\u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale <\/em>is a very visual book. Those who lack power always see more than they say.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThink about a time or times when you felt powerless. Consider the various spheres you inhabit\u2014your home, your family, your school, the various communities you are a part of\u2014and the relationships you have with others in your world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Write a list of things you have seen that you couldn\u2019t\u2014or didn\u2019t\u2014say. Or write a paragraph or two about just one of these things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I saw. . . . But I couldn\u2019t\/didn\u2019t say. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Writing Prompt 2<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\u201cStories about the future always have a what if <\/em>premise,\u201d says Atwood. What are some of your \u201cwhat-ifs\u201d about the future? Write a poem with a different \u201cwhat if\u201d on each line. These what-ifs can be personal, political, local, global, or a mix of all of these. Likewise, they can be serious or humorous or both. You don\u2019t have to provide the answers to your what-ifs; you only have to pose the questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWriting Prompt 3<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
At one point in the book, June says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe things I believe can’t all be true, though one of them must be. But I believe in all of them, all three versions of Luke, at one and the same time. This contradictory way of believing seems to me, right now, the only way I can believe anything. Whatever the truth is, I will be ready for it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
One of the appeals of totalitarianism in times of social upheaval is that it provides the false comfort of simple answers to complex questions. Things are good or bad, true or false, right or wrong. In The Handmaid\u2019s <\/em>Tale<\/em>, the rise of Gilead, the setting of the book, is portrayed in this light. Trapped in this tyrannical world, June is making the case for embracing subtlety and complexity, in her own life, yes, but also, it follows, in the world at large.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAmerican poet Walt Whitman makes a similar proclamation in \u201cSong of Myself\u201d: \u201cDo I contradict myself? \/ Very well then, I contradict myself. \/ (I am large, I contain multitudes.)\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What contradictory thoughts do you hold about yourself or the world around you? Tell us about them in a few paragraphs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Writing Prompt 4<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
In the excerpt below, June is describing one of the most profound aspects of writing: the connection you make as a writer with your reader\u2014whether that reader is real or imagined\u2014and the obligation you have as a writer to tell the truth to that reader, whatever that truth may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Describe the person you imagine reading your writing. Do you write for a single person? A group of people? Who is it you picture reading your words as you write them? Why this person\/these people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nExcerpt from<\/em> The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/strong>
by Margaret Atwood<\/p>\n\n\n\nI wish this story were different. I wish it were more civilized. I wish it showed me in a better light, if not happier, than at least more active, less hesitant, less distracted by trivia. I wish it had more shape. I wish it were about love, or about sudden realizations important to one’s life, or even about sunsets, birds, rainstorms, or snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe it is about those things, in a way; but in the meantime there is so much else getting in the way, so much whispering, so much speculation about others, so much gossip that cannot be verified, so many unsaid words, so much creeping about and secrecy. And there is so much time to be endured, time heavy as fried food or thick fog; and then all at once these red events, like explosions, on streets otherwise decorous and matronly and somnambulant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m sorry there was so much pain in this story. I’m sorry it’s in fragments, like a body caught in crossfire or pulled apart by force. But there is nothing I can do to change it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have tried to put some of the good things in as well. Flowers, for instance, because where would we be without them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless it hurts me to tell it over, over again. Once was enough: wasn’t once enough for me at the time? But I keep on going with this sad and hungry and sordid, this limping and mutilated story, because after all I want you to hear it, as I will hear yours too if I ever get the chance, if I meet you or if you escape, in the future or in heaven or in prison or underground, some other place. What they have in common is that they are not here. By telling you anything at all I’m at least believing in you, I believe you’re there, I believe you into being. Because I’m telling you this story I will your existence. I tell, therefore you are.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Banned book writing prompts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":16422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","featured_image_focal_point":{"x":0.33,"y":0.32},"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"2194,5977,2950,5616,8580,4236","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[608],"tags":[625],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16385"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16423,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16385\/revisions\/16423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}