 and Katniss to get through in order to hunt. She made the Capitol and the people in. And then she made the Games. A place where children killed each other for sport and nobody was able to speak out against it, it was just a fact of life.
All of these things played a part in the choices that Collins made to create her world because they lent themselves to the overarching themes of rebellion, hope, and tragedy that come through in the books.
What themes are playing out in your story?
How does your world add to that theme?
What, if any, changes do you need to make in order to allow your world to be the platform on which you tell your message?
I absolutely love writing prompts. That’s why I use them in my classroom and have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to them. I have written a number of stories using prompts, but I’ve come to realize that not everyone likes them or uses them like I do.
Some of my students mentioned that they really disliked prompts because they felt like improvisation, on-the-fly type writing that didn’t resonate with them.
So, I wanted to start off by defining a few of the types of prompts with you. Next week, I’ll go over how to make prompts work for you and how, no matter whether you like them or not, you can use them to get your fingers typing or writing.
One thing that people may not realize is that prompts come in a variety of shapes and forms. Here are just a few of the most popular types of writing prompts, many of which end up overlapping.
Just like the name indicates, these types of prompts give you the first line of your story. It is then up to you to interpret that and contextualize it into something larger. This can be really helpful for when you are staring at a blank page and feel stalled.
The ability to type/write something down that you didn’t have to stress about can be a great motivator to keep going. And, if you find the right one, it can be a great launching pad for a story that you love.
These types of prompts indicate a story’s overall premise or a specific situation that you place your characters in. Similar to the first line prompts, this can be a great starting point because you have some direction to get your creativity flowing.
Unlike the first line, though, this type of prompt allows you a little more flexibility since you aren’t tied to anything but a feeling, idea, or situation.
These are my favorite, which is how I get wrapped up in Pinterest bunny holes so often. A picture prompt can be anything, really, but there are some that are specifically staged and designed to help writers come up with stories.
While at first, picture prompts may seem restrictive, it can be really open-ended. It could be an “explain what happened” or even a “tell the story of” and many times, people instinctively place their POV as the person/object in the picture. However, it can be equally challenging and fun to imagine, setting up the photo, or seeing the events as a third-party bystander.
Dialogue prompts either give you a single line or possibly a short conversation between two or more characters. Most of these are fairly general and could relate to a number of characters and situations, but give just enough to get your brain started in a specific direction.
I sometimes find it hard to make the dialogue fit the character that I have in mind, but other times, it is that specific dialogue that gives birth to the character that develops onto the page.
These types of prompts ask you to pair random things and create stories out of them. For example, maybe it is a “select three objects from this list and create a story using all of them.” Other times, it might be a genre, and some objects. And then at other times, these types of prompts are just a single word: an emotion, an object, an exclamation, etc. Another really fun one is also to just get a titled created for you and then have to write the story to go with it.
These are a lot of fun because they remove a lot of the choice for you and just allow you to create situations and scenes that you may never have even imagined.
Stay tuned for next week’s post on how to make writing prompts work for you!
The Georgia Farm Bureau calls itself the “Voice of Georgia’s Farmers.” Now that voice is saying not so fast to state lawmakers who want to create new ‘Arizona Style’ immigration laws.
Migrant farm workers
On Tuesday the group adopted a policy that opposes any state law that discriminates against farm workers. They say any immigration reform must ensure the agriculture industry has a legal, stable supply of workers. They say tougher laws could change that.
Farmers can hire guest workers under the federal H2-A program but it’s expensive and cumbersome. Charles Hall is with the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association. He says under H2-A farmers are required to hire U.S. citizens first, but most leave within a few days.
“It’s field work and it is hard work and so that’s the reality that we’re working under, that we’re with right now.”
Hall says immigrant labor is necessary to pick, pack and process agricultural products and there’s worry tougher laws could scare all immigrants away. Agriculture is the state’s largest single economic sector.On March 14th, 2011, I hosted The Tryst in Studio 2A. You can now download the The Tryst’s 2A Performance and Interview. (right-click on the link to download to your computer). Find out more about The Tryst here.
Performers: Keli Carpenter (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Dara Holmes (trombone, backup vocals), James Ball (tenor sax), Aaron Hultstrand (electric guitar), erik truelove (drums), Taylor Bungard (bass, backup vocals)
Engineer: Duncan Hudson
Producer: Dan TwelkerUpdate: During her concert in Los Angeles Saturday night, Adele said she turned down the NFL’s offer to headline the Super Bowl in 2017. “First of all, I’m not doing the Super Bowl,” she said (via Variety). “I mean, come on, that show is not about music. And I don’t really — I can’t dance or anything like that. They were very kind, they did ask me, but I said no.”
When a 28-year-old Bruno Mars performed with Red Hot Chili Peppers at MetLife Stadium in 2014, he became the youngest musician ever to headline the Super Bowl halftime show. If new rumors turn out to be true, he could be sharing that distinction with an unlikely name: Adele.
According to what an unidentified NFL source told The Sun (via Billboard), the folks tasked with organizing the halftime show for Super Bowl LI “are doing absolutely everything they can to try to persuade her to sign up. She’s sold out every date on her tour, everyone wants a piece of her and they know they can bank on her bringing in the viewers.”
It’s true that rating would almost certainly be high if the 25 singer took the stage for a national broadcast even like the NFL championship game, but the fit does seem a bit odd. Recent headliners have been rock bands like Coldplay and The Who or pop superstars like Katy Perry and Beyoncé. Sure, Adele falls into the latter category, but her soul stylings and generally more ballad-based sound might feel like a mismatch for the Super Bowl at first blush.
Still, as much as the NFL might want the ratings the British singer would bring, they may have to look elsewhere. “It’s Adele’s nerves that are the issue,” the source told The Sun. “It hasn’t been an easy sell.” Might not be an easy sell to football fans, either.
Super Bowl LI is scheduled for February 5th, 2017 in Houston, Texas.Laurence Dréano was born in 1971 in Neuilly and lived 25 years in Paris before settling in Touraine. The world of Laurence Dreano is poetic, naive, fun and enthusiastic. Her figures are rounded, inviting us to enjoy all the pleasures of life. She works mainly with terracotta and resin..
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