Stone Soup contributor and 2020-21 intern Anya Geist, 14, talks with Book Club facilitator and member of the Stone Soup Honor Roll Lucy Rados, 13, about the Writing Workshop, the process of submitting to a contest, and the inspiration of nature. 0:18 – How were you introduced to Stone Soup? 0:41 – How long have you subscribed to Stone Soup? 0:50 – Have you submitted anything to Stone Soup? 0:56 – What have you submitted? 1:03 – What was it like to submit to the magazine? Was it your first time submitting your work? 1:36 – What was it like to write a manuscript for the book contest? 2:27 – What is your favorite thing about the Writing Workshop? 3:12 – What is your favorite part about Book Club? 3:56 – Which Stone Soup Summer Camp did you do and what was your favorite part? 4:45 – Are there any specific books or authors that inspire your writing? 5:50 – What else inspires your writing? 6:24 – What do you tend to write about? 7:00 – What is your favorite thing to write about? 7:37 – What genre do you most like to write in? 7:50 – Which Writing Workshop was your favorite? 8:55 – Do you think what you like to read is similar to the style you like to write in? 9:44 – Do you think there is a difference between the writing you do for fun and the writing you do for school? 10:37 – How long have you been writing? 11:09 – Do you feel like your writing has evolved a lot over the years? 12:07 – Do you have a preference between prose and poetry? 13:16 – How much time do you think you spend writing? 14:34 – Do you have any writing advice for your peers? 15:23 – What is your favorite thing about writing? 16:00 – If you could tell somebody about Stone Soup, what would you say?
writing genres
Stone Soup Author Interview: Liam Hancock
Stone Soup contributor and 20-21 intern Anya Geist, 14, talks to Liam Hancock, 12, about inspiration, persevering after rejection, and the Writing Workshop. 0:19 – How were you introduced to Stone Soup? 0:32 – What is your favorite thing about writing? 1:00 – How did you decide to submit to Stone Soup? 1:21 – How did it feel to have your story accepted? 1:46 – Was the accepted story, “Slaying Monsters,” one of the first stories you’d written? 2:14 – How did it feel when you were rejected the first time? 2:42 – Have you submitted anything else after your first acceptance? 3:00 – What was it like to write a book two years in a row? 3:39 – Do you feel like you grew as a writer between submissions? 2:54 – What inspired you to write “Slaying Monsters”? 4:35 – What is your favorite part about the Writing Workshop? 4:56 – Do you find that the writing you do for fun is different from the writing you do for school? 5:56 – Is there anything else you want to talk about? 6:10 – Do you have any writing advice for your peers? 6:47 – If you could tell somebody about Stone Soup, what would you say?
Writing and art activity: using Ballet as inspiration for creative writing and art
Ballet is an art in which adults partake in a fantasy world that is more often associated with children’s stories. Nobody speaks in a ballet–the classic story ballets are performed silently–although there is a sign language that one starts to recognize after watching several ballets. But no preparation is really required to fall into the magic of the ballet theater–besides, as with the great fairy and fantasy stories, an ability to let the world as we know it fall away as a fantastical world of magic takes its place. In the world of ballet, chickens (La Fille Mal Garde) and swans (Swan Lake) dance, fairies good and bad cast spells (Sleeping Beauty), pirate kings find true love (Le Corsaire), and Roman gods come to life (Sylvia). Watching ballet helps break through barriers between reality and fantasy. It is an art form that can speak to children and inspire young writers to let the dream-world that is in so much ballet enrich their stories. The digital world gives everyone access to some of the great performances of classic ballets. To get you started, we’ve added a few links below to You Tube videos of the UK’s Royal Ballet performing some of the ballets mentioned above. You’ll find many more yourselves. Have fun with the beauty of the movement and the music, and see if a balletic release into a fantasy world can help to get your creative juices flowing! Some simple exercises to try: Story-telling. What story might be conveyed best through dance? Is it an epic tale of fairies and unicorns, or a simple forest walk? Whatever the story is, which styles might you use tell that story? Many of the ballets below are based on full-length novels, or on short stories. Many people identify poetry in the movement of ballet. Once you know your story, and have written your story or poem, perhaps you could write it again in a different way–say, by writing a plot summary for the imaginary program given out in the theater. Art: What might your ballet look like? What is the scenery like, and what to the characters look like? Are they all human, or might they look like something never-before-imagined? Perhaps you can draw the sets, or the characters in their costumes. <iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/rryxZjqLtNs” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>
