Writing Prompt #24

Today I made pumpkin pie. It was a journey. First, I accidentally broke open the bag while I was thawing the frozen pumpkin puree. Then I didn’t have any ground cloves. And then I burnt it.

It was still an incredibly tasty pie.

Life can be messy, but remember that no matter how burnt your pumpkin pie is, you still made one. And that’s something.

I hope you enjoyed your weekly lame motivational message. Let’s write!

Name of the game: Snap Shot

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Are We Boycotting Mulan 2020 for the Wrong Reasons?

Screen grab from Mulan

Yes, and that’s a problem.

Disney’s release of Mulan 2020 was preceded by the headline news that the lead actress, Liu Yifei, had “tweeted” support of the Hong Kong police. Why is everyone so upset? Because the Hong Kong police have been aggressively stifling freedom of speech during protests for human rights. Why am I upset? Because the remake is a terrible film that I believe has worse connotations for human rights than Liu’s post on Weibo.

To understand the extent of why Mulan 2020 was a mistake, it’s first important to examine the 1998 film. It’s nearly impossible for a remake to exist without carrying baggage from the original and this film is no exception.

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Writing Prompt #23

Is this a last minute writing prompt? Yes. But what’s wrong with last minute? As a society, we place so much value in productivity. Any activity that doesn’t contribute to productivity is thought of as time wasting.

These ideas are so pervasive I’m sure we’ve all felt guilt over spending an hour watching youtube, sleeping in late one morning, or checking Twitter. The idea seems to be that these activities are all fine, but only as long as you’re productive enough.

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Interview with Cherish D. Smith

Cherish D. Smith is a talented poet and budding historical YA novelist. Her beautiful and diverse characters will have you rooting and blushing for them in equal measures. You can find her on Twitter @icherishwriting.

 

What characters and themes do you like to write about and what inspires them?

I tend to write the quiet characters. I love a quiet character with giant dreams that almost make you go, “This? You want to do what? I mean I guess. If you like it, I love it.” And I am a bit of a romantic, so I love a good “love trumps all.” Is it vain to say that I’m inspired by myself? I have a somewhat quiet personality and ambitious dreams and I am quite easy to make blush. Lol.

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Writing Prompt #22

I wasn’t planning to do a writing prompt for another few weeks, but I’ve found it very difficult to work over the last few days. If you’re coming from the future or another dimension and need an update: covid cases in the UK just jumped back to May’s numbers (bad), I’m pretty sure politics just had diarrhoea (very bad), and I had an argument with a friend about human rights (very very… sad). I’m sure we’ve all been there; it’s really hard when you take a state of mind for granted and someone you care about doesn’t share it. It feels a little bit like I’m at the eye of a hurricane, stuck inside at my laptop only able to stare helplessly at the chaos around me.

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