1. A literal interpretation of events from a silent comic/once upon a picture image (300+ words)
   
2. A piece of original fiction or fanfiction, featuring the symbolic exchange of a food item (400+ words)
   
3. A continued or extended scene from one of the examples in the Motif-tionary (400+ words)
   
4. Your rewritten Part 1, now featuring acknowledgement of the symbolism! (400+ words)

1. Your own workshop on a writing topic (500+ words)
   
2. A story using elements from someone else’s workshop (500+ words)
   
3. Feedback on another SWCer’s work using the Critiquitaire (200+ words)

1. Brainstorming for your story (150+ words, no proof required)
   
2. Introducing your story (300+ words)
   
3. Establishing the rising action (400+ words)
   
4. Exploring your story's climax (300+ words)
   
5. Concluding your story (250+ words)

Your time machine is powered by music; if you want to get anywhere, you’d better sing it a song!

‘London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down…”
Take a popular nursery rhyme and twist the concept to write the first verse of your song. Your first verse should be at least 50 words long, and consist of at least four lines.

Off we go again…

Repetition is used commonly in lyrics; write a prechorus for your song which repeats a phrase or line at least three times. This prechorus should be at least 25 words long, and consist of at least two lines!

Your time machine eagerly awaits the next melody.

“My white lies pushing up daisies…”
Pick an idiom around which to base your chorus. Make it catchy! Your chorus should be at least 50 words long, and consist of at least four lines.

Where to next?

Google a list of the most famous songs and find a title you haven’t heard of; without listening or reading the lyrics, write a bridge based off this title. Your bridge should be at least 60 words long, and consist of at least four lines.

Your time machine is thankful it got to sing through space with you.

Your song is coming to an end, so it’s time to repeat the chorus – except this time, change up the wording! Introduce some nature imagery into your chorus, which should remain at least 50 words long, in at least four lines.

Create a mythological creature based on a real-life animal or bird, and write a fictional factfile on it! Your factfile should consist of a drawing or image (doesn’t have to be your own but remember to credit the artist or photographer) and 400 words of writing.

Many ancient civilisations had their unique ways of life; select an aspect of worldbuilding (animals, languages, buildings, etc) and flesh out the lore of it. Feel free to base this off the Ancient Times aesthetic, or off a story for which you’ve already worked on worldbuilding! You should write 400 words towards this activity.

Fate is a common motif in many mythological stories. If you’re currently working on a story, have your main characters learn some lesson relating to uncontrollable fate (that is left up to the gods). This should be achieved in at least 400 words!

Write a tragic ending for your most beloved original character in 500 words. Don’t worry, you don’t have to make it canon!

Think of a tragic event. Put it into action (in writing) – then subvert it, and give it a happy ending! This mini-story should be contained within 500 words – no more, no less.

In many tragedies, the hero has an Achilles’ heel or tragic flaw that will lead to their downfall. If you are currently working on a longer piece, write at least 500 words in which a main character demonstrates a trait that might get them into trouble in the future…

SWC fanfiction time! Write 500 words of SWC fanfic about the events of the current session – be that the drama of cabin wars, the events of your cabin storyline, or just about the dynamics between your campers and co-leaders. You could even write about the daily team! ;D

Have you heard of the butterfly effect? We go through day to day life often without understanding the consequences of our actions. If you are working on a longer story, write 500 words where a main or side character makes a trivial choice that ends in disaster.

We hope you’re enjoying this project weekly – but remember, it wouldn’t exist without the iconic SUSwc! Revisit the very first project weekly (project version and text version both available in the description) and explore the various rooms. You don’t have to play it all the way through, but do pick three of your favourite room activities! The writing you do should add up to at least 500 words.

The future is full of new culinary possibilities! Write 400 words on the food you might find at a diner in the distant future of the Galaxswc.

Look to your right – what’s the first object you see? Write 400 words where you describe how it might be different in a world governed by steam power… and potentially magic ;D

Clocks are a common symbol in steampunk. If you are currently working on an extended story, introduce a clock within the next 400 words. The appearance of the clock should symbolise something – what that something might be is up to you.

Note that some of these had to be edited as they overflowed the studio description limit, so they might be different from the final version that was presented in the Main Cabin on the day of.

