One of my favorite things to do as a writer is to create new stories from old tales. I particularly love to retell fairy tales. My submission for the Writer’s Digest’s Annual Writing Competition is based on the German fairy tale “The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich”. The poem I posted on this blog earlier this week draws inspiration from Peter Pan. I have many more that have not been completed/have yet to see the light of day, and I will be discussing the relationship between old tales (especially fairy tales) and writing a lot on this blog. Needless to say, I have a passion for retelling fairy tales.
Today’s writing prompt is based on this concept, is rather simple, and is very fun. Choose your favorite fairy tale, old or modern, and write a scene, short story, or poem based on it. You can tell it from an unexplored perspective, update it for today’s world, use it as a metaphor or to explore a particular theme, whatever you want. You’d be surprised just how inspired you’ll be by retelling fairy tales and how much the stories can change in your hands.
If you need some inspiration, I highly recommend Gail Carson Levine’s Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly. That book on writing turned me onto rewriting fairy tales in the first place. Also, in case you don’t know who she is, Gail Carson Levine is the author of Ella Enchanted and, my personal favorite, The Two Princesses of Bamarre. You can learn a lot about writing and world building from her, so anyone who’s interested in writing fantasy should check her out.
Have a fun and productive writing weekend, everyone. I’ll try to post more next week but with my portfolio and essay looming, feeling sick, and other life commitments, that may be easier said than done.
Happy Friday, everyone! I’m starting this weekend with a slightly different kind of announcement. I try and provide you with new publishing opportunities each week but this one is through me directly. Additionally, this opportunity is strictly for American minorities.
Here’s a basic description of the project:
I want to compile and edit a collection of short stories, personal essays, and poetry by American minorities (LGBTQIA, non-white Americans, non-Christians, immigrants, women, etc.) about their experiences with discrimination in America. After compiling and editing it, I will self-publish it through such outlets as Amazon and donate the proceeds to charities which support these minorities, including the ACLU.
I need people who have material that they wish to contribute, and it would be helpful if one of the writers volunteered to compose the second half of a two-part introduction (the first being written by me as the editor, but the second written by someone who has experienced more discrimination). If artists could also provide illustrations or photographs, they would enhance the quality of this publication greatly.
Submissions can be anonymous, under a pen name, or under your real name. My top priority is ensuring the comfort and safety of this publication’s contributors while still allowing their stories to be told, so anonymous pieces and pen names are no problem at all.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of this project, I cannot pay the contributors. However, I am willing to provide any support they need in return, including vouching for their writing talent. You should also keep in mind that you could point to this collection for your writing experience in queries, résumés, etc., if you choose to submit a piece.
If you wish to contribute, would like to be involved in another way, or just want more information on this project, feel free to contact me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com or through the project’s email, dontwebleed@gmail.com.
Thank you in advance for all those who contribute and/or support this publication!
Do you know of any charitable publications looking for submissions? Send me information on them at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and I may dedicate a post to them.
I’ve been spending a lot of time with Sandra Cisneros’s work lately. Last week my Master’s program discussed her short story collection, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. Overall the stories are captivating, unique, and spiced with Latinx–particularly Chicana–charm and passion. “Woman Hollering Creek” and “Never Marry a Mexican” depict striking moments of female empowerment, but “Remember the Alamo” has stuck in my mind. Given the timing, I think it’s fitting that I write about Cisneros for this “Writers on Writing”.
I’ve chosen a quote by Cisneros which hearkens back to Virginia Woolf:
For a writer, for the solitude to write, you don’t need a room of your own, you need a house.
Sandra Cisneros
She has many quotes on writing, her early life, culture, etc., that are worth reading. You can find several on BrainyQuote. I picked this quote because I find her expansion on Woolf’s original comment to be thought-provoking.
As I discussed in a previous “Writers on Writing”, Woolf’s comment originally applied to effects that women’s duties and financial/legal dependence on their husbands have on their writing. Cisneros may also be referring to female writers, particularly those from cultures similar to hers, given the subjects of several of her stories.
Honestly, I don’t think there’s much “may” about it. Many of her works highlight the oppression and discouragement of speech towards women in Mexican cultures. It’s been the subject of several academic essays, including Jacqueline Doyle’s “Haunting the Borderlands: La Llorana in Sandra Cisneros’s ‘Woman Hollering Creek'” (which is available to read on JSTOR).
Cisneros’s suggestion about needing a house of one’s own to right is not too different from Woolf’s original comment. Rather, it’s an extension. Cisneros is implying that it’s not enough for female writers to just have a room of their own. Instead, they must have their own entire house, they must be in charge of their entire households.
I can’t disagree with this extension, especially after reading Cisneros’s stories. A woman can have a room that appears to be her own in the house but, in reality, it’s a ruse. If she does not have a house of her own, one which she can at least claim as much rule over as her partner (particularly a husband), even “her” room is not truly her own. Therefore, to have only a room of her own is not enough freedom and independence–spatially, financially, emotionally–for a female writer to reach her potential.
I also explained that while Woolf’s initial intent still rings true today, the sentiment can be expanded to include all writers. With this interpretation in mind, Cisneros’s words suggest that all writers need an incredible amount of space, seclusion, and independence.
