Winter Writing Inspiration

“If you’re experiencing any trouble finding your inspiration to write over winter season, here are a few fun winter writing prompts.”

by Michelle Hover

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As the temperatures plummet and the time we spend indoors begins to increase, you may be feeling less inspired to write. With seasonal depression, you might be experiencing a little bit of the winter blues, which may result in every writer’s worst nightmare: Writer’s Block. But fear not! Not all is lost. There are still many ways to stay active as a writer in winter, even if you find yourself stuck inside most of the time. 

Inspiration comes and goes. If you’re a writer you are probably well accustomed to this obstacle in the writing process. With the winter comes a lot of stagnation, and this can sometimes be crippling for the imagination. But if you can find some time to write amongst the holiday season, I encourage you to think about a fond winter memory you once had and put it down on paper. Perhaps there was an activity such as ice skating with a friend that could make for a funny story. Maybe you’ll go caroling with a group of strangers just for the fun of it and find that it could make for an interesting topic to write about. 

One year I wrote a Christmas inspired short story. I once had a childhood friend whom I had a crush on that lived next door. He and his family moved several towns away and I only saw him once after that. Soon, his personality began to change, and he pushed me away. I never heard from him again. That is, until I turned 16 and we found each other online. It was sometime in the December when we finally spoke again. A most magical feeling. I used this aspect of my own past and turned it into a fictional work about a protagonist who is reunited with their long lost best friend for Christmas. I know, I know! I know what you’re all going to say. What a cookie cutter hallmark thing to write. Don’t worry, I agree. But my point is, the winter season inspired me to write something that I otherwise would never have written.

 

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If you’re experiencing any trouble finding your inspiration to write over winter season, here are a few fun winter writing prompts I came across that might be helpful for you: 

1. Write from the point of view of a snowflake and detail its journey falling to earth.
2. Write from the point of view of a snowman, from creation to melting. What kind of personality would they have?
3. Write a love letter to the season of spring, as if they were a person who was your love interest and you’re anxiously awaiting their return.
4. Look out a window and describe what you see. You could even get poetic with your language and details. 
5.  Imagine you were trapped inside your home or another place by a wild and unexpected blizzard. Write out journal entries, marking the days before you are rescued and set free.
6. Write to a loved one who is currently residing in a tropical climate. Explain to them what winter is like and what you love or dislike about it.
7. Describe winter as if it were a person. Create it as a character in your story. What are they like? How do they dress? What kind of family are they from? Who are their friends and loved ones? 
8. Detail your perfect winter day. You can get creative and let your imagination run wild, like a day on the Polar Express. 
9. Write a short story inspired by the Christmas spirit! You can choose the outlook. Is it a magical tale about Santa Claus and mischievous elves? Or perhaps a love story? Maybe you want to take it to a darker place and give it a horror esc twist, like the legend of Krampus. Whatever outlook you choose, this opens up a world of possibilities. 
10. Write a story about your favorite Winter/Christmas memory. Challenge yourself by writing from a different point of view. 

However you choose to celebrate your winter break, I hope you find the time to sit down with a nice cup of hot cocoa, put on some cheerful tunes and just write to your heart’s content. Enjoy time with family and loved ones, and may these winter themed writing prompts help guide you and bring you seasonal joy.

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The Berkeley Hundred & the Idea of Thanksgiving

By Michelle Hover

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As this Thursday is Thanksgiving, you may be looking for a historical piece of literature to occupy your time for the holiday. If you’re a big history buff like me, it may be worth your while to delve into the foundations of our country to better understand its development that goes beyond what we were taught in our history textbooks in our early educational careers as Americans. We all know about the Pilgrims of Plymouth that receive most of the credit for initiating the “first” Thanksgiving. But did you know that the concept of Thanksgiving was actually founded long before the Pilgrims made it nationally famous?

