The new His Dark Materials TV series started today! But that’s no excuse to shirk our writing duties… especially if, like me, you’re currently engaged in writing 50,000 words a month for NaNoWriMo.
Complete this word crawl to enjoy Northern Lights (and your own story) in a new light…
What is a word crawl?
A word crawl is a succinct narrative with embedded writing prompts.
Many word crawls take existing stories, and reformat them for fans to enjoy. They can be great motivation to get a lot of writing done!
Word crawls seem to have emerged in the NaNoWriMo forums, and the first recorded word crawl is this Word crawl/Pub Crawl by Emmylou.
You can find some popular perennial word crawls here. I drew inspiration for this crawl from the Extreme Harry Potter Word Crawls by my little bird.
Northern Lights Word Crawl
WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Northern Lights (US: The Golden Compass) by Sir Philip Pullman.
DIFFICULTY: Intermediate
Click here for a TRACKING SPREADSHEET (File > Make a copy to use)
Skipping a step costs 1 gold coin.
Your mother sends you on an errand to the Jordan College kitchens, and as you’re waiting around, you decide to try and find Lyra. Write 300 words as you look for her.
- If you finish in 1-5 minutes, you must be a COLLEGER. You know your way around.
- If you finish in 5-10 minutes, you must be a TOWNIE. You’ve been in the College once or twice.
- If you finish in over 10 minutes, you must be a GYPTIAN. You’re not from around here.