—forces you to think about language differently.
Look up different poetic forms and try out one or more!

20 lines (1-3 poems)

Go hard!

Fresh Magical Year 6

 Notes on “Fountain Pen”

Ray Bradbury’s list-brainstorming method

In Zen in the Art of Writing, Bradbury sets forth a list-brainstorming method:

Three things are in your head: First, everything you have experienced from the day of
your birth until right now. Every single second, every single hour, every single day.
Then, how you reacted to those events in the minute of their happening, whether they
were disastrous or joyful. Those are two things you have in your mind to give you
material. Then, separate from the living experiences are all the art experiences you’ve
had, the things you’ve learned from other writers, artists, poets, film directors, and
composers. So all of this is in your mind as a fabulous mulch and you have to bring it out.
How do you do that? I did it by making lists of nouns and then asking, What does each
noun mean? You can go and make up your own list right now and it would be different
than mine. The night. The crickets. The train whistle. The basement. The attic. The tennis
shoes. The fireworks. All these things are very personal. Then, when you get the list
down, you begin to word-associate around it. You ask, Why did I put this word down?
What does it mean to me? Why did I put this noun down and not some other word? Do
this and you’re on your way to being a good writer. You can’t write for other people. You
can’t write for the left or the right, this religion or that religion, or this belief or that
belief. You have to write the way you see things. I tell people, Make a list of ten things
you hate and tear them down in a short story or poem. Make a list of ten things you love
and celebrate them. When I wrote Fahrenheit 451 I hated book burners and I loved
libraries. So there you are.

Try this out for yourself! Make a list of 10 things you love and 10 things you hate and start
asking questions about each. Think about what they mean to you. How they resonate with you,
and what place they have in your memory. Do you envision some grand scene with that word?

6-word story
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” You’ve encountered this story (commonly attributed to
Hemingway), either in its original form or some sort of parody. Still, there’s value in studying
the concept of a “six word story.” The original raises questions in the reader: whose baby? Why
were the shoes never worn? Did the baby die, or did the baby outgrow them before getting the
chance to wear the shoes? Or are the shoes simply unwanted? Write your own six word story.
Make the reader ask questions.

The world around you

Explore setting. Pay attention to the small details. How does the light look streaming though the
treetops? What does it smell like in a cider mill? How about in the back of an old book store? Do
the hardwood floors creak? What does the city sound like at noon? At midnight? Write down
settings in the world around you, and then come up with a fictional setting. Your dream bedroom
perhaps, or an imagined library. Someplace you’d like to be—or not.

Fresh Magical Year 7

People-watching
Go to a public area and watch people and take notes. What do they wear? What do they say?
What does their body language say? Record observations and snippets of dialogue. One way to
write compelling and convincing characters is to observe and listen. Use one or more of your
observations to write a short fictional piece (can be about an imagined life of the person observed
or a completely new character).

Flash fiction (100-300 words)

A scene. Something brief—hits the reader like light then disappears.

Write a short story (500-1000 words)

Try it out! Incorporate what you learned from this chapter and previous chapters to come up with
something original. You can look up short story structures to get a sense of pacing and
organization, but it isn’t necessary. Just write.

Fresh Magical Year 8

 Notes on Bonuses

EQUIPMENT: Find a writing partner/group or dedicated reader(s)

For centuries writing groups have existed to inspire, push, and nurture all sorts of writers. J.R.R.
Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, for example, were part of a group called The Inklings. Hemingway,
Joyce, Pound, and Gertrude Stein were in Stratford-on-Odeon. Robert Frost was in The Dymock
Poets. And I’m in my own secret group. You’ll find once you form your group that it begins to
develop its own writing culture, its own way of doing things. It’s very exciting!

CH. 1: Write a letter introducing yourself to your favorite writer (200+ words)
How would you introduce yourself? Would you be self-conscious? Which details would you
include—or leave out?

CH. 2: Read 1 other novel—Classic

So many classic authors are worthy of critical reading. My favorites: John Steinbeck, Ray
Bradbury, Madeleine L'Engle, and Vladimir Nabokov. More great writers: Toni Morrison, Sylvia
Plath, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer, F. Scott
Fitzgerald, J.D. Salinger, Alice Walker, Louise Erdrich, Mark Twain, and many more!

CH. 3: Write two sonnets

Unleash the Shakespeare within. Alternatively, unleash the Petrarch within.

CH. 4: Write a 50,000+ word story in a month (NaNoWriMo)

People always say “I can’t do it because I’m too _________” or “I go to school” as an excuse for
not even trying. As if the people who win don’t have jobs or go to school or have children to take
care of or their own busy lives generally! Most people don’t write as the main thing they do in
life. A lot of people have day jobs and write on the side… like before work or before bed. Try, at
least, if you think it would be good for you. If it’s not your thing, then that’s fine. It’s fine to say
“I’m not doing it because I don’t want to.” And there’s no shame in trying and getting
overwhelmed and not finishing later on.

Fresh Magical Year 9