Calling all creative writers! This is a column run by Liv Akers and Mariah Lumsden to inspire readers to write. The column includes writing prompts, pieces by the coordinators, and occasional submissions from readers.
This month: Some anonymous villanelles, a rant about She-Ra, and a commentary on Bo Burnham's Inside.
Below are a set of prompts for different styles of writing beyond journalism. The idea is that you can create some kind of creative writing piece inspired by one of the prompts, but it doesn't have to be. You can submit any piece of writing you'd like to share! All submissions should be school-appropriate. You can also suggest prompts to be featured in the next issue.
Here are some prompts to inspire your writing this month! If you try one, let us know how it goes. :)
If you lived in an alternate universe where one thing was fundamentally different (realistic or otherwise), what would it be and what would a day in your life look like?
What’s your favorite picture you have of yourself, or that you’ve taken? Tell me the story behind it!
Write an anonymous confession describing your biggest secret or worst mistake. What have you learned from the experience? Would you change it if you could?
Write a poem describing yourself without using any adjectives.
Just make up a silly little story. Make it as goofy as possible!
If you have any prompt ideas in mind that you haven't seen on here yet or would like to see someone else respond to, drop them in the Google Form below and they'll be listed in the next issue!
It’s easy to forget what life’s about;
the ebbs and flows of feeling disappear.
(And aren’t you afraid of missing out?)
The summer is a time of heat and drought,
and no one says the things I want to hear.
It’s easy to forget what life’s about.
I sit and think and fill myself with doubt,
but dead men tell no tales, or so I hear.
(So aren’t you afraid of missing out?)
The fun part goes by fast and simmers out,
and time comes to prepare for a new year.
It’s easy to forget what life’s about.
As time goes by I fight the urge to shout.
Is no one else here filling up with fear?
(Still, aren’t you afraid of missing out?)
“It doesn’t matter.” My mantra, devout.
I sleep, I eat, I scream, I fight a tear.
It’s easy to forget what life’s about.
(But aren’t you afraid that you missed out?)
Why does the future cut deep like a knife?
Uncertain roads do not evade from my
Turning, twisting, disoriented life.
From colleges and scholarships and strife,
To searching the country with hazy eye;
Why does the future cut deep like a knife?
I can remember happiness of rife,
My innocent childhood into my
Turning, twisting, disoriented life.
From counselors whose noise and voice like fife,
To essays that just make me sound so dry;
Why does the future cut deep like a knife?
A house, a job, thirteen kids, and a wife,
There’s too many expectations in my
Turning, twisting, disoriented life.
Two directions from birth to afterlife
Control course of the present so hereby;
Why does my future cut deep like a knife?
Turning, twisting, disoriented life!
Y’all know what time it is. If you’re new here, welcome! Leave while you still can. This is the most worthless piece of writing you’ll see on The Scroll. If you’ve been here before, welcome back. Today, I will be listing my predictions for the live-action She-Ra and the Princesses of Power series in production at Amazon.
First of all, keep in mind that so little is known about the show right now that this whole article is going to be a stretch. DreamWorks is the executive producer, but no writer has been named and it supposedly has no connection to the animated Netflix series by Noelle Stevenson. Variety says it “will be a new, standalone story and will not be connected to the animated show.” I’ve read So Many Articles and they all deeply confuse me. I swear, every single one of them has said, “It will be unconnected to THE animated show.” THE???? There’s two! Which one is it unconnected to? In context, one could assume that they’re referring to Noelle Stevenson’s masterpiece, but does that mean it is connected to the 1985 show? Why would they do that? She-Ra as a character has never been as successful as she was in the Netflix series. Why go backwards when they could expand on or adapt an Emmy-winning series? Some of them say it is “based on” She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and some of them say it’s “based on” the original Masters of the Universe character. WHICH IS IT, AMAZON?
