Tag: End of school

Writing Tip — Writing in Time — June

class-1986501_1280More than January, I feel like June is the start of new things, the month of great possibilities. With the end of the school year and the beginning of summer vacation, the month signals throwing off our normal routines and preparing ourselves for something new.

June seems perfect for starting an adventure story, especially if your main character is a kid or a teen. The freedom from school seems to call for a story where something radically different or exciting happens to the main character. You can have the story take place over a summer, wrapping up before school starts and normal life takes over again.

one-hundred-days-baby-1616112_1280Father’s Day is in June.  It can be a setting for exploring male relationships within a family. Like I wrote in May for Mother’s Day, you can write a story, only set on Father’s Day over a number years, to show how the male characters change.

This year the summer solstice is on June 21. Many traditions are associated with this solar event, making it a perfect time for a story of speculative fiction or historical fiction. In the little bit of research I did, I read in The Summer Solstice by Ellen Jackson that the Chumash of California and the Anasazi of New Mexico created ways to mark the sun on the solstice. She also tells an abbreviated version of a solstice story involving Maui, “a mythological hero of Polynesia.”

summer-solstice-1474745_1280According to Farmer’s Almanac, the new year in ancient Egypt began on this day because the Nile started rising. Europe had many traditions to celebrate the day, the best known being the one immortalized by Shakespeare in a Midsummer Night’s Dream: fairies were out and about at this time.

With the coming of Christianity to Europe, the pagan celebrations were given new meaning because now they honored John the Baptist, St. John’s Day, on June 24.  Still superstitions persisted.  In The Folklore of American Holildays, if girls in North Carolina “pare an apple round and round without a break in the peeling and throw the peel over the left shoulder, it will form the initial or initials of your future husband.” On June 23, Midsummer’s Eve, in England “great bonfires were built” in which “people threw herbs, gathered by moonlight, as charms against witchcraft.”

June has such wonderful possibilities as a setting.  Let the adventures begin!

 

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Writing Tip

refugees-2071291_1280This isn’t really a tip, but it ties in with my previous post about using May as a setting.  This poem sums up my feelings about the month since I have kids in school.

MAY

Some of us may scream.

Some of us may shout.

One thing is for certain.

All of us want out!

The teachers are exhausted.

The parents are worn out.

The kids haven’t worked since March

And only plan escape routes.

Some of us may sulk.

Some of us may pout.

Some of us may push and shove

And fight a title bout.

But just like death and taxes,

It’s true without a doubt.

After nine l-o-n-g moths of school

ALL OF US WANT OUT!

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Writing Tip

may-706940_1280Writing in Time — May

May may tie March as my least favorite month.  When I was children’s librarian, it was a month of frantic work as we got ready to launch our summer reading program in June.  We would visit schools to advertise the program and build excitement, and those visits, while usually fun, were also exhausting.

Now that I have kids in school, I realize how frustrating May is.  Everyone associated with school is ready for a break — teachers, administrators, support staff, parents, and students.  Speaking as a parent, I am pining for relaxed mornings, relaxed schedules, and no reason to pack lunches.

May makes a great setting for something crazy and unexpected to happen in a story about school.  All that frustration has great comic potential.

Something else I remember about May when I was a kid — at a certain point, maybe a week before school lets out, everyone relaxes, at least a little,  For the kids, the end is in sight.  Teachers know they have done all the instructing they can and now it is just a waiting game to fulfill required number of days.  I remember my mom easing up on bedtime and the long evenings that didn’t encourage sleep at all.dawn-1840298_1280

Graduation ceremonies from high school or college symbolize the feeling of endings becoming beginnings and vice versa.   A ceremony is a great way to launch a story or wrap it up.  It’s also a poignant time for parents and teachers, too,  if they are about to retire.

With Mother’s Day, a holiday that was created by a distant relative of mine, I can explore female relationships within a family.  One approach could be to structure the story over successive Mother’s Days, showing how the celebration reflects the relationships.

Memorial Day at the end of the month can be a setting for stories dealing with death, grief, or just remembering and celebrating loved ones who have died.  The holiday has some of the same quality as graduation — death as an ending or beginning, depending on how you write about it.

Spring is full swing during May where I live, so if I want to write about the glories of new growth and new life, May has great possibilities as a backdrop.

Despite my personal dislike of the month, the writer in me can see it merits.

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