Soudheim Creative Writing Prompt

Happy Birthday to Stephen Sondheim! Today's creative writing prompts are in honor of him.

And thank you, YouTube, for your share button. I'm delighted to share this with you today.
Here is the gorgeous voice of Bernadette Peters singing "Children Will Listen" from Stephen Sondheim's INTO THE WOODS, which is one of my favorite musicals of all time. Enjoy this video.

After enjoying the video, you can pick a prompt. Today I'm asking you actually try to time yourself for eight minutes straight without stopping.


Creative Nonfiction: Think back to when you were a child.

1. What fairy tales intrigued you, scared you, or inspired you? Write about one.

2. What fairy tale character would you have liked to have been and why? Write about it.

Fiction:

1. Pick a fairy tale and rewrite with a twist. You could put in a different ending, mix up the characters or make it different any way you would like.

2. Pick two fairy tales and merge them. Sondheim's musical is a merge of many different fairy tales, but you only need to merge two.

Poetry:

Read the poem "The Witch Has Told You a Story" by by Ava Leavell Haymon, and then try your hand at a fairy tale poem.  You can read the poem by clicking on the link below.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21606

Drama Writing Prompt:

Pick a fairy tale villain and write a monologue where the villain tells his or her side of the story and perhaps asks for compassion or forgiveness.