Basically, I’m just going to say no one knows anything. It’s a new, standalone show with no known connections to anything ever. That said, there’s more humor potential for me if it’s based on the Netflix show, so we’re going to pretend it is. Also, all I know about the original She-Ra is that she was He-Man’s sidekick, Catra was a minor villain with little importance, and Bow looked like this. That’s all I need to know to make the choice to avoid it at all costs.
Pictured: Bow from the original 1985 She-Ra show. I have never been more thankful for a glow-up in my life.
I absolutely do not trust Jeff Bezos with my comfort show (side note: before anyone says it, yes, I know, Bezos himself isn’t actually making the show, I just think it’s funny), so all of my predictions will be one hundred percent negative. DISCLAIMER: none of this is based in fact, I just don’t like Amazon and don’t have the ability to think positively. Call me a pessimist, here are my predictions:
Glimmer is going to be conventionally attractive. Skinny, “normal” haircut, etc.
Catra will be a minor character. No development. No beautiful lesbian love story. Just your average, evil catgirl with anger issues. ALSO: the best medium of storytelling for her character is animation, simply because Catra in live action would be TERRIFYING! She has paws for feet, claws on her hands, fur on every part of her body, and the ears are cute, but think of how weird the side of her head would look. It’s impossible to maintain the accuracy of her design and NOT make her look straight out of Cats (2019).
Adora will be hyper-feminine and transformed into your stereotypical millennial “girl boss.” They will put little effort into showing her growth with her abilities and as a person (think Rey in Star Wars, as compared to Anakin or Luke).
Bow will keep the crop top because it actually aligns with the original show, but he’ll also be hyper-masculine and buff. They’ll use a black actor so they can say they kept the representation, but he’ll be the sole black character and will likely have very little depth as a character.
Double Trouble will either be cut out all together or they’ll be male. If the latter happens, they’ll be a “Slay Queen!” gay guy (not that that’s a bad thing for a person; the problem is it’s just main form of LGBTQ+ representation in media and I doubt Amazon will make the effort to branch out).
Hordak will be a minor villain only used to introduce Horde Prime (but more on Hordak in a bit). Shadow Weaver will also be quite minor, and probably on the same level as Hordak. Within the first half hour, Horde Prime will become the main villain and Hordak and Shadow Weaver will kind of be forgotten.
I have a lot to say about Entrapta. As far as her characterization goes, one of two things will happen: one, she’ll keep her neurodivergent traits because Amazon doesn’t know that’s what they are, but considered in their eyes “neurotypical,” so she comes across as “quirky” and “not like other girls” and it’s just overall messy and poorly done, OR, two, she’ll be neurodivergent, but her neurodivergent traits will be stereotypical and demonized. Either way, I doubt she’ll be an accurate representation of the community Stevenson geared her towards. That said, remember that weird subplot where they tried to redeem Hordak by making him fall in love with Entrapta? Amazon is going to DOUBLE DOWN on Hordak sympathy and they will use Entrapta to do it. Basically, she’s going to be a villain (possibly a hero-gone-bad type of situation).
Huntara will be a man named Hunter.
Netossa and Spinerella will be the sole LGBTQ+ couple. They will be background characters with no backstory or development, so Amazon can say, “Hey, look! We kept your representation!” despite eliminating Catradora and every other queer couple in the show.
All the advertising will compare the show to Stevenson’s Netflix cartoon, solely because of its success, but it will align way more with the original from the 80’s.
Call me Negative Nancy, but Jeffrey Bozo is the last person I would ever think to trust with my comfort show. If anyone has any positive predictions (or more negative ones, I just like to hear other people’s thoughts), hit me up and we can chat, but I don’t think there are any. Like, I dare you to identify One (1) good thing that could come out of this project (you can’t). That’s all from me; this is Liv, who is very tired, signing off.
Thirty-one-year-old musical comedian Bo Burnham released a new comedy special around June of 2021, breaking his 5 year hiatus of not performing. The day that I first watched Inside by Bo Burnham was undoubtedly the best day of my life. Similar to my Rocky Horror piece from the previous issue, I also have this whole entire film memorized. This is due to my own obsessiveness and literally me just being crazy.
