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

10 October 2026

Posted by Susan L. Edser

Act One, Scene One

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 has freelanced for ArtfulScribe since November 2023 and was Ali’s assistant in this session. She leads writing groups for neurodivergent women/non-binary people and offers writing sessions for adults with learning disabilities. To learn more about her, click on her profile: https://artfulscribe.co.uk/facilitators/susan-l-edser


In today’s creative writing session, the Junior and Young Writers began with Ali’s ever-popular Fill in Fun. This week, it was inspired by a man who grew an enormous pumpkin, which Ali had named (rather brilliantly) ‘Oh my Gourd’. They completed the partially written story with their own twists, including flying pumpkins, an unusual amount of cheese puffs, and an unfortunate anaphylactic shock.

Over the last few weeks, Ali has been working with the groups on a micro drama, complete with its own set (see the photos). For the Junior Writers, it is called Kitty’s Cat Café. They have created six characters, including Billie, who loves horror stories and is a pickpocket, and Sir Henry, a ghost who died at the Battle of Hastings. Ali guided them through the key plots and set today’s task: to write the pilot episode. Everyone worked hard on their scripts, which included scene setting with the characters having coffee together and stroking the cats. A great idea was the ghost spookily whispering in everyone’s ear, ‘I want vengeance against Joseph.’ Jacob and George won joint Writer of the Week for their strong scriptwriting skills. Bravo, Jacob and George!

The Young Writers also worked on a micro drama called The Hub. Their characters include the charismatic but tough therapist Tristian and Arlo Thursday, a thoughtful naval architect who is afraid of spiders. Ali set a similar task for the older group: devise a new scene, but focus on one of the following titles: ‘The Lottery Ticket’, ‘The Storm’, or ‘The Spider’. They devised clever scenes around a found puppy, misspent money, and scary spiders. Isabell was a very worthy Writer of the Week winner for her quirky ideas and turns of phrase. Well done, Isabell!

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