Grammar Punk

Back in September, when I went to a writer’s conference, one of the presenters, Sam Beeson, told us about this “game” he created called Grammar Punk. I thought it looked like a great way to assist me in my creativity, as well as possibly bring into my class (on a much simpler level of course). This is one of the few things I have wanted for a while and never actually bought myself, so Tyler was lucky to get that as an idea for Christmas. I just wanted the dice, but since we couldn’t buy them separately, we got the game 12 Tall Tales, which on top of the dice includes cards with: location, character, genre, etc.

Here’s how it works:
There are six dice to roll. They tell you:
1. The topic of your sentence or story.
2. A type of punctuation to use.
3. A part of speech to use.
4. Vowel*
5. Consonant*
6. The number of dice words* to use.
*A dice word is a word that has the vowel and consonant you rolled in it.

Today I am using these to help me write my poem of the week. This is what I rolled.

So in my poem about sports, I need to include a question, an interjection, and at least three words which have a w and an i (turns out I had a lot more).

To start off, Sam suggests creating a list of dice words to use. Here’s my list:

wicked witch win wisdom wimp wind

wide will window write white wipe

And the final product:

Oh no! When I look out of my window I see:
All the wicked children playing football without me!
I point my wand out through the window,
And send a load of magic down below.
The football gets hit and takes a new flight.
While all the children suddenly turn white!
A few start floating up to the sky,
While many begin to loudly cry.
What is the lesson they must all learn?
Don’t forget to give the witch a turn.

I am pretty awesome at this game, but if any of you want to challenge me to a rousing game of Grammar Punk/12 Tall Tales, give me a call...

What is Grammar Punk?
(For those of you who may want to know a little bit more.)