This idea is one with which writers have wrestled for a long time. How much space is enough space? How much independence do we need to write?
All writers need a space where they can retreat and write without interruption. It can be a room, an office, a rented house. We’re all different and so we all need different zones of personal space to get work done. In regards to space, then, Cisneros’s words could be true or false depending on the individual writer.
The financial aspect, however, is not such an easy or pleasant answer.
Unfortunately, society’s views on writers and their financial independence can vary based on many things, including age, race, and, yes, gender. My post on #ThingsWomenWritersHear revealed that female writers still hear such comments as “oh, aren’t you lucky that your husband supports you so you can write” (even if they don’t have husbands). It’s assumed that female writers have to–or just do–rely on their husbands for money while they write. However, they need financial independence so that they avoid being scrutiny for being a “bad” wife and/or mother for focusing on their writing. That’s without mentioning that many, many female writers just don’t have husbands and support themselves anyway. A dependence on a husband, partner, parents, or even a day job financially can detract from writing time, and so tremendous financial independence is necessary for a female writer to succeed in actuality and under societal criticism.
There’s another side to this coin for male writers. Men are still seen as the breadwinners, no matter what their situation actually is. If anyone finds out that they don’t make much money or contribute the most financially to their families, the men are ridiculed. Writing, quite truthfully, is not seen as a high-earning job. The resulting income is unreliable at best. If a male writer with a family focuses on his writing, he will be considered selfish for not bringing home more for his family or weak because his wife or partner provides the primary income. They’re considered failures. Financial independence–i.e. a bachelor life in which no one depends on them and they don’t depend on anyone–appears to be the only solution.
Image retrieved from Pinterest
I realize that this post has presented society as horrible and writing as a lonely career path. The sad thing is that such scenarios cannot only happen but are common. Complete financial independence seems to be the only way for anyone to write without distraction, judgment, or societal restraints. (That last way probably still isn’t true as negative stereotypes and expectations follow us so long as we are who we are and society remains the way that it is.) However, I don’t think that you should walk away from this post in total despair.
A “house of one’s own” is not necessarily a physical house that you control, alone space, or even complete financial independence. Instead, it is a state of life in which you feel free, confident, independent, and supported. It can be a house out in the suburbs with a white fence and a nuclear family, only the husband and wife run the household and their lives together and support each other’s ventures. It can be an apartment in the middle of an overpopulated city where a single woman writers with student loans still looming over her but a secure job with flexible hours and parents who live nearby and will always support her and help her no matter what. It can even be a mobile tiny house parked in a field, the owner a writer who writes all day, is debt-free, and whose only family are pets and friends. A “house of one’s own” is the perfect set of circumstances, whatever those may be for you. It is wherever and whenever you can write without life, burdens, and societal expectations weighing you down.
I doubt that Cisneros and Woolf intended anyone to have this interpretation. But hey, so long as it gets us writing, does it really matter?
Did you like this post? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments and sign up for email alerts. Also be on the look-out for my post on the tangled web that is writing and politics.
Happy Monday, everyone. I hope you’ve survived the first day of the week. I’m sorry about the sparsity of my posts. With the upcoming Writer’s Digest contest, my end-of-year essay, and my portfolio, I’ve been having to take time out to focus on my work. I wanted to provide a more lighthearted (and hopefully encouraging) post today, so I decided to post some of my old work here.
This poem is from about four years ago and was a part of my portfolio for an undergrad poetry class. It’s crude, unedited, and unrefined, so don’t expect it to be any good. Also, keep in mind that I’m a fiction writer, not a poet, so…well, there’s a reason I don’t delve into poetry much anymore. I just found it while looking through some old documents and thought that people would get a chuckle out of it.
Warning: This poem, I would argue, is about PG-13, PG at best. So proceed with caution.
Without further delay, I present “Wendy Darling’s Grown Up”:
I apologize for attaching it as a word document. I’m relatively new to WordPress and trying to paste the poem directly into the post messed up the format. We all know how important formatting is to poetry.
So, if you’re ever looking through your old work and become embarrassed by it, just remember that we all feel that way. The best thing to do is realize that you’ve grown as a writer and that even though you don’t write that way anymore, it’s still worth while to keep all your work. It may never see the light of day but at least you can get a chuckle or, perhaps, inspiration for new work.
Do you have any old work that others might get joy out of reading? Feel free to post them in the comments! Also, keep an eye out for future posts on Sandra Cisneros, studying fairy tales, and rewriting fairy tales.
Better late than never! Here’s a Friday Fun-Day writing prompt to help get your weekend rolling. It’s a variation on an oldie but a good: taking a line from the nearest book.
Here’s how this version goes:
Grab the closest book you can find. Open to a random page in the middle of the book. Take the first line of the first full paragraph on that page and the first line of the last full paragraph. These will be your opening and closing lines, in that order. Now, write a story in 700 words or less using these lines to start and end your story.
The nearest book can be anything: an encyclopedia, a biography, 1984, whatever. There are no restrictions except that the page must be random, you must use those particular lines for your first and last lines, and it must be 700 words or less. Otherwise, have fun with it.
Feel free to share the lines you got, an excerpt from the story, etc. in the comments. And if you want to suggest a writing prompt, please mention it in the comments or email me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com.