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In “The Great Plantation: A Profile of Berkeley Hundred and Plantation Virginia from Jamestown to Appomattox”, written by Clifford Dowdey (published in 1957), we are faced with much American history going back to some of the very first colonizers in Jamestown and Charles City, Virginia. In this retelling of the Berkeley Hundred, Dowdey mentions the very first Thanksgiving, but it is not quite the story we all know. According to Clifford Dowdey, the concept of Thanksgiving is as old as the Hebrews, Greeks and the Romans who adopted the ideals from them. Early Englanders would celebrate a thanksgiving as a Harvest Home Day, a custom in which citizens would give thanks for a successful crop yield over the year as winter began to approach. It is this custom that started the Thanksgiving that we all know of today.

Given that said, it is obligational of us as the future generations of America to acknowledge that there is always two sides to every story and that Thanksgiving indeed has quite a dark history. Even though it is still celebrated today by most Americans, the colonization of the New Land that is now America yielded much destruction and menace to the indigenous people who were already here. European immigration is responsible for taking over their homelands, causing destruction of villages and mistreatment of Native women, as well as many massacres of indigenous people. Some tribes today still face living life on reservations and see Thanksgiving as a day of mourning. In a lot of ways, the fact that November is Native American Heritage month says a lot. When we pair this with the undeniable practice of enslavement practiced largely in the South by our forefathers, we cannot ignore the fact that these things happened. However, we also cannot rewrite history. It is with this acknowledgment that we can look back at our own wrong doings in history to reflect and learn from it. The fact is that we are simultaneously faced with America’s dark history and America’s founding, as they unfortunately go hand in hand. As American’s we must find some way to make our own peace with this knowledge.

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Historically speaking, Clifford Dowdey informs us that the second wave of immigrants of the Berkeley Hundred, also associated with England’s Virginia Company, voyaged across the sea for two and a half months on the vessel known as The Margaret. Some 38 British men and women anchored in Chesapeake Bay on the last day of November. As the colonizers reached Jamestown, they were awarded a patent of some 8,000 acres of meadowlands and virgin forests, with 3 miles of river front just thirty miles west of Jamestown. The newcomers set sail on the James River, finally reaching the land of their hopeful livelihood. A land that would turn out to become both one of the richest areas in Virginia, as well as a sorrowful future for the Natives of the land.

With a command of Captain Woodlief of The Margaret, the 38 colonizers kneeled in the grass to pray. Explicit orders of their charter demanded that the day in which they arrived would be celebrated as Thanksgiving, and the date would be ordained as “yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to the Almighty God.” This is recorded as the first emergence of Thanksgiving ever to be held in the New Land in 1619, the Pilgrims of Plymouth holding their first celebration just 2 years later in 1621.

The Berkeley Hundred would give rise to an immigrant civilization, giving birth to plantations and aristocratic families that yielded multiple American Presidents and Virginia Governors. William Henry Harrison (9th president) and Benjamin Harrison (23rd president) are my ancestors, which is my personal interest in Dowdey’s retelling. But history is more than what is written in a textbook and taught in our school systems. Historian Clifford Dowdey studied many legal records and documentations that gave rise to his book “The Great Plantation”, and it is full of little-known factual learnings of the colonial era. However, as a white man of the 1950’s, we can also only take his teachings at face value. If you’re at all intrigued by these alleged findings and would like to take the time to delve into Dowdey’s research yourselves, I suggest taking it with a grain of salt.

The Berkeley mansion and garden grounds are still erect today, no longer owned by the Harrison family (my mother’s lineage), but is now a museum renovated to mirror its original design. You can take a tour of the mansion and walk the historically accurate slave quarters rebuilt in 2018 for the setting of Harriet, a movie about Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad. There you can experience the quarters and learn about the living conditions of the slaves that once inhabited them. Whether you choose to celebrate the holiday or not, Happy reading, Happy Native American Heritage month, and Happy Thanksgiving! 

