Wiggles: A Wacky Writing Prompt Guaranteed to Give You the Giggles

All the fun we had with Squiggles led to the creation of something else–the cousin of the Squiggle, affectionately known as the Wiggle. I picked up the basic idea at a writer’s circle but came up with the name Wiggle myself. You see, it is like a Squiggle–kind of–but involves writing so it starts with a “w.” Get it? You have to admit that it does roll off the tongue nicely. Squiggles and Wiggles. Wiggles and Squiggles. Doesn’t it kind of make you giggle?

A Wiggle finds its way into the world when four words are chosen– they could be chosen randomly by opening a dictionary and plopping your finger down, or they could be chosen by, say, the mom who is looking to incorporate certain vocabulary words or at least ensure that a variety of parts of speech are represented. In the end, it doesn’t really matter how the words are chosen. What matters is that the writers then set off to incorporate all four words in a short writing piece. The goal is to use them correctly and seamlessly.

Just like Squiggles, Wiggles were a hit with all my kids. When it came time to read the Wiggles aloud, my husband–unaware of the words of the day–would listen and try to pick out the four words that each writing piece had in common. Sometimes it was obvious since it would be unlikely that all five kids would use words like percolate or metamorphous on their own. But he had to be on guard for trickery–kids purposefully added big vocabulary words that they hoped would distract their dad from the correct words. Do you think they were aware of all the learning that was happening as they poured over the dictionary looking for decoy words? Nope. And therein lies the secret super-power of Wiggles. All kinds of excellent wordsmithing goes on, not because the teacher said to, or to get a grade, but for the poetry, the trickery, and the plain old fun of it.   

Like Squiggles, Wiggles were filed away in our “Great Minds Think DIFFERENTLY” binder, our ever growing anthology of wildly different tales that were spun from a few common threads. They proved to be a wonderfully wacky way to create and celebrate our creative differences. 

If you missed the post on Squiggles, you can find it here. Squiggles and Wiggles must be giggled over together. And if you’d like a list of words to get you started you can find them in my free resource library. The link is in the most recent newsletter or click here to get started.