Adding a “Freebies” page to my website last week wasn’t part of a long term plan. But then I saw a reading chart that neglected nonfiction and I decided to create a better one. Once I had the chart, I had to think about how to distribute it. Two ideas came to mind.
First, I would share it on Twitter. That’s where I found the inspiration for my chart. And that’s where I chat with fellow nonfiction author Annette Whipple. But I wanted something with a bit more permanence.
So I created a Freebie page on my site. This would be where people went to download it. And they have. To a certain extent. In reality, the whole thing has had much more traction on Twitter. Still I did see a bump up in my site traffic.
If I’m going to build on this, I need to keep adding to this page. So I’ve been noodling over what other things I might add. General reading possibilities include:
- Book bingo. I’ll have to noodle this one over to make it work. A book set somewhere you’ve visited. A book written by a new-to-you author. This one will require some thought.
- Book related art projects. Design a bookmark for a book you love?
- Book related games. You could do a scavenger hunt or Mad Lib sort of story/sentence building game.
What else could I do? I could come up with a variety of activities that encourage writing.
- Create an acrostic about a book you just read.
- If you change one element of the story, how would the story as a whole change? Setting, character, etc.
- Creative writing prompts. These could be either written prompts or photos.
- Write your own comic strip.
- Writing prompts.
- A poem a day journal for national poetry month. Each day would feature a different type of poem? Or a different type of poem each week?
This is definitely something that I’m going to have to play with. I liked the reading chart because that was something that would be potentially useful to a parent, teacher or librarian. I think the Bingo card will be next. What would you do?
–SueBE
One Writer's Journey 