Example by Alia

Song: I Know Places

Alissi feels Mina’s hand slip into hers. “How long do you think we have until they suspect?” she whispers.

“They suspect already,” Mina says with a soft laugh. “They’re not saying anything, not yet, but-”

A young boy passes them, staring openly, and Alissi flinches. “Sometimes I think it would be easier to break everything off in public,” she says bitterly.

She hears Mina’s breath catch. “You don’t-”

Alissi sighs. “Of course I don’t mean it,” she murmurs. “I couldn’t survive the hunt without you.”

Mina glances at their entwined hands. “They can’t break us,” she says curtly. “I refuse to give them that.”

Alissi squeezes Mina’s hand. “I know. I’m not giving them us either.”

Example by Alia

Name: Alissi
Pronouns: she/her
Sexuality: Bi
Species: Human
Strengths: empathetic, strong listener, careful, fiercely loyal
Weaknesses: indecisive, easily swayed, slightly naive
Tendencies: if someone close to her is in any kind of pain, she won’t rest until they’re feeling better (can be a detriment to her own health if overcommitting), spends hours secluded in her garden if she feels overwhelmed due to any kind of societal pressure, tries not to burden others with her secrets and often keeps them bottled up

Example by Moonlit

Alissi - Alone in her garden; exploring her want to be understood, but also to protect others

Plants, Alissi ponders, are the most delicate, yet ever-loyal friends one could ever ask for.

To Alissi, her garden is one of the few places is still free to think. Left with only her plants for company, there is no one left to judge – only silent friends. Though they are entirely unresponsive to her pleas, the silent nature of her plants gives Alissi an assurance of safety – no mouth will ever brief her secrets to another.

What if I told her? Told them. Everything – all the things I wish they knew.

You can’t, the quiet, sensible voice in her head whispers back, speaking all the things she imagined the plants would say to her. Or perhaps Alissi only imagined her own justification of her brand of crime – needless to say, open truth would never be an option. Your words endanger every soul they touch, every heart they reach. Keep your secrets to yourself.

Here is the thing with writing a story: The story is normally only about half of what you write. The other half is exposition, explaining to our readers what we want them to imagine and how we want them to feel. If we want our readers to stick around and love our stories, we need a great story and great, natural exposition. They go together like peas in a pod. So, in this workshop, we'll focus on how to incorporate exposition naturally.

There are, I find, two types of exposition. What we can show our readers and what we are tell our readers. So we'll focus on these two types of exposition separately.

1: What we can show our readers.

This type of exposition is more about the inner workings of your world and characters, eg: The science behind your fantasy world or the feelings of the characters. This type of exposition is for the sense that we see and interpret

For example in Treasure Planet: The audience are not told they are in space, they get to see the setting of space. In writing, this might come about in describing the setting around the characters, such as the stars, rather than saying: Jim was in space. That's a pretty straight forward example. In reality, exposition is far more likely to become unnatural for smaller parts of the worldbuilding, such as telling your reader that dragons breathe ice rather than fire. The same rule applies however, show your readers a dragon breathing ice.

An example for characters would be Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games. The audience is not told that Katniss cares about Prim in words. We're told that Katniss cares about Prim by how Katniss acts and feels about Prim, such as noticing the bed is empty and not strangling Prim's cat, whom Katniss hates. We can take this for your characters and tell the reader that your character is kind by having them accommodate a stranger on the bus etc…
If your character is traumatised by a fire, instead of telling us their backstory, you can give it to the reader in increments. Show your character being weary around cooking materials, unable to breathe when they smell smoke etc… That way your reader will already be making assumptions before you tell them what happened to make your character this way.

The reason we do show instead of telling our readers about these parts of the story is to submerge our readers deeper into the world. When we tell the reader these facts or when we pile these examples on one after another, we run the risk of reminding our readers that they are reading a book. When you're sucked out of the world you're less likely to be anxiously thumbing the next page to find out what happens next.

2: What we tell our readers

It however, inevitable that we have to tell our readers some parts of the exposition. We do after all have to write. We unfortunately cannot project everything as a movie into our readers head. So when writing your story here's how to include information as naturally as possible.

My best advice for this section is don't pile everything onto your reader at once. Switching between what your character feels and what they hear is a great way to break up a long series of sight descriptions. Once you've told your readers it is cold once, don't hammer home how cold it is twenty more times that chapter.

