Colors (Panasonic Lumix ZS200) By Sage Millen, 13 (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), published in Stone Soup April 2022 A note from Caleb Good morning and happy Saturday! The last time I wrote the newsletter I led off by mentioning California’s need for April showers—well, the rain has started to fall, albeit in short bursts, and with it has come an abundance of flowers. (It’s not yet May, but the old adage can’t always be spot on.) In Santa Cruz, it is even scheduled to be raining right now, as this newsletter is being sent off, at 9 AM! And, scheduled for exactly a week from right now, at 9 AM Pacific, is our first Writing Workshop of the spring session—William Rubel’s—to be followed by Conner Bassett’s at 11 AM Pacific. You can sign up for both of these classes, as well as Book Club with Maya Mahony, using the blue button, below. I also spent my last newsletter giving rapturous praise to a poem from the April issue: “Roo’s Song” by Sevi Ann Stahl. This week, I turn my attention to another poem from the April issue—”Chocolate” by Autumn E. Weinreich—which, while substantially shorter, is no less brilliant than the former. The truth is that little can be said about “Chocolate” without detracting from the art itself—one simply has to read its four lines and let the absurdity wash over them like a mid-April rain. But I will say that in writing “Chocolate,” Autumn, just six years old, has perfectly encapsulated the creative and poetic potential of the youthful mind. Her poem reminds me of something my colleague, Conner Bassett, once said in a workshop on writing nonsense: “The purpose of art is not to make sense, but to excite the senses.” Conner’s words also ring true for Sage Millen’s photograph Colors. When viewing Colors, a logical mind might ask such questions as Why is the subject lying on newspapers? or Why are they upside-down? or Why is their hand on their face? or, perhaps most importantly, Why is their hand painted in colorful splotches? Of course, none of the questions surrounding these seemingly nonsensical elements matter for the simple reason that Sage has combined them to create art that, as Conner said, “excites the senses.” For this weekend project, I’d like you to try and eliminate all urges to make sense and instead wield the primeval, preternatural power of nonsense in the creation of art. Forget purpose. Forget logic. Create for the mere sake of creation! Bask in your freedom from the restraints of reason! Excite the senses! As always, if you like what you have made and would like to share it, please submit it to us via the pink button, below. Flying green ostriches, Congratulations to our most recent Flash Contest winners! Our April Flash Contest was based on Prompt #198 (provided by intern Sim Ling Thee), which challenged participants to write a story in which the protagonist failed at everything and ultimately didn’t succeed in the end. Unsurprisingly, this subverting prompt led to some the most inspired writing we’ve seen yet! Submissions ranged from a violin recital from the perspective of a snooty child to an unreliable narrator’s laundry list of past failures to an old woman’s battle with growing tomatoes. In one story, the unlikeable protagonist even smeared butter on their nemesis’ lawn! As always, thank you to all who submitted, and please submit again next month! Congratulations to our Winners and Honorable Mentions, listed below. You can read the winning entries for this contest (and previous ones), here. Winners “Curses!” by Lui Lung, 12 (Danville, CA) “Beatrice” by Olivia Owens, 13 (Jacksonville, FL) “A Failing Success” by Emily Tang, 13 (Winterville, NC) “Cypress Woman” by Ellis Yang, 12 (Los Altos, CA) “You Win Some, You Lose Some” by Savarna Yang, 13 (Outram, New Zealand) Honorable Mentions “Dangly Necklaces” by Victoria Gong, 10 (Scarsdale, NY) “Learning to Fly” by Marin Hamory, 10 (Wellesley, MA) “The Last Leaf” by Kimberly Hu, 9 (Lake Oswego, OR) “The Performance” by Elizabeth Sabaev, 11 (Forest Hills, NY) “Gray” by Alex Zigoneanu, 11 (Portland, OR) From Stone Soup April 2022 Chocolate By Autumn E. Weinreich, 6 (Wilmette, IL) Oh, I got a new snail. Wait! Wait! He is dead. To read more from the April issue, including another one of Autumn’s poems, click here! Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498. Stone Soup’s advisors: Abby Austin, Mike Axelrod, Annabelle Baird, Jem Burch, Evelyn Chen, Juliet Fraser, Zoe Hall, Montanna Harling, Alicia & Joe Havilland, Lara Katz, Rebecca Kilroy, Christine Leishman, Julie Minnis, Jessica Opolko, Tara Prakash, Denise Prata, Logan Roberts, Emily Tarco, Rebecca Ramos Velasquez, Susan Wilky.
