Stone Soup contributor and 20-21 intern Anya Geist, 14, talks with Stone Soup newcomer Shelby Miller, 11, about the inspiration she gets from her author grandfather, writing scary stories, and the lovely privacy of writing in her own room. 0:16 – How were you introduced to Stone Soup? 0:32 – Do you subscribe to Stone Soup? 0:39 – What have you submitted to Stone Soup? 0:45 – How did it feel to submit something? 0:55 – What was the poem you submitted about and what inspired you to write it? 1:18 – What did you like about the Writing Workshop? 1:29 – What was it like to join the Writing Workshop partway through the summer? 1:52 – Do you have any favorite books or authors you get inspiration from? 2:14 – Do you like writing scary stories? 2:24 – Do you draw on your own life for your writing? 2:42 – What is your favorite thing to write about? 2:50 – How do you make your stories scary? 3:11 – What inspired you to write scary stories? 3:30 – Do you ever scare yourself when you’re writing a scary story? 3:44 – What is your favorite thing about writing? 4:06 – What kind of character do you tend to create when writing a scary story? 4:40 – Do you have a favorite place to write? 5:14 – Is there anything else you want to say? 5:27 – Do you have any writing advice for your peers? 6:06 – What do you like about reading Stone Soup? 6:26 – If you could tell somebody about Stone Soup, what would you say?
character
Writing Workshop #33: Larger Than Life Characters
An update from our thirty-third Writing Workshop! A summary of the workshop held on Saturday February 13, plus some of the output published below This week we talked about larger than life characters, and the different tools writers use to portray them. The focus was on the first meeting with that character: how can you make it clear from the very beginning that this is a special, memorable, unusual character, and what the key elements are that make them this way? In a group discussion we shared ideas about larger-than-life characters and how we might use how they look, sound, walk, talk, laugh, dress, eat, smell–any aspect of appearance or presence or characteristic to convey a strong impression of who they are. The Writing Challenge: Write a passage in which you introduce a larger than life character, where the reader is encountering them for the very first time. You do not have to describe a bg personality in detail, but do focus on how the initial meeting with the character stakes their claim to importance. The Participants: Lina, Rachael, Sierra, Lindsay, Tegan, Samantha, Lucy K, Hera, Ava, Charlotte K, Eve, Anna, Grace, Simran, Olivia, Alice, Emma, Noa, Emi, Angela, Iago, Charlotte M, Yasmine, Olivia, Enni, Nova, Anya, Madeline N, Leo, Pranjoli, Helen, Madeline K, Margaret L, Sophie, Julia, Sage, Georgia, Ruhi, Syra, Lucy R, Peri, Kaidyn, Lindsay, Tilly, Maggie K, Lina K, Jonathan. Sierra E., 11Mountain View, CA Fox Girl Sierra E., 11 Few were (and still are) able to imagine the wild figure of Fox Girl. But if you saw her, you’d recognize her even if you’d never heard of such a thing. For Fox Girl lived in a faraway town, Ivywood, hundreds of thousands of miles from any large cities. Where she lived, the months of winter never came, and the incredible, unbelievable creatures roamed free. And here, in this world already beyond normal, lived Fox Girl, the one that many came to Ivywood to see. Fox Girl’s appearance was unreal. Stranger than the cyan wolves that managed to fly in the air with their magnificent wings, and stranger than the salmon-pink kittens that would spend their time leaping in and out of the many winding, flowing rivers. Fox Girl, for one, looked absolutely anything but human. While she had several details that resembled a person, most of Fox Girl was elsewhere. She had electrifying shamrock-green eyes that glowed especially in the darkness, while her vibrant amethyst-purple hair that stretched to her toes were unignorable. A bushy, apricot-colored tail tinged with white hung between her long legs and two ears, matching in appearance, stood always perked atop her head. Fox Girl dressed in lively hues which mirrored her animated personality. Fox Girl was one to watch. One to wait hours, days, months, years to see. Many say Ivywood is just a myth told to put young children asleep at night. But if you question me, I’ll always say the same: “No, Ivywood and Fox Girl aren’t a legend. It’s nothing but reality.” Lindsay Gao, 9Dublin, OH The Girl’s Revenge Lindsay Gao, 9 If anyone who hadn’t known better had seen the girl, they would have laughed, thinking “Ha! I could finish this girl off with a twitch of my hand.” But this, ultimately, would not be true. She was quite young, with long black hair that melted into the shadows, pale skin, and a frail, tattered white nightgown. But her eyes, white as snow, glowed with the utmost power. The only way possible to tell if she was angry or preparing to strike was to look at her right hand, where you could see her thumb, which, if provoked, would jerk back one, and then become still. After that signaling jerk, the shadows seemed to slowly crawl towards her victims. When they panicked, she would tell them it was alright, and that she wouldn’t hurt them. But she did. All their bodies were never found. When no one was watching, she might slip away, and you could see the pain, heartbreak, and longing. The feeling that people always assumed she didn’t have or feel. She would let out a sob, a mourning of losing what you loved and being turned into a monster. A monster that you weren’t. She knew people called her “the doll of death”, and she hated it. She wished that she could get away with everything, but then she would remember. The death. The blood. The screams. The tears. The pain. And it. The thing. And she knew, the beast, the one that had killed her family, and caused her sorrow would pay. It did not know that she was powerful, and now, it was too late, for she, the enchantress, the girl it had hurt so long ago, was coming. Peri Gordon, 11Sherman Oaks, CA Confusion Itself Peri Gordon, 11 It was Wednesday at 9am, I think, and I was sipping my coffee and walking to work when I saw her. Well, first I heard her shouting, and then I looked over, and then I saw the top of her purple stack of hair. I took the time to follow the fluffy pile down to the bottom, and I found a face died green with violet eyes and lips made to be the color of the ocean. Her eyes were wild and gleaming with both happy and sad tears, and her mouth was constantly moving as she ceaselessly talked about some problem that had befallen her. She was so out of place in the quiet atmosphere of this quiet little town that no one could ignore her. It was hard to look away from her face, but I had to see what this woman was wearing. My eyes are still angry at me for exposing them to such a bright, chaotic assortment of skirts and pants and shirts and dresses layered on top of one another, orange and green and blue and pink, spotted and striped and beaded and bejeweled. She wasn’t wearing