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Animal Symbolism in Literature

“Do not cite the Deep Magic to me, Witch. I was there when it was written.”
-Aslan, The Chronicles of Narnia

By Michelle Hover

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Since the beginning of literary history, writers have utilized the symbolic nature of animals. Symbolism is a literary device that involves the use of a symbolic element. Cultures all over the world have some similar and various meanings for most animals. Authors have been known to use animals to convey a certain hidden meaning within their work. Fairytale authors often use symbolism as a way to communicate a central idea to younger audiences. But other writers, fiction and non-fiction alike, have been known to utilize the literary device of symbolism to represent more mystical elements or a specific message. Symbolism is also a fantastic way to communicate properties of foreshadowing for such things like major changes or perhaps even the death of a character within the story.

With the changing of the seasons, many fellow authors may be experiencing difficulties with getting inspired, which can lead us to being unmotivated to write. This could even cause us to come down with a mean case of the dreaded writer’s block. I once had an English professor who told us that he didn’t believe in writer’s block. He would often say, “Writer’s block isn’t real. Sometimes you just have to sit down and write.” While many writers would beg to differ from this brilliant man’s opinion, I happened to find some truth in what he said. The literary world is filled with possibilities, and the only limit is what we can think up in our own minds. We look all around us in our daily lives to inspire us. As the leaves change colors and fall off their branches, temperatures drop, and days continue to grow shorter, we can find a lot of inspiration in our own backyards or even from our household pets. If you’re metaphorically minded and gravitate towards representations in nature, you could write a symbolic masterpiece by spring. 

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Many literary masterminds have used animals to symbolize a specific element or message. I’m sure you can name a couple animal characters from your childhood that you probably learned a valuable life lesson from, as many authors use animals in children’s books. For example, Winnie the Pooh, who taught us the importance of long lasting friendships. Or the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland, who gave us an important lesson in leadership to the extent that it doesn’t much matter which path you follow if you don’t know where you’re going. In more complex literary works, we can also see the symbolic use of animals. Many popular works such as Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, and C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia use animal characters to represent an idea, a belief, or an emotion. The raven from Poe’s poem “The Raven” is a literal representation of the narrator’s grief for the loss of his true love Lenore. Harry’s pet owl Hedwig becomes one of the series most important characters, as the snow owl symbolizes loyalty, intelligence, and self-sacrifice. C.S. Lewis uses Aslan, the mighty lion ruler of Narnia in The Chronicles of Narnia to depict the role of God as his subjects love him for his fierce loyalty, warm kindness and encouragement. 

The fall season is said to represent adulthood and maturity as the growing cycle gives us ripeness and maturity. There is often a harvest associated with the season, allowing us to reap prosperity and wealth in its abundance. As we prepare for winter, you need not get discouraged as there are plenty of ways to get inspired by our fellow woodland creatures we often associate with the season. Some animals that inspire the autumn season are hedgehogs, barn owls, squirrels, foxes, deer, gray wolves, badgers, bears, rabbits, ravens, ducks, and the dormouse. For inspiration sake, I will leave a list of these animals and their symbolic meanings for my fellow writers to consider utilizing. 

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Hedgehogs: These spiky balled rodents are often seen as a spiritual animal, symbolizing self-protection and intricate self-work. For example, overcoming challenges and finding one’s true purpose. 

Barn Owls: Owls hold different meanings around the world, but the barn owl typically represents wisdom, intelligence, swiftness, and protection. In certain cultures, they symbolize death and foreboding. 

Squirrels: These frivolous scavengers are popular for their ability to store food and create a cozy nest for the winter, making it a symbol of preparation and resourcefulness. In some Native American cultures, the squirrel is believed to be a trickster spirit. 

Foxes: In folktales, the fox represents cleverness, cunning, and mischief. They are also known for their ability to adapt to any environment, as they are seen in almost every climate across the world. 