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Horror novels will often repeat how little light there is. This isn't because the reader needs to be told there's no light twenty times but because it hammers home the feeling of being in the dark can bring: feelings of vulnerability and fear. Readers will imagine the scene with no light at the mention of night but readers will begin to feel terror as they are reminded that they cannot see what might be coming to them. or if your narrator is unreliable, making a statement will help blur the situation to their perspective and put a new lens onto what the reader will have just read.

In the same way sometimes you need to repeat certain facts, sometimes it's most natural to leave facts out and let the reader imagine it. Your character is going to get up and get dressed everyday. We already know that fact as well, a fact. Your reader doesn't need to be told that your character got dressed when they wake up. You wouldn't tell a family member that you got dressed, or even what you wore when describing your day on a phone call. Unless that information would suggest or will build up to a break from normality, then it might not add anything to the reader's experience.

What should you take from all of this?

You cannot avoid exposition and sometimes you're not going to be able to avoid simple statements about what's going on. However, to make your exposition natural you should aim to have readers reach their own conclusion about what's happening. While guiding them to these conclusions, try to avoid long descriptions of one sense. Don't be afraid to spread your information across time.
You should also only include what's necessary for the story to affect the reader. Sometimes that will mean repetition and other times that will mean not telling your readers anything.

Example by Finley:

INEA (to herself, scanning the shelves): Wow, there are so many books here! I can't believe how much I'm missing out on.
EMILY (peering over Inea's shoulder): What are you looking for?
INEA: I'm not sure yet. I just want something interesting to read. Something that will transport me to another world, make me think differently, or just make me laugh.
EMILY (wandering off): Okay, let me know if you find anything good. I'm going to explore the fantasy section.
INEA (sighing): Emily, where are you going?
EMILY (from the other side of the store): I'm just looking around. I love a good fantasy story.
INEA (raising her voice): Emily, come back here!
EMILY (returning to Inea): Sorry, I got distracted by the dragons and elves.
INEA (rolling her eyes): I knew it. You're hopeless.
EMILY (smiling): What can I say? Fantasy stories always take me on amazing adventures.
INEA (chuckling): I guess I can't blame you. They can be pretty captivating.
EMILY: They're a great escape from reality. Sometimes, it's nice to get lost in a world where anything is possible.
INEA (smiling) : Well, I'm glad you find them so enjoyable. I'll stick to my more grounded stories, but I'll admit, I do envy your imagination.

You can find some examples of song parodies made by the community here.

Example by Alana:

The two gauntlets were lit outside the main cabin, their light shining brightly amongst the faint stars dispersed across the night sky. There was a lot of commotion as members from different cabins were making their preparations. Wondering what all the fuss was about, Alana left Scripts' tent and trudged her way across the forest. After reaching the main cabin, she noticed a large, freshly-painted sign draped across the entrance, it read, “CABIN WARS!”

Suddenly a voice called out from behind, “Alana! How could you have forgotten?” It was Alia, one of the co-leaders from Adventure, who also happened to be a very close friend of Alana's.

“Alia! It's so great to see you. And yes, I did forget, but may I ask.. what are you doing out here?”

Before Alia could answer, a girl with dark brown hair and blonde highlights approached her from behind. It was hard to tell who exactly it was, but their cargo pants and dark brown eyes glistened amidst the darkness.

“SMALLIA! ALANA!” The voice called out, it seemed very familar, but Alana wasn't able to identify who this mystery caller was. It was when the figure stepped out of the shadows did both Alia and Alana realize that this was the legenedary tyrant Luna, and she was carrying a whole batch of mangoes!

“So! Who's ready to cause to some mango arson?” With that, the threesome went running off into the darkness.

Example by Alia and Moonlit

Moonlit: Jaku Alia! Nomi ce hei nadle? Hi Alia! How are you doing?

Alia: Jaku Moonlit! Nomu hei ladro, hred pruj li frudo. Nomi bre hei? Hi Moonlit! I'm doing well, looking forward to the weekend. How about you?

Moonlit: Jayy, nu ladro! Nomu hei kui ladro, lai hei. Nomu jeke oi loru li wena, zin c'ai ladre. Nami ce hei jedin li? Yay, that's good! I'm doing pretty well, thank you. I have a lot of work to do, but it's okay. What are you up to?

