Writing roundtable #3

Issue three writing roundtable: urban folklore as creative inspiration

Writing is a lonely business, but it doesn’t have to be. At The Orange & Bee we offer a safe and inclusive space for writers to explore themes ranging from serious and sensible to wacky and whimsical. For how else can it be? We are all called to different topics, and we come to those subjects from unique (and often powerful) perspectives.

Recap: What’s a writing roundtable?

The Orange & Bee’s writing roundtables are opportunities for you (our paying subscribers) to engage with the editorial team, and with each other, as fellow writers. Each writing roundtable includes a prompt, provocation, writing exercise, or conversation starter.

We invite you to dive into the comments thread/s to post your responses, and to engage with each other in respectful, supportive, and generative conversation. We’ll also be dipping and diving into the comments, reading everything, and offering our own contributions to the conversations as they evolve.

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The husband stitch

Earlier in this issue, we explored Carmen Maria Machado’s ‘The husband stitch’ in our reading roundtable (you can read it HERE). At its heart, ‘The husband stitch’ is based on the folktale ‘The girl with the green ribbon’, which Machado first heard around the campfire during a Girl Scout outing in The Poconos. Later, during her MFA, Machado started peeling away the layers in children’s tale.

I wanted to write a story about a mid-century housewife who enjoys sex, and then I also wanted to do a retelling of the girl with the green ribbon story—something I wanted to do even while I was in Iowa, though I wrote it later—and I also wanted to write about urban legends, like “Bloody Mary.” I also had a title—“The Husband Stitch”—that I’d thought of, but it wasn’t at the time connected to those ideas. So when I sat down, I realized all these pieces could come together. So I sort of backed into it, which is what a lot of writing is, clawing your way slowly toward the whole thing (Machado, qtd in Williams 2017).

‘The husband stitch’, leans into the folkloric tradition, which Machado then makes her own. What tales come to mind when you think of the folklore and urban legends from your own youth? What stories lurk in your memories, waiting patiently for you to reframe/rework/retell to suit your creative needs?

Illustration of Spring-heeled Jack, from the 1867 serial Spring-heel'd Jack: The Terror of London