The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, by Chris Van Allsburg is one of my favorite texts to use for a creative writing project. If you’re not familiar with the book, it is a picture book full of unusual, magical pictures. The premise for the book is simple. It is a collection of images created by a fictional Harris Burdick, who has disappeared. Each of these images is presented in the book with one line of text. The pictures don’t seem to go together in any way, and are each unique. Other than the initial introduction, there is no other story line.
What makes this a great writing project is that each of the pictures lends itself to imagination. The pictures are full of weird, not easily explained things. This makes the students want to figure out what happened. Since there is no specific story for each picture, the students can imagine whatever they want.
INTRODUCING THE PROJECT
For me, this has been one of the simplest, engaging, low prep creative writing projects. To begin, I simply copy a couple pages of each picture in the book. Then, I read the book to the students, showing the pictures and reading the captions. After reading, I explain that they will get to choose a picture and create their own story about it. Included somewhere in the story, they have to use the exact one line caption that came with the picture. These captions are also unique, and add to the magic of the picture.
Then I lay all of the pictures out on the floor and call students up to pick one. I explain that the story needs to be lengthy and fully-developed. However, for this project, I require little else. I don’t have them fill out a million graphic organizers to plan. But I do let them know that they can spend some time planning if they want to. Then I give them time to just write.
I’ve done this creative writing project three or four times. Each time all of the students have been engaged and writing the entire time. I have students create stories that are 4-6 pages long at times.
In the past, I haven’t done much editing or revising, though you could. I simply take this project as a chance for students to love writing.
PRESENTING THE WRITING
When all of the stories are finished, students read theirs aloud to the class. It is always fun to see the twist that the stories take. Multiple students may have the same picture, and yet make a completely different story.
A FOLLOW UP
In 2011, The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales was published. This book includes stories from writers such as Stephen King and Louis Sachar. Each author wrote their own story about one of the stories and they were published together. Taking time during or after all of the writing to read these stories would be fun to do with students. They can see yet another twist on the story.
I hope you can use this book with your students and that it sparks an interest in creative writing :).
