Write the following words in a column. Set the timer for 10-15 minutes write as many rhymes as you can for each. Make some up!splat(Hint, if you get stuck on a word, lop off letters or syllables starting from the beginning and pronounce what's left out loud. That is, geranium might get you stuck, but -um might get you going.)
cocoa
football
glimmer
nemesis
hammock
scramble
craze
inane
geranium
frump
opaline
rhapsodize
When your 10-15 minutes are up, go back and circle your favorite words. You may want to write them on a clean piece of paper if you think you'll get distracted by the other words. Set the timer for 10-15 minutes and use those as a writing prompt.
If you didn't do the rhyming prompt, just take the above words and use as a writing prompt.
I found this more difficult than I expected. Only a few of mine broke out of the one syllable rhymes (mock, cock, rock, shock type). I suspect the ability to generate the rhythm and rhyme of words with lots of syllables must be what song writers and poets have.
ReplyDeleteIt can probably be developed with practice but I don't have it naturally ;-) So I used Nichole's list and borrowed some of her rhymes for a writing prompt. :-) This took a bit longer than 15 minutes but it was a fun challenge to get most of them in. I did notice that the rhymes (and alliteration) prompted a sort of rhythm going every once in a while.
Nichole's and Emile's list:
splat: mat, p.h.a.t., sat, hat, bat, flat, spat, pat, cat, drat, brat, gnat,
slat, rat, cravat, tat, shat
cocoa: boco, rococo, loco, Sunoco, Tampico, Uncle Rico, Viejo Mexico (x sounds like h), do-si-do, hollow
football: soot fall, book crawl, hook bawl, shook stall, wherewithal, shawl, splitting maul, birth caul, rag doll,
glimmer; shimmer, dimmer, him/her, Himmler, harbinger, Gold Finger, alabaster singer, dead ringer, ring dinger, lemon zinger, limber, trimmer, skimmer
nemesis; shemesis, antithesis, antivirus, Osirus, papyrus, ignoramus, Seamus, blame us, name us, fame must claim us, hysteresis, harness,
hammock: shuttle-cock, hard-rock, dry-dock, land-lock, grandfather clock, tickety tock, rocket sock, race walk, geese flock, chickens
bockety-bock-bock-bock, criminals stalk, grandmother's shock, dangerous
glock, July corn stock, knock knock knock, mattock, haddock, knee-sock, shock jock, rock, talk, balk, walk
scramble; bramble, ramble, stumble, bumble, humble, lumber, umber, unencumber, blunder, plunder, plunger, danger, ranger, stranger, manger, shamble, jangle, bauble,
craze; maze, brays, faze, phase, gaze, pays, rays, days, stays, ways, lays, always, lazy days, purple haze, blaze, daze,
inane; mundane, weather vane, obtain, restrain, make change, derange, exchange, home on the range, dance in the rain, novocain, insane, great dane, bane, jane,
geranium; uranium, germanium, he sucks his thumb, looks like a bum, so hum-drum, tazer gun, laser stun, run Jack run, soaking up the sun, satin cummerbund, must be number one, terrarium, moratorium, exploratorium, einsteinium (real element!), calcium, valium, scallion, cranium, xanthan gum,
frump; trump, lump, hump, bump, stump, chump, dump, pump, mump, rump, sump, jump,
opaline: dopamine, chocolate fiend, hopeful dream, high esteem, killer queen, teacher's mean, swimming team, Monday meme, spray Bactine, fax machine, anxious teen, sweet praline, cool James Dean, Jelly Belly Beans, tetrazine, maybeleen, super clean, orange cream, magazine, my canteen,
full of spleen, lean and mean,
rhapsodize; before your eyes, mesmerize, hypnotize, atomize, mysterious eyes, fabulous thighs, one-last-tries, minimize, super-size, euthanize, puffy sties, Simonize, lovers' sighs, baby cries, liar's lies, harmonize, caramelize, super-size, candy eyes,
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Opaline was a chocolate fiend. Everyone who knew her knew that and kept their chocolate safe from her.
Boco was loco for cocoa. They made a good couple but they ran The Chocolate Bar into the ground because neither of them could keep their hands off the supplies. They ate more, it seemed, than they sold. They were the antithesis and nemesis of good business.
Doll Shaul was on her annual book crawl through the mini malls and musty halls of Downe Towne. She was a bit of a frump with a bit of a rump, a geranium in her hair and a satin cummerbund around her massive middle. She bumbled on the The Chocolate Bar, tucked into a nook of the Crooked Book Look. In her scramble for chocolate, her bumble shook a book stall, leaving the stacks a shamble, and her arms unencumbered of bags, boxes and books.
"I need chocolate!" Doll Shaul cried as she threw herself at the counter.
Opaline sadly shook her shiny head. "There will be no more," she said. "We must close."
"No, no, you can't. You mustn't. You don't understand! I need chocolate!" Doll cried more resonantly, a craze creeping into her vibrant voice, a purple haze hovering around her halo of hennaed hair. "I have the wherewithal and a splitting maul. Whichever will get me chocolate."
Opaline's opaline eyes widened. It might have been the purple haze. It might have been the splitting maul. But truly it was neither. With a glimmer in her eye she recognized a Harbinger of Chocolate Resurrection. Here before her, hungering at her hands was the legendary Alabaster Singer. And what she needed more than chocolate was a chocolate Lemon Zinger. It was the only chocolate Opaline would never touch but it would restore the sonorous sound and the muddled memory of the Alabaster Singer.
"I will give you chocolate," said Opaline. "You may have more than you can munch if you will sing a song each time you order."
"That is inane!" Doll Shaul crooned.
"All the same," Boco butted in for he too had recognized the Alabaster Singer and her legendary loss of memory and music.
Opaline printed prettily on the papyrus, "I agree to sing for more chocolate."
"Don't blame us for what you know you crave and what we can so easily offer."
Doll Maul signed. She drank her chocolate Lemon Zinger. And the spell was broken and she once again became the Alabaster Singer. Each day from noon to three while she lounged in a hammock to the metronome's tickety tock she would sing for chocolate and fans from miles around would come to hear her. They would order chocolate faster than Opaline could eat it. The money flowed in. The music flowed out. Opaline and Boco danced in the rain.
Joyce