Deer: In many cultures, deer are a symbol of spiritual authority and are known for their majesty. They are often seen as a representation of profound change. In Christian adaptations, the deer symbolizes piety, devotion, and God taking care of his children. 

Gray Wolves: Wolves have the most supernatural presence of all land animals, as they represent intelligence, loyalty, strong family ties, good communication, education, and understanding. They are known from their majesty and complex hierarchical structures within packs. 

Badgers: The badger is famous for symbolizing stubbornness and strength. Badgers do not hesitate to stand their ground and are fierce protectors of their property. 

Bears: Bears symbolize shear strength due to their immense size and power. Because of their tendency to hibernate for the winter and wake in the spring, writers use them to communicate themes of new life and resurrection. 

Rabbits: Rabbits are used by writers to symbolize alertness, playfulness, resourcefulness, and cleverness. They are sometimes said to represent fertility and sexual desire, as they are known for producing many offspring during the mating season. 

Ravens: More often associated with the winter season, literature often depicts these black birds as things of bad omen or shape shifters that symbolize death and destruction. Authors may also use these birds of omen to indicate deep insight, or prophets communicating truths of the spirit world. 

Ducks: Especially in Chinese culture, ducks symbolize marital happiness and fertility. They are also seen as clairvoyant animals who pride themselves in parenthood. 

Dormice: The dormouse has multiple different associations throughout many cultures. Primarily, it is known for its sleepiness and laziness as it hibernates for long periods. But it also symbolizes good luck and prosperity in some cultures, wisdom and knowledge in others. 

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Whatever you decide to write about this fall season, I hope I have helped to spark some inspiration for my fellow writers out there. If you’re finding it hard to decide what to write, metaphoric and symbolic usage of animals in your writing could be a valuable tool to combat some of that writer’s block often caused by seasonal depression. Please feel free to utilize this list of symbolic meanings for these autumn animals and don’t hesitate to write the world’s next best selling novel rich in animal symbolism. 

Once Upon A Midnight Dreary

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!

 By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore— 

Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, 

It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore— 

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.” 

Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.” 

-THE RAVEN-

-Edgar Allan Poe

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Once Upon a Midnight Dreary

In celebration of Halloween, I thought we should pay tribute to the Father of the Horror and Suspense genre Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is a classic American author of the Romantic era, whose poems and short stories have transcended time, influencing many successful authors. Edgar Allan Poe is remembered today as one of the first American writers to become a major figure in world literature, with his most famous work “The Raven” having been translated into 45 different languages. As an avid horror genre lover, I acquainted myself with Poe’s work as a middle school student, when my seventh grade English class required us to read “The Raven”. I was so transfixed with the complexity and beautiful structure of the poem, it sticks out in my mind as the moment I fell in love with literature. When I entered high school, my sister had a copy of his Edgar Allan Poe’s complete collection of works in which I found myself immersed in and Poe officially became my favorite classic American author. 

So many people know his name and his work, but there aren’t many who know about the life of Edgar Allan Poe. This got me thinking and inspired me to delve into research to understand my all time favorite poet and author, and some of the facts of his upbringing came as a surprise to me. Though it leaves no question that his life influenced much of his writing. Once upon a midnight dreary, Poe was originally born as Edgar Poe  to David and Eliza Poe in 1809. With an absent father, and passed on mother, Poe was then brought up by his foster parents John and Frances Allan in Richmond, Virginia. John Allan was a tobacco exporter and sent Poe to the best boarding schools and University of Virginia, where he excelled in his studies. Unfortunately, Poe fell into a gambling habit and John Allan refused to pay for his schooling. Poe was then forced to leave the University of Virginia. 

Edgar Allan Poe returned to Richmond briefly, but soon moved to Boston where he enlisted in the United States Army in 1827, where his first collection of poems was published titled Tamerlane, and Other Poems. He soon published a second collection of poems called Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems. Neither one of his collections received much significant criticism or public attention at the time. After serving out his term in the Army, Poe entered the United States Military Academy, but was again forced to leave due to his financial struggles. At this point, he moved in with his Aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia in Baltimore. It was then that Poe began selling short stories to magazines and entering writing contests. His efforts landed him a job as an editor for the Southern Literary Messenger back in Richmond, where he soon moved back to, bringing his Aunt and cousin Virginia along with him in 1835. 

