LORRIE TOM WRITES

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Make it a 5-7-5 Afternoon!

Here’s a fun and fast mini-writing challenge that’s a perfect summer activity for the entire family.

Pick an afternoon when you want to have fun recording three slices of your life in the form of a haiku.

The afternoon can be filled with lots of activity, bustling from here to there, or it can be relaxed. You can be on vacation, running errands, or hanging out at home. Truly, any day works for this challenge.

Set your phone alarm to 1:05, 2:07, and 3:05. (Three cheers if you see the clever pattern with those numbers!)

When your alarm goes off, write a haiku about whatever is happening at that very moment. Look up. What do you notice? See? Hear? Smell? Taste? Touch? (Reminder: Haiku are three-line poems. The first line has five syllables. The second has seven syllables. The third has five syllables.

TIPS:

  1. The trick to this challenge is to accept anything that is placed on your heart. Don’t overthink your writing or subject matter. Your goal is to have fun recording a slice of summer with three short haiku.

  2. What you do in the time between writing each haiku is up to you. Just keep on doing whatever you are doing.

  3. For recording your haiku, you can keep it simple (just write on paper nearby) or get a little fancier and use any of the following:

    1. Small journal (staple a few pieces of paper together or buy one).

    2. Post all three on Instagram with companion photos and #575Afternoon.

    3. Download THE PAGE I USED FOR MY SAMPLE ABOVE and post it on your fridge!

  4. After you write your last haiku for the day, share the poems with your family. Even though you wrote at the very same time, you might be surprised at how different your topics are—or how similar. Trust me, sharing haiku is the best part of this challenge.

I hope you have a wonderful 5-7-5 Afternoon whenever you want to inject creative energy into your day. Bonus: If you’re on vacation, string a bunch of 5-7-5 Afternoons together and you’ve got a travel journal.

Happy writing. Please put your haiku in the comments. I can’t wait to read them.