Creative Project Ideas
Select from the following categories (if your area isn't here, you can propose/discuss ideas with your teacher). If you already have your own idea, all the better. These topics are suggestions only. or go back to Resources for Students.
fashion design
- Perform a dance illustrating in movement what the poem or story is or does; let the class then interview you or explain how the dance expresses some aspect of the story or poem.
- Choreograph a set of moves or dance that will effectively express the theme of a story or poem we've read and explain how the choreography reflects the theme.
- Design a small board with miniature clothing front pieces for a character that would effectively reflect his/her behavior, style, personality within the literature piece you chose.
- Draw a full set of characters and their clothes, as you see them all in your mind, reflecting how you see each of the major players in the poem, short story, or drama that you chose.
- Using a doll-figure, create an actual set of clothing that would represent a main character in a literary piece, utilizing the kinds of colors, fabrics, textures that you believe represent this particular character's style, behavior, personality, and/or overall mood.
- Rewrite a story or poem from a very different point of view or speaker; or rewrite the ending of a story, taking the ending farther than the story does. Then discuss what this new version achieves that the original did not, and why you prefer it (or why you prefer the original).
- Imitate the style of any writer in the anthology. Study the sentence structures the writer uses, and then, using very different content, create a couple of paragraphs of very similar sentence structures with this new and different content. Discuss what the effect of the writer's style is and whether this effect is the same with different content.
- Select a story and adapt it into a script; write just ONE scene of the script.
- Shoot one short part of a scene or landscape (panorama) or close-up; bring in 1/2 in. video and show to the class and let the class try to guess what story this would be adapted from.
- Adapt a poem (probably a narrative poem or dramatic monologue) into a script.
- Write up a proposal with a detailed list of equipment, material, crew, actors, etc. for filming an adaptation of a story.
- Write a treatment of a story that you would try to sell to a studio.
- Describe the lighting for a particular scene/poem/etc. and how exactly you would execute all aspects of your lighting plan; name every piece of equipment and describe its placement, etc. Explain why this lighting would be appropriate for the effect you want in the piece.
- Evaluate the filmed adaptation of a novel or story that you have read (not necessarily in this course). What did the film change from the novel? What did the film accomplish that the novel could not, and vice versa?
- Write a purely objective "news" account of any of the stories we've read, as though you are a neutral reporter giving only the factual summary of information. Decide what is most "newsworthy" about the story and come up with a good lead. This may be quite different from the way the short story emphasizes information.
- Imagine that you are the producer or host of a talk show. Pretend that a character from a story we've read is going to be on the show and that everyone in the audience has read the story and is interested in this character. How would you conduct the interview? What kind of set will you use on your talk show? What questions will you ask the character you will interview?
- What makes a good interview? Read at least two interviews with one of the writers of a story or poem in our anthology. What was good about the interviews? Evaluate the interviews as examples of journalism. What, if anything, would you have done differently if you were writing the interview?
- Sing any poem a cappella to any melody you think appropriate for that poem.
- Sing a song that you feel is similar in theme to any of the stories or a song that you believe a character in one of the stories would have sung, and be prepared to explain why the song and the story are related, for you.
- Compose something that expresses the emotional state of any of the characters you've read about and explain at what point in the story you would insert this piece of music.
- Compose something that expresses in music the idea, theme, or emotion of any of the stories, poems, or play, and be able to discuss the idea, theme or emotion in both.
- Set any poem to music.
- Design the ideal group of musicians to perform accompaniment to a piece read aloud; then select what music (give title and composer as well as recording artist) they should perform and explain why this selection and this group would be ideal for this reading.
- Choose a character, family, described space/place, home, etc. within a literary piece (could be someone / something you think would be either very difficult to represent or would be really popular in the media) and create a mini-public relations campaign that might include a press-release, media alert, media placement, executive summary, etc. that would promote that person, place, or thing.
- Choose a character, family, described space/place, home, etc. within a literary piece and market that person, place, or thing by creating a poster design, brochure, some other print or web piece, or create a marketing plan. This would be most challenging and interesting, of course, if you chose a person, place, or thing that would be difficult to represent, such as a character in a short story that is a grumbly, old geezer.
- Write a proposal for a radio program based on a story or poem or group of poems; you must sell the station manager on the program, and your proposal will have to include a detailed budget and plan of production.
- Adapt a story to a radio play (or adapt one lengthy scene).
- Analyze a radio drama that adapted a piece of literature.
- Create appropriate sound effects for a story or scene or a poem.
- Write a proposal detailing how you would create the sound effects for a story, scene or poem---include exact equipment needed, all staff needed, etc. Don't leave anything out.
- Analyze a radio drama that uses elaborate sound effects. Discuss the different effects and how they are created, and discuss what these effects contribute to the story.
- Write a script adaptation of any story, poem, or scene for a TV production.
- Describe a shoot, one brief episode and how exactly you would frame your shots; how many cameras you would need; exactly where you would place your cameras in this scene, whether the shots would be close, medium and long; whether you would cut or zoom, etc. and when exactly. You can do this for a scene from a story or for an imagined shoot of an actor reading a poem or for a scene from a play that you'd like to stage on television.
- Describe the lighting you would use if you were stage a scene, poem, etc. (See Film #6 above.) Explain all the details and why this lighting plan would be effective for this piece.
- Design a set OR the lighting or the staging or the costumes for a dramatic production of any of the texts we have read.
- Perform a monologue (by yourself) or a scene (with a partner); do a dramatic performance of any poem.
- Review any STORIES on STAGE performance of texts; discuss what the dramatic reading does to enhance the audience's understanding of the text beyond what they might experience merely by reading the text on the page.
- Review any productions of literary texts and show differences between the experience of reading the text and seeing or hearing a live production.
- Bring in a design you've created based on a piece of literature you've read--this could be a design a character might create (let the class guess which character might create it).
- Design a setting for a story, poem or play, making sure not to contradict any facts of setting provided by the story, poem, or play; design any PART of a setting.
- Paint a portrait/make a photo/ draw a drawing of someone who looks like a character in one of the stories or poems or plays; let the class try to guess which character you've painted/photographed/drawn.
- Create a work of art that embodies any important ideas or themes from any of the literature we've read; let your imagination be your guide; think about what most struck you, moved you in anything we've read and create your own art in response to that.
- Design the text on the page in such a way as to impress us all as readers.
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These ideas were gathered on Sept. 23 1998, adapted from documents prepared in 1997 and updated in 1998 by Karen Osborne, then Coordinator, Introduction to Literature, Columbia College of Chicago. Thanks also to Kristin Scott for contributions made in March 2006.