Nearly a year later, he married his cousin Virginia, who happened to be 13 years of age at the time. Poe would then spend the next ten years editing a number of literary journals such as the Gentleman’s Magazine and Graham’s Magazine in Philadelphia, and the Broadway Journal out of New York City. It was during this time that he would establish himself as a professional poet, short story writer, and editor. During his time as an editor, he would produce many short stories and poems such as The Fall of The House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Murderers in Rue Morgue, and The Raven. 

His wife unfortunately passed away in 1847 of tuberculosis, at the young age of 24. After Virginia’s death, Poe fell deeper into his lifelong struggle with depression and alcoholism. He never quite recovered from the loss of his wife, but it was during the period of her illness where most of his literary works about dying and dead women would originate. Poe returned briefly to Richmond in 1849, soon after setting out for another editing job opportunity in Philadelphia. However, he never quite made it there. Poe would stop off in Baltimore for some unknown reason and officially went missing for a short period of time, being found in a semi-conscious state, delirious and rambling. Four days later, on October 7, 1849 Edgar Allan Poe died of “acute congestion of the brain.” In all actuality, no one knows for sure the mysterious circumstances of Poe’s death. Medical practitioners have since reopened the case and some evidence shows that Poe could have been suffering from rabies. Other theories include the belief that he was a victim of “cooping”– a particular practice where voters were drugged and forced to vote and multiple different polling locations. Regardless of the reason, Edgar Allan Poe would pass away at the ripe age of 40, just two years after his beloved wife. 

So many look at Poe’s work and decide his life was full of nothing but misfortune and melancholy. But in all actuality, he was able to find love and success in his career, however short lived his time with his wife, Virginia. I bet most people don’t realize that Edgar Allan Poe was more than just a poet and author. He was also an accomplished boxer, long jumper, rower, and swimmer. He actually held the local record for swimming 7 miles against the current in the James River in Richmond, Virginia. His literary hero was poet Lord Byron, and he was a published author by the age of 18. By the age of 22, he had already published 3 books. 

Eddy, as his friends called him, was ahead of his time. He  was actually one of America’s earliest Sci-Fi writers. He wrote an  essay titled Eureka: A Prose Poem, which touched on the concept of the Big Bang Theory, nearly a century before it became popular among the scientific community. But today, perhaps The Raven remains Poe’s most famous poem, having captivated both critics and the public eye alike, published in 1845. It is believed that Charles Dickens may have inspired the role of the talking raven. Poe read Dickens’ novel Barnaby Rouge in 1840 and was amused to learn that the talking bird in the novel, named Grip, was based on Dickens’ real pet crow, (also named Grip). Edgar Allen Poe cultivated and nurtured this inspiration, publishing The Raven  nearly four years later. 

Needless to say, Edgar Allan Poe has been said to be the originator of Horror and Detective fiction. He was one of America’s earliest Science Fiction writers. His work has left a profound impact on American international literature. It is said that he is the architect of the modern short story. As an editor, Poe was known as one of the first critics to focus on the effects of style and structure in literary work. As a result, he has been acknowledged as the forerunner for the “Art for Art’s Sake” movement. We owe a lot to Edgar Allan Poe’s lifelong literary ambition and passion. To celebrate this amazing classic father of horror and suspense, I highly suggest picking up a copy of some of his best works to celebrate the spirit of Halloween. Some of my favorites that I would recommend reading are “A Tell–Tale Heart”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, “The House of Usher”, “Annabel Lee”, and the ever famous poem “The Raven”. For you are certain to have a spooky night, honoring this father of Horror.