Furry fuzzy fun feline friends, sponsored by the letter F

defining alliteration

Today’s writing exercise is all about alliteration. Here is a definition of alliteration that I found on line: “the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connection words.” This is definitely the stuff of tongue twisters, such as “she sells seashells by the seashore” or “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where’s the peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked?” Haha, try saying those ten times fast and you’ll see what an unwieldy object you’ve got in your mouth (your tongue). You can use alliteration in sentences that are not tongue twisters. I found these sentences in your dictionary (dot) com Here is one: Fred’s friends fried fritos for Friday’s food.

how to use alliteration

You can use alliteration in songs and in poems. Edgar Allen Poe and Robert Frost were two poets who enjoyed alliteration. Here are some examples that I found in Wickipedia of poetic alliteration (Hmm, “poetic poe” qualifies as alliteration): “And the silken sad uncertain rustling of the purple curtain thrilled me…” (Poe) or “For the sky and the sea or the sea and the sky” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge).

Sometimes, people have names with alliteration, as in Alice Adams or Gerald Jenkins.

Writing with friends for fun

I will demonstrate the use of alliteration in a creative writing exercise. This is an exercise that you can enjoy by yourself or with one other person or with a group. If you are homeschooling your kids, this is something that you can all enjoy together.

The first thing to do is to brainstorm. Today’s letter is “F,” so I am going to make a list of words that begin with the letter “F.” If you have a topic that you’ve already chosen to write about, feel free to relate your words to that topic. The topic that I’ve chosen is cats. Since the word cat begins with the letter C, I’m calling them “felines.” As a reminder about brainstorming: all ideas, however farfetched they sound, are good. Remember to turn off the internal (or external) critic. Laughter while choosing words,is definitely encouraged.

Here are my words:furry, fuzzy, fun, feline, friends, fiendish, famous, finicky, flaky, firm, flabby, fish, female, find, flamboyant, flutter, fix, fall, fashion, food, foodie, fast, feel, fill…

You could write a poem, a story, or even a play. The play might be challenging to produce, however, because your actors will probably stumble over the words. Oh, and remember, if your writings turn out to be a little nonsensical, that is perfectly OK. (making sense is highly overrated.) I will use a few of the words and write some haikus about the two cats below. They will be very nontraditional haikus because haikus are usually about seasons. I will also write a few sentences, using as many of the words as possible in each one.

Finicky feline
feeds on favorite fishes,
no fishy flavor

furry famous cat
with fuzzy friends far and near
fights for flamboyance

Father’s favorite,
with softly feathery fur
flying in dad’s face.

Fun felines follow in the fall through foothills and over and under fences.
Fabled felines find fanciness in foolish festivities.
Felines fail to find forks for foodie fun.

OK, your turn! Enjoy this fun game.

note: this blog post is dedicated to the memory of Smokey (2000-2012), the long-haired gray and white cat depicted above. It is also dedicated to the memory of my father, Roy Gerard (1920-2012), who loved and adored Smokey (as well as his human family).