What Does the Raindrop See? Writing Stories From Nature's Point of View

Imagine you are a tiny raindrop falling from a big gray cloud. What do you see? A rooftop rushing up! A tree getting closer! SPLASH — you land in a puddle. Now imagine you are a sunflower seed buried in dark soil, waiting for spring. You feel cold dirt pressing around you. Then warmth comes from above. Slowly, slowly, you push upward. You are GROWING! When you think like a raindrop or a seed, you are doing something real writers love: telling a story from nature's point of view.

In this lesson you will: - Learn what 'point of view' means in a story - Practice using your five senses to notice nature - Choose a nature character to write about - Write a short story or poem from your nature character's point of view

In every story, someone is doing the telling. That is called the point of view. When YOU tell a story — 'I went to the park today and I found a frog!' — you are using first-person point of view. You use the word 'I.' Nature writers pick something from the natural world — a butterfly, a pinecone, a storm cloud — and pretend THEY ARE that thing. They use 'I' to tell the story from inside that character. Here is an example: 'I am a leaf on a tall oak tree. Today the wind is shaking my branch and I am dancing! I can see the whole yard from up here. A squirrel just zoomed past me — so fast!' See how that leaf feels ALIVE? It has eyes. It has feelings. It tells us what it notices. That is the power of point of view!

You can be ANYTHING in nature! Here are some ideas: Animals: a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, a bee finding its first flower of spring, a baby bird learning to fly Plants: a sunflower slowly turning its face toward the sun, a dandelion seed floating away on the wind, an acorn waiting under the leaves all winter Weather: a snowflake falling from a cloud, a raindrop splashing into a puddle, a thundercloud building up a storm Other nature things: a smooth river rock being rolled along the riverbed, a star blinking in the night sky, a mud puddle drying up on a hot afternoon Pick the one that makes you most curious — that is the one that will make the best story!

Great writers use all five senses: SEE, HEAR, SMELL, TOUCH, and TASTE. When you write from a nature character's view, think about what it senses: SEE: A butterfly sees hundreds of tiny pictures at once through its big compound eyes. What bright colors does it see on a flower? HEAR: A raindrop hears a loud SPLASH when it hits a puddle. What sounds rush past it as it falls? SMELL: A bee can smell a flower from far across a yard. What does the whole garden smell like to it? TOUCH: A seed underground feels cold wet dirt pressing all around it. Then it feels warmth from above as spring comes. TASTE: A caterpillar tastes its leaf with every single bite. Is that leaf bitter? Crunchy? Delicious?