Weekly Writing Workshop #20: Character Sketches Part II
An update from our twentienth Weekly Writing Workshop! A summary of the workshop held on Friday August 14, plus some of the output published below This week, the last in our first series of Writing Workshops, our founder William Rubel returned to an earlier theme: character sketches. Last time we worked on character (Workshop #14), we focused on giving a sense of character through description of their appearance. In this week’s workshop we were less concerned about what they look like physically than who the character really is—who are his or her friends—what is his or her inner self? We also wanted to provide links from the character into the the larger story they are part of. Before embarking on our own writing, William and the group analysed the description of the character Captain Cuttle, from Charles Dickens’ novel Dombey and Son, given in an eccentric nineteenth-century encyclopaedia of Character Sketches from works of fiction. In just one paragraph, the writer revealed details of Captain Cuttle’s personality, behaviour, mannerisms, accent, clothes and demeanour as perceived by others, and in doing so also revealed parts of the story he was involved in. The Writing Challenge: Write a character description that tells us more about the character than what they look like. The Participants: Nami, Georgia, Simran, Ella, Kanav, Maddie, Madeline, Peri, Samantha, Sasha, Shel, Tilly, Vishnu, Aditi, Suman, Shreya, Lena and more… See below for some of the great writing that came out of this week’s workshop! Peri Gordon, 10Sherman Oaks, CA Lonely Peri Gordon, 10 Lila Sale had only a few friends and never made any new ones. Her trademark was a sigh, a sad, downcast sigh. She was the youngest in her family, with three cruel siblings who couldn’t care less about her. They called her “Lonely,” plus other mean names. “Get over here, Lonely!” “You’re a clumsy idiot, Lonely!” Lila would come to school dragging her feet, trudging slowly through the halls, finding those rare friends of hers, who, like her, really only moped. A lot of the other children, the most popular especially, were similar to Lila’s siblings in character, and she was truly afraid of those ones. The worst was when she ran into her actual siblings (who were popular themselves) and paid the price a million times over, embarrassed and melancholy and even lonelier, for her friends would have fled the scene already. “What’cha doin’, Lonely?” “Where’d your little friends go, Lonely?” Whenever Lila saw anyone who was happy, she would always murmur, “I wish I was like that.” Kanav Kachoria, 12Potomac, MD Coach Adams Kanav Kachoria, 12 There once was a football coach for the Eastern Shore Eagles named Coach Adams. Everyone at the high school loved him. It was practically impossible for someone in Eastern Shore to not know him, unless they lived under a rock. Coach Adams was a very fun but strict coach. The high school players always used to tease and call him bittersweet depending on his personality. One day he was the jolliest man in the world with his pearly white teeth smile, and then another day out of the blue he was as fierce as a lion. It didn’t make any sense. Coach had some wrinkles on his peach-colored face, but not a lot. He always wore a Nike green cap with the yellow logo of Eastern Shore on top of his head, covering his white hair. Also, he wore a blue and green jacket with the high school’s logo on it every single day. At the Eastern Shore High football games, he chewed his minty Polar Ice gum like crazy on the sidelines, saying that it was the best gum out there. Coach Adams’s main quotes were to “never give up” and to “have confidence in yourself” since that is what you need in football and anything in life. With all the unbelievable actions Coach Adams did, he will go down as one of the greatest football coaches in history and will be remembered as the Eastern Shore Eagles football coach greatly. Madeline Kline, 12Potomac, MD Bad Boy Madeline Kline, 12 My brother is extremely popular, being friends with almost everyone. At school, I always notice a huge crowd of people either next to him or behind him, trying to get a chance to talk to him. Obviously I’m his best friend, but he treats everyone at school like a best friend. He’s very handsome, with dark hair (usually ruffled) and bright eyes. His favorite jacket is worn so often that you can’t even tell what the words on it say, with all the stains. Still, he refuses to let Mom wash it. He’s a huge procrastinator, and whenever he’s asked to do something, responds with “Just give me a minute,” or “Just let me finish this.” He never manages to do what he was asked to do, to begin with. He also treats me like I’m his equal, even though I’m three years younger. Often he joins me in playing video games and loses repeatedly. It doesn’t matter to him, though. Whenever he asks to play, and I point out how easily I win, he says “I like a challenge.” And that he does. He’ll do anything he’s challenged to do, no matter how outrageous or how much trouble it will get him in. Therefore, he gives off a “Bad boy” image that makes all the girls his age cling to him like he actually gives them a second thought. Zack isn’t into girls, though. I don’t know how I figured out, or when. I don’t even know if Mom and Dad know. I think they must, but they don’t give any indication that they know. Someday, though it’ll come out. Secrets never stay secret for long when you’re the most popular boy in the school. Shreya Sharath, 11Cohoes, NY Penelope Fiddlesticks Shreya Sharath, 11 Many people have this fear about being the new student in the class, but this girl walked with her head held up high. Her name
