Escape into creative writing with these imagination-tickling challenges:

Challenge #2

Like many others, I woke up on Sunday to find a snowy wonderland outside my window. As I crunched through it with my family (pre 7am!), marvelling at my transformed street, I thought about how snow has a magical ability to change even the most familiar landscape. So, here’s my writing challenge. Imagine you’ve woken up to find that - joy! - it’s snowed. You rush outside but, wait a minute, this isn’t your neighbourhood… the snowfall was enchanted, and you’ve been transported somewhere new. But where? Another country? Another world? And what do you find when you explore? Forests? Caves? Creatures? Write all about your adventure, and feel free to share it with me too! I’d love to know how (and if) you find your way home…

Challenge #3:

Pick an emotion that a character might feel. Angry, for example. You could even write some down (happy, sad, excited, etc) and pick one at random. Now choose a thing for your character to feel strongly about. How about the last thing you ate - for me it was toast. So, mine would be a character who’s angry about toast! I wonder why… Did it get burnt? Or did the dog run off with it? Perhaps they aren’t angry about the toast at all, it was just the final straw.

Be as creative, as silly or as serious as you like. It doesn’t have to be the last thing you ate either. It could be the weather, a task (like a DIY bed!), anything. So is your character sad about pasta? Happy about rain? Jealous over cheese?

Challenge #4:

We watched Spirited Away this weekend (man I love that film!) and the idea of there being a spirit in/for everything - based I think on the Shinto religion - gave me an idea for the next challenge. So here it is. In Spirited Away there are river spirits, stink spirits - even a radish spirit! Take any object you can see or imagine (a tree, an armchair, your favourite mug) or something you can’t (like a smell you love) and imagine it as a character. What would they look like? What sort of personality do they have? How do they behave/talk/move? Write all about them!

Challenge #5:

I’ve recorded a video challenge for you this week. Enjoy!

Video transcript:

My writing challenge for you this week is all based around the Mars Rover that landed the other week and all the cool pictures it's been sending back. I just thought it was really awesome that it's on a whole new planet and is up there exploring things we've never seen before. So here's the writing challenge. Imagine that this Rover has moved on a little way over Mars, and it's taken some pictures and sent them back to earth. And the scientists are opening up these pictures right now. What do they see? There's something truly shocking in one of the pictures! That thing is completely up to you to decide: is it bones of some kind or even a live alien creature - or something completely different? Maybe it could be something completely random, like a teapot. It's also up to you to figure out why it's there…

Challenge #6:

Have you heard of the wood wide web? It’s an underground network of roots and mushrooms - yes, mushrooms! (well, fungi) - that trees use to communicate with one another and share their resources. Which is nothing short of amazing, don’t you think!? My challenge to you is: write down a conversation between trees. What would they talk to each other about? Are they making casual chit-chat or is there something urgent, scary or exciting going on? Does one of them have a squirrel tickling their branches or a bad case of the beetles? Have fun and go wild!

Here are some more fun activities to help fire up your fabulous imaginations.