Peter Cole Poet Title Photo of silly Pete

A Good Question

Writing is about asking questions and finding the answers.
Funny answers, silly answers, unexpected answers, wrong answers. And sometimes you don't even have to write the answers. You can ask the reader the questions so they have to think about it themselves.

I Sense a Good Idea for a Poem (Five great questions)
Sight - Sound - Smell - Touch - Taste

Our senses are great things to think about when writing.
Imagine you were writing a poem about the Amazon rainforest. You could write about all the amazing creatures you would see and hear. What about all the weird and wonderful plant life. What would they feel like brushing past your legs as you ran through the jungle? What would a banana taste like picked straight from the tree? How would the jungle smell after the rain? Maybe you recently went on holiday or a school trip and you want to describe what it was like to a friend. The more you use your senses to describe your trip the more your friend will feel like they were there too.

??? Six More Great Questions ???
Who? What? When? Where? How? Why?

One day I was watching a wildlife programme about snails and the day before I had been to see a Shakespeare play. Suddenly the name William Shellspeare popped into my head. I liked the name but I didn't know what to do with it. So I grabbed a piece of paper and started asking myself the six questions above.

WHO is William Shellspeare? Answer - A snail and a writer just like Shakespeare.
WHAT did he write about? Answer - Animals acting strangely and gigantic snails that could squash humans.
WHEN and WHERE did William Shellspeare live? Answer - In William Shakespeare's garden at the same time that Shakespeare was there over 400 years ago.
HOW could a snail write? Answer - he would use his slimy snail trail.
WHY would a snail write stories? Answer - Well, why not? Humans can't be the only ones that have got something interesting to say.

And once I had the opening lines of my poem I used my answers to tie the rest of the poem together.