Conner Bassett
How Stories Work—Writing Workshop #33: How to Outline a Novel
An update from the thirty-third Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday March 26, plus some of the output published below Last week, Conner gave us the choice to select the final topic of the winter session workshops from a number of options, and we chose this: How to Outline a Novel. To begin, we discussed the importance of characters in outlining a novel and how every outline should begin with the personality and desire of our characters. One technique for establishing the personality and desire of our characters was to ask ourselves various questions/prompts to answer in the voices of our characters. The next step was setting/place. One technique for creating setting was eliminating characters and story and writing only about place for thirty minutes, trying the best we can to inhabit the place. The next step was establishing the story/the conflict. A few of the prompts for establishing conflict were as follows: write scenes wherein the character receives bad news, wherein the character has to make a decision (big or small), wherein the character commits a minor crime, and wherein the character has an awkward conversation with a friend or family member. We then discussed the three act structure. We learned that the first act consists of setting the story in motion by establishing character and setting and establishing conflict through the “inciting incident,” or the scene in the story that sets the conflict in motion. In the second act, we raise the stakes and increase the action, which could be looked at as a sequence of the hero/protagonist failing then suffering, failing then suffering, until they reach the “point of no return,” and act two ends with the protagonist gaining clarity about their dilemma. As an example, we looked at the Lion King, establishing the inciting incident as Scar’s murder of Mufasa and the point at which the protagonist, Simba, gains clarity as when Simba has a vision of Mufasa telling him that he is the true king. Finally, we looked at the third and final act, which consists of two parts: the final conflict, the climax, or a battle between want and need, and the resolution. The Challenge: Either 1) Complete the get-to-know-your-character exercises, 2) Write one scene to establish conflict, or 3) Outline an entire novel. The Participants: Amelia, Penelope, Emma, Sophia, Nova, Gwynne, Lina, Josh, Quinn, Ellie, Samantha, Chelsea, Amber, Alice To watch more readings from this workshop, like Ellie’s below, click here. Ellie, 9
How Stories Work—Writing Workshop #32: Katabasis & Anabasis
An update from the thirty-second Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday March 19, plus some of the output published below This week, we turned our focus to two Greek words/themes—katabasis (descent) and anabasis (ascent)—both of which have a long standing tradition in literature. Before moving into examples of each, we clarified that themes of katabasis and anabasis can pertain to more than just literal plot or theme, specifically that a poem whose form becomes denser and more difficult to understand as it goes on can be understood as katabasis, and a poem that becomes lighter and easier to understand as it goes on can be understood as anabasis. Beginning with katabasis, we looked at the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, how Orpheus, the first poet, had to descend into the underworld to bring back his dead lover, Eurydice. As we looked at other examples of katabasis, like Odysseus in the Odyssey and Aeneas in the Aeneid, it became clear that oftentimes protagonists must perform katabasis in order to gain knowledge, or understanding—that they must first go down before rising up. We then moved onto anabasis, beginning with a discussion of the myth of the phoenix, a bird that is born (and reborn) from the ashes. We learned that anabasis often manifests in literature in the form of a literal rebirth, the overcoming of challenges, or the attainment of knowledge, and such characters might often be identified as enslaved, a struggling artist, a lone inventor, an underdog. We found the archetype of anabasis in examples such as Harry Potter, Aladdin, and Great Expectations. We also touched on Dante’s Divine Comedy, which combined both katabasis and anabasis. The Participants: Emma, Penelope, Amelia, Ethan, Ellie, Josh, Quinn, Gwynne, Lina, Zar, Alice, Chelsea The Challenge: Write a story or poem that uses anabasis &/or katabasis in form &/or theme. To watch more readings from this workshop, like Amelia’s below, click here. Amelia, 11
