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Regular news and insight from our many poets, writers, educators and facilitators

07 June 2025

Posted by Susan L. Edser

Names

Ali Sparkes is a children’s author who leads writing sessions for Junior and Young Writers every Saturday morning at MAST Mayflower Studios. To learn more about her, visit her website: https://www.alisparkes.com and click on her profile: https://artfulscribe.co.uk/facilitators/ali-sparkes

Susan L. Edser, MA graduate in Creative Writing and Publishing and winner of Bournemouth University’s prestigious Vice Chancellor Award 2024, is Ali’s assistant and writes the weekly blog. To learn more about her, click on her profile: https://artfulscribe.co.uk/facilitators/susan-l-edser


Ali began with the famous Shakespeare quote, spoken by Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Act Two, Scene Two:

What's in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.

This kicked off today’s focus: names. Ali led the groups through a series of exercises that used their first names and the letters within their full names. The first one was a word search that included every person’s name from the group, even Infri, Sue’s invisible friend. The Junior Writers joined together to help one another, enabling them to find all the hidden names.

An anagram followed, using every letter in their full name. The Junior Writers found simple words like cat, but also more imaginative ones like yoyo. The Young Writers came up with words like oracle, eighty and sigma.

With the list of words from their name, they were tasked with writing a story using as many of them as they could. The junior writers managed to use most of their words and told stories about the future, football, and frogs. The Young Writers weaved longer tales about being pickpocketed, a rhyming story about mice, and a man called Warren who had a wart.

There was no Writer of the Week prize for the Junior Writers, as next week will feature a double winner. The groups will be preparing for a writing competition, and we anticipate excellent writing! 

Isla was the winner of the Young Writers for her story about a person with a double bra who walks into a bar! Thanks for entertaining us, Isla and well done!

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