Genres to Explore: Southern Gothic, Magic Realism, Fantasy/Fairy Tale, Gothic Horror, Science-Fiction, Narrative Non-Fiction, Children's Literature, Fantasy/Horror
1) After reading The Werewolf by Angela Carter, write your own adapted fairy tale.
2) After reading Belinda and the Monster retold by Italo Calvino, (I'll make copies. Just ask for one.) write a story that deals with issues of gender. Set your tale in a place where there are expectations about gender. Have one or more characters who experience both internal and external conflicts, but try to show all the conflict. (For example, three boys are asked to stage a scene from Romeo and Juliet in their English class and one will have to be Juliet.)
3) After reading The Last Question by Isaac Asimov, write a story that uses science and/or technology like a character. In other words, think of an invention or modern "condition" (ie., people can't reproduce anymore) that reveals something about the way we live and think today.
4) After reading The Most Handsome Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, write a story that contains both magical and realistic elements.
5) After reading A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor, write a story using one of the follow ideas:
a) Have a bad person as a key character. b) Write a story that involves a life and death drama in a desolate place.
6) After reading The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, try to be creepy. Make fear the central emotion in your tale. Look in to the darkness, think about the things that scare people and try to put your reader on the edge of her seat.
7) After reading No Gumption by Russell Baker, write a realistic story/memoir about a time when your family put pressure on you. Try to be funny as you tell this story. Be self-deprecating.