Alia: Gyuri loloru, nomu creyy oi brequ jislr. Nom juru fre oi poim crey liroper, yop nomi hri derimo esrip. Beyond homework, I’m reading a lot of good books. I haven't had a lot of time to read recently, so I've been enjoying that.

Moonlit: Hee, nu ladro ai! Lorloru ai jek poim jejeli, zin nomy ladro hei bre ludren heinda. Juro hei liroped voi ladro jislr ki jecidu? Ooh, that's good too! Homework is very time consuming, but I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. Have you read any good books in particular?

Alia: Nomu creyy Lor Yarvaru oii Addie LaRue, gruw ste tre zunim lirtor upionar. Juro hei ui vios griiu liroper? I’m reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, which has been really interesting so far. Have you done anything interesting recently?

Moonlit: Jeli, uli nomu too! Xij nomu helin upionar, zin nomu rendile poitij nami eding aduna ki lor jislr yilo lor jecki oii jkaldi. Wait, me too! I haven't gotten far, but I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next in the book during thanksgiving break.

hello there! welcome to the second bidaily workshop of the session; we'll be working on not overloading figurative language, more commonly known as “purple prose”.

first things first, what is purple prose?
・purple prose is writing that is overly flowery and descriptive, often used to boost word count and made an author sound more intelligent with the use of metaphors and long words. while purple prose is in some cases useful, more often than not, it makes writing sound incredibly convuluted and as difficult to follow as the maps of faraway cities, which are tangled like a bag of yarn and never seem to unravel…i think you get the point! in that sentence, the metaphors, although grammatically correct, were rather difficult to follow.
・some common literary devices are alliteration, metaphor, simile, rhyme, onomatopoeia, and sensory images (description based off the five senses)

when is it useful to use a lot of figurative language?
there are some cases in which figurative language is useful, even necessary! here they are:
・in description, especially in sci-fi or fantasy where there are invented places and people, figurative language is very useful to give readers an idea of what things look / sound / smell / feel / taste like.
・for particular emphasis—often, when someone is describing someone or something new / interesting / attractive to them, they may use some figurative language to properly describe what exactly intrigues them
・rhythmic literary devices can be helpful in writing that has something echoing the rhythm—repetition, for example, sounds a bit like raindrops, over and over and over and over…
・sometimes, the style of a piece can just lend itself to more figurative language than normal, but be careful not to overdo it!

things to watch out for:
・when using any sort of literary device, take care that it fits with the mood you're setting—especially for similes and metaphors, whatever you're comparing the subject to should be in line with the rest of the piece.
・in fast-paced action and dialogue, don't add literary devices unless it's absolutely necessary—that high-speed chase becomes a bit less exciting if you describe every building passed by in meticulous detail.
・when writing in first person, even third or second person, consider what your character would know and observe before describing a telephone pole a ways down the street.
・adjectives and adverbs can take away from a sentence. try finding stronger adjectives and verbs instead of choosing a less powerful one and adding dozens of modifiers.

how do i know if i'm overusing figurative language?
・if you find yourself glancing at a thesaurus every couple of sentences or struggling yet again to find a good simile—stop. pause your writing, see if you actually need all the fancy stuff, and close the thesaurus. you don't need it, and you won't have to interrupt your writing zone by searching for the just-right adjective.
・unless you're in cabin wars, more words are not always better. when editing, check every couple of sentences to see if you can reword into something more concise; use a formal voice only for characters who are more formal, and it'll draw your reader's attention when the character does start talking more descriptively, if they do at all.
・again, when editing, try something to see if you're using too much figurative language: copy your piece, or a portion if it's very long, and highlight/bold/underline all of the metaphors you see. if there are more than 1/3 to 1/2 (eyeball this) and the writing doesn't fit any of the “when to use” qualifications (even then, you should edit), figure out a way to edit or delete the excess material.

wrap up
・alright, we've hopefully covered what you need to know about figurative language. you know what it is, when and when not to use it, and how to check if you're using too much of it. and with that, i send you onwards to the bidaily—get writing, swcers!

—river

links used:
・what is purple prose from masterclass.com
・5 easy steps to avoid purple prose from writersedit.com
check out these links to learn more! faer's workshop on literary devices is a great resource as well <3