18 November 2025
Posted by Harley Truslove
Cautionary Tales & Christmassy Opening Lines
Ali was so tired this session, and was willing to pay - in chocolate coins - for the opening line of her next novel, so everyone sat down to write her their best Christmassy pitches. We had an exhausted Father Christmas bemoaning December, candy canes as weapons, and calling an airstrike on the sleigh after getting dust as a present yet again.
Then we moved onto our main theme for the evening: cautionary tales! Ali read us a couple of choice excerpts from Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls to show us some good examples of horrid children meeting their comeuppance. After performing a cautionary tale she had written about a girl who was on her phone too much, Ali got us to create one of our own. We discussed ideas of things that annoyed us, and turned that into a tale – the picture is attached below!
Finally, our writers penned individual cautionary tales. We had slow walkers stepping on land mines, a ranger at a sleepaway camp attacking children as she told them why the camp no longer celebrated Christmas, and shower hogs being drowned.
Megan was our writer of the week this week with her beautifully atmospheric Christmas opening lines!
Archive
Junior & Young Writers: Week 11 - end of term showcase [build a bard workshop]
Junior & Young Writers: Week 10 - Greek Theatre - chorus stories
Junior & Young Writers: Week 9 - Greek Origin Stories - Spring
Rubber Ducks & Writing Festivals
Junior & Young Writers: Week 7 - Greek Hero Stories [the 12 labours of Hercules]
Junior & Young Writers: Week 12 [Wild Words] - Stuff & Things
Junior & Young Writers: Week 11 [Wild Words] - World Building 2
Junior & Young Writers: Week 10 [Wild Words] - World Building
Junior & Young Writers: Week 9 [Wild Words] - Mystery & Choose Your Own Adventure
Junior & Young Writers: Week 8 [Wild Words] - Spooky Sequels & Potion Poems
Junior & Young Writers – Week 10 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Final Showcase
Junior & Young Writers – Week 9 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Editing & Performance Tips
Junior & Young Writers – Week 8 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Cuteness
Time goes on by Tavinder Kaur New
Junior & Young Writers – Week 7 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Natural Solutions
Junior & Young Writers – Week 6 (Writers’ Inspiration) – The Language of Fruit and Veg
Junior & Young Writers – Week 5 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Adventures In Space
Tinklebobs and Bedraggled Angles
Junior & Young Writers – Week 4 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Our Environment
Fortune Tellers & Future Letters
Junior & Young Writers – Week 3 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Home
Young Writers - Week 10 (The Art of Writing) – Final Week Showcase
Junior Writers - Week 10 (The Art of Writing) – Final Week Showcase
Young Writers – Week 9 (The Art of Writing) – Choose Your Own Adventure
Junior Writers – Week 9 (The Art of Writing) – Choose Your Own Adventure
Young Writers – Week 8 (The Art of Writing) – Sequel Stories
Junior Writers – Week 8 (The Art of Writing) – Sequel Stories
Young Writers – Week 7 (The Art of Writing) – Picture Prompts
Junior Writers – Week 7 (The Art of Writing) – Picture Prompts
Young Writers - Week 6 (The Art of Writing) - Script-writing & Dialogue
Junior Writers - Week 6 (The Art of Writing) - Script-writing & Dialogue
Junior Writers – Week 5 (The Art of Writing) – Poetry
Young Writers - Week 5 (The Art of Writing) - Poetry Potions
Edward The Martyr - A Competition!
Mood Boards and Postcards from Space
Young Writers - Week 3 (The Art of Writing) - PLOT
Junior Writers - Week 3 (The Art of Writing) - PLOT
Moomin Stories and Hollywood Pitches
Young Writers - Week 2 (The Art of Writing) - Genre & Setting
Junior Writers - Week 2 (The Art of Writing) - Genre & Setting
Prompts, Dialogues, and Cliché
Story Structure Part One: Exposition and Beyond...
Young Writers - Week 1 (The Art of Writing) - Character
Junior Writers - Week 1 (The Art of Writing) - Character
Young Writers - week 4 - Nature Writing [animals & wildlife]
Junior Writers - week 4 - Nature Writing [animals & wildlife]
Young Writers - week 3 - Nature Writing [trees/plants/flowers]
Junior Writers - week 3 - Nature Writing [trees/plants/flowers]
Young Writers - week 2 - 'fractured fairy tales'
Junior Writers - week 2 - 'fractured fairy tales'
Young Writers - week 1 - 'from deep inside a forest'
Creating Communities through Writing
WORDCUP - Hounsdown Session #6
Making pillows in a house full of feathers
WORDCUP - Hounsdown Session #5
Exploring home – a place, person, house
WORDCUP - Hounsdown Session #4
Stories From Our Streets at the Abbeyfield Wessex Society Reminiscence Session at Poole Library
What Do You Really Mean? Writing Dialogue for Scripts
WORDCUP - Hounsdown Session #3
Character Building & Murder Mysteries
Going inside – from a spark to a story
WORDCUP - Hounsdown Session #2
Maybe I Can Be Invisible After All... Monologues
Creative Writing: Fun Facts, Diverse Voices and Different Perspectives
Writing Competition - Stories From Our Streets
Stories From Our Streets Community Activity Pack
Thinking in-quiet, after the fire
Found Cities, Lost Objects: Women in the City Curated by Lubaina Himid CBE
Ekphrastic Jukebox - Writing to Music
ArtfulScribe LitFest Community Showcase 2023
Young writers exercise their creative power
Writing to The Sorcerer's Apprentice
The Mousetrap - Mayflower Young and Junior Writers Investigate Mystery!
Stories From Our Streets Launch!
Interview: In Conversation with Dr Victoria Leslie
The Missing Farmer/ Blackout Poetry & DADA
Exploring this wonderful World
Using props to create characters/ working as a writing room
Stories of the Dust and Character Questions
Storytelling and Escalation or Rising Action
Junior Writers Club Acrostic Poem
Notes on Intention for MAST Collective - Year 3 - Facilitation Focus
Earthquakes & Dominoes - MAST Collective Blog #4
SUPER MARIO AND POP CULTURE POEMS
Receptionists & Inky Voids - MAST Collective Blog #3
Saying No and saying YES on National Poetry Day!
There's a Dragon in the Wardrobe...
House Warming Party (The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known) - MAST Collective Blog #2
Intern Blog 5 - The Publishing Process
POEMS TO SOLVE THE CLIMATE CRISIS
On The Streets With Theresa Lola
Intern Blog 4 - The Internship Journey
NEW DIRECTIONS, STARTING SMALL - THE ORWELL YOUTH PRIZE
LIGHTHOUSES, HOPE AND METAPHORS
on workshop and transformations: frogs, lions, and the duck that becomes a larder...
Poetry Ambassadors - Interview with April Egan
Intern Blog 1 - Finding a Voice
World Poetry Day: Fluffypunk and the Invisible Women
On Being a Writer: A Conversation by Beth Phillips & Sam Morton
Poetry Ambassadors - Interview with Kaycee Hill
UNHEARD VOICES: INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY, AND STORIES OF CONFLICT
