I don’t know about you, but when teachers say “write about whatever you want,” I never know where to start. It’s almost like there’s too wide of a range of ideas in my head to select my best bet. Luckily, Storybird was the perfect solution! Storybird is a playful way to arrange your story into a fun picture-full book! There are a collections of images that come in groups of 30 or more to base you story off of. I know this might seem a little juvenile at first trying to create picture books, but truly speaking, there’s no better way to stir your imagination! You can rearrange images and add text to write poems and short stories.
This site also provides writing challenges such as “write a flash fiction story in a 100 words or fewer, “use a haiku to capture a fleeting moment in time.” Teachers can assign students challenges and specify focus areas for students, such as use imagery to describe protagonists and antagonists, or use a variety of literary terms. This way, the teachers and students can test their writing abilities in different aspects. I enjoy writing, but sorry, the perfectionist side of me loves to point out people’s mistakes! Read classmates stories and work together to peer edit stories for the A+. Description in essays and passages come from visuals and color. Now that I have experimented with Storybird, I understand that this jumpstarts the idea process. For me, the most unbearable part of getting my story started is the inevitable writer’s block. I would rather explore the picture-based themes of Storybird than sit at my desk for 20 minutes staring at a blank document!
