Building a Reading Notebook

This is from Reading and Writing from Literature by John Schwiebert (Houghton Mifflin). Chapter 3 begins with a quote from Eugene O'Neill: "Everything has been said before. There's nothing new to write about--always the same old things, the same old lies and the same old loves and the same old tragedy and joy. But you can write about them in a new way, your own way." 

Schweibert gives this list of ten ideas for writing after reading:

1. Converse with specific points in the text that strike you.
2. Write about any personal connections you have with the reading.
3. Write a letter to the author and/or a return letter from the author to yourself.
4. Write an imaginary interview with the author or with a character in a story, novel, or play.
5. Compose a prequel or a sequel to a story.
6. Rewrite a test from a point of view different from that present in the original text.
7. Rewrite a work into a different genre.
8. Borrow an incident or theme from a work to write a piece of your own based on a similar incide or theme.
9. Borrow the genre or form of a work to create a piece of your own cast in the same genre or form.
10. Draft a fictional biography or autobiography of a character in a story, poem, or play. 

Copy of the chapter.