One of my good online friends said that I should watch it so that is what I did because you should always trust the advice of your internet friends. So I watched it, laughed, cried, and developed a raging obsession with Bo Burnham like everyone else. Naturally after watching his new special, I did watch all of his other specials and all of his youtube videos ever from 2007. Side note: Bo Burnham is 6’5.
This is not a commentary about why I love Bo Burnham because I write those all on my close friends stories on Instagram. This is solely about his latest and greatest special, Inside, so let’s get into it (yuh).
So sorry about that last little paragraph but basically I will be recalling this from memory so if it is not perfect, which it probably should be, I apologize. The special opens on Bo Burnham performing a short song, Content which is about a minute long. He is sitting down in a room saying how he is sorry that he was gone for so long but that he made us some new content. I thought it was kind of weird and funny that he used the word “Content” so often throughout the film like he’s a youtuber, and not a talented and perfect musical comedian. The next scene seemed like he put a lot of effort into it and it was a very incredible performance which I am very appreciative of and I do think about it at least four times a week. The scene opens with Bo Burnham playing at his piano. The song which he performs is called Comedy which is definitely one of my top favorites of the whole special. I think this song alone gets somewhat overlooked because it was at the beginning of the film but the lyrics in the song are also used at the end of the special to tie a nice bow around everything. In the song he basically talks about how he is “healing the world with comedy,” and attempting to make,” a literal difference metaphorically.” I think I am in love with this line actually. Anyways, I just love that song and think about it a lot.
After two introduction songs, we meet Bo Burnham again where he explains that he is shooting this special in however long it takes to film instead of it being shot in one night. He says not to expect any smooth transitions to which he makes an incredibly unsmooth yet somehow smooth and hilarious transition where he just cuts himself off in the middle of him saying not to expect incredibly smooth transitions. I apologize if that didn’t make any sense. This next part is a funny song where he sings about FaceTiming with his mom. This song is called FaceTime With My Mom. It is a very overlooked song which is why I will actually be overlooking it right now.
This next song is also one of my favorites. It is called How the World Works which is a parody of children's songs that are supposed to be educational. This is how the song initially starts out and then progresses into a satire on the then current events. We meet a new character named Socko, which is a sock Burnham wears on his hand. Socko begins to explain to us how the world works by saying things like, “Don’t you know the world is built with blood, and genocide, and exploitation!” It is a very lovely educational song. Another gag song like this one which plays right after this is White Woman’s Instagram where Burnham essentially just makes fun of generic “white women” and their silly little Instagram posts. He starts out the song by saying, “An open window, a novel, a couple holding hands, an avocado, a poem written in the sand.” I think he’s just trying to say how lovely and relaxing and fun “white women’s” Instagram posts are, while also saying that these women struggle and make mistakes and are real people regardless of what their online persona looks like.
I am going to skip the middle songs not because I don’t love them but because this whole thing would be a Harry Potter book long so I will just talk about two more songs that I think are really important in the special. That Funny Feeling is a really really really good song about anxiety and depersonalization/derealization which unfortunately I find a little bit too relatable. One of my very favorite songs however is All Eyes on Me which, in my interpretation, was another song about his struggles with mental health and anxiety. Again, this was dangerously relatable to me.
I think Bo Burnham’s whole special was very eye opening to how much he has grown as a performer, singer, and comedian. It captures his ups and downs and is definitely very relatable to a lot of people in different aspects of the special. The capturing of his physical appearance changing throughout the film is very interesting and apparent as well. His first appearance is him with a well groomed face and shorter hair while towards the end his beard has grown out and his hair is unkempt.
Overall, I love this special and I watch it very often. I know all the words to all of the songs. I know a lot more about Bo Burnham than I should know. I would recommend this special if you want to laugh, cry, and have an existential crisis. In conclusion, watch this special as well as all of Bo Burnham’s specials and all of his 10-14 year old YouTube videos.
