Mrs.+Powell's+Writing+Page

Here are some samples of my writing, and I hope to add pieces throughout the school year.

My Writing Territories

This was written for Miss Hankins's lesson on October 26. We were pretending to write for the fake online newspaper, "The Onion." My news story.

Next up is the digital story I created this summer, mostly to showcase my younger son, Max. I was trying to create something with the title "A Year Without Shoes," just because I thought it was a great title, but it just didn't end up that way. I will use that title another day, and for now this story serves another purpose: media type="custom" key="6963377" (from the digital story above) M=digital story; A=the Chippewa River Writing Project, and others who insist upon wearing shoes all the time; P=to show people that it's okay not to wear shoes, and in fact is natural; S=after creating the digital story about Vinnie, Max really needed something that showcased him, too. I'd been waiting for a reason to do something, and this took a while but finally came about through the strange series of circumstances this summer.

This is the first digital story that I created in order to let our families know that we were going to have another baby. It worked out very well, and is in fact a piece that my professor still shows to his undergraduate classes and at professional workshops, and even published in his new book that just came out this fall! (I'm on pages x and 74):

media type="custom" key="6963383" (from the digital story above) M=digital story; A=my and my husband's families; P=to let everyone know we were having another baby; S=my professor at CMU had just introduced digital stories, and as a new mom I of course wanted to showcase my beautiful boy. This was a struggle with audience and purpose, though, as I started out simply gathering my favorite photos to use and soon realized that wouldn't work. I had to pick a purpose and a story line to make a coherent piece that wasn't simply a slide show.

Another piece I wrote this summer after my husband's grandpa died. It is a free-verse poem:

"What Breaks Her"

My first attempt at a script, one of my goals for writing. This is just a short scene, still in the works:

"Contradictions of Self"

More writing from my undergraduate class: "Tales from the Backyard" a short story "Wheatland" an acrostic poem A Memoir with no title