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02 May 2020

Posted by Lucy Pearce

Objects with voices

11-14 Age Group, 12 Attending. 15-18 Age Group, 8 Attending

Another week, and another young writers session! This week, we looked at personifying objects, and giving them their own voice. 

To start with, the writers were presented with a list of objects, these included a book, a fan, a clock, a cane, a tennis ball, a teddy bear, and umbrella, and a mirror, and were asked to choose one to personify. 

They then answered questions about the object, the answers starting with: 

I see - 

I hear - 

I feel - 

I have lived through - 

I long for - 

I fear - 

I miss - 

I remember - 

I love - 

I wish - 

The writers were then asked a series of questions to consider, including - think about how your object would speak/sound? If it's round like a ball maybe it uses long vowel sounds - if it's sharp like a pin, maybe it uses lots of short sharp words and consonants. Does it speak in rhyme/prose/poetