The watermelon-to-seed ideas for writing method teaches writers to slow down, zoom in, and write about one small moment that matters.
Do your students stare at the page hoping an idea will materialize? Sometimes the idea of writing is easier than actually writing. Writers get stuck NOT because they lack ideas. They often get stuck because the idea itself can be overwhelming. Big ideas roll around in our heads like watermelons, heavy and hard to carry. When writers learn to slow down, zoom in, and notice one small moment that matters, those big ideas suddenly feel possible to write about. This is where the seed ideas for writing method comes in.
This writing method works well for students in 5th grade and up who are just learning how to do narrative writing. It is also a good practice for when writer's block hits, and even the seasoned writer has a million ideas, but no path for them.
What is a seed idea? A "seed" idea is a small, specific moment hidden inside a larger moment. For example, my first Instagram post was a watermelon idea. It said: "The boys did such a great job in their first gymnastics class and show! And they cheered each other on the whole time!" A whole class session is a large chunk of time. It's too long to write in detail about (for a short personal narrative/story). Instead, a seed from that watermelon would be if I shared a story, rich with detail, from one small moment of their class.
In Writing Workshop, we call this Watermelon vs Seed.
We all have watermelon sized ideas. I want to write about motherhood. That's a huge watermelon! Even some of the subtopics inside motherhood are still too big, like traveling with kids, making dinner every night, homeschool, etc.
These are all still "watermelon" sized ideas. Imagine a watermelon - big, green, round, slippery… nobody can carry it around for very long - it would be heavy, tiring. You would drop it and it would break. Writing is the same way - huge topics or ideas can be tiring, take too long, and get too messy. And if you carry it with you for very long - it would be heavy, you'd get tired, it might get away from you and fall apart.
For this post, I will use our gymnastics class story as an example of turning a watermelon into a seed. Stick with me while we do that. But first, let's look at the watermelons and seeds your students might be tackling.
If they have one, the best place to start is a writing notebook. Look at what is already written down, either in the margin, or on a separate page and list out some smaller moments inside that "watermelon idea." If your students are stuck for topics, or are starting from scratch, here are a few ways to get those first watermelon thoughts:
Now, have them pick one of those ideas and I'll show you what I did next to narrow down and find my seed. (Note: it's perfectly okay to write down watermelon-sized ideas in a writer's notebook, but then spend plenty of time digging out the seeds before the writing begins)
So let's get to a smaller slice of our watermelon ideas, find the seeds, and have fun!
Today I want to show you to zoom in to find the seed-sized ideas inside your watermelon-sized ideas.
In my notebook, I have listed all sorts of things my oldest son loves:
- Sharks
- The color green
- Cars
- Running
- Gymnastics
- Reading
- Camping
All of these are watermelons… and even when I zoom in a little bit and pick gymnastics, that's still a big topic. I don't want to write a story about every. single. thing. that happened at gymnastics!
Let's zoom in a bit more:
Since this is a personal narrative, I want to zoom in on one specific moment to find my seed idea. I want to write a story of our time there. I wanted to find a moment that mattered to me.
So I zoom in to…
- our first morning at gymnastics
- my son's first cartwheel
- when he finally got on the rings
- cheering on his little brother
- the Spider-man wall
Ohhhh, see that!? Now these moments are starting to sound more like stories, and less like topics. Did you see how I did that? I found my seed ideas for writing inside that big watermelon of gymnastics!
Now, your students may already have ideas that are somewhat specific. Maybe they have it narrowed to a slice of watermelon instead of the whole big thing. But I would challenge them to zoom in even more to look for a small seed.
Did they pick their best friend, a hobby, a family member? Zoom in on more details about those topics. Like zooming in on a picture, what sticks out to them the most? What memories are surfacing? Write those down. All of them. They could all become their own stories eventually.
Watermelon → Seed Examples
- My family → The night we ate dinner on the floor
- Gymnastics → The first time he got on the rings
- Best friend → The joke we couldn't stop laughing about
In my list, "our first morning at gymnastics" is still rather big - that's two hours of time! I could zoom in more.
After zooming in even more, the seed I've decided on is one moment when my oldest son was cheering on his little brother. Now he did this many times, but the first time felt distinctive to me. So I'm going to write about that time.
Did you see how I am going to tell you about just ONE time he cheered his brother on? Not every single time. Just the best moment, the most meaningful.
Let's flip back to your student's story. Practice zooming in by saying "One MOMENT during ______ [Watermelon] when _____ happened [Seed].Have them pick one of those moments, or one of those memories. There is the seed. Maybe it's something that happened in a second, or in a few hours. Tell them to hold onto that and write it down. If they have a lot of thoughts, write them all down. These are the seeds for writing.
If your students are struggling to get the story out, it could be they are struggling with too large of an idea. When that happens, zoom in on the ideas, until they are as small as seeds. A seed idea is quite fun and manageable to write about!
Go on, create some seeds. Have a happy writing day!
Now that you have your seeds, check out our other posts on writing, so you can turn them into your own stories!
Psst. Here's a sneak peek at a similar moment:
If you are looking for more ideas, check out our Teaching Writing From Home Post.
These are great tips and I can see if feeling overwhelmed, it will be helpful to step back and ask - is this the whole watermelon, or are there seeds to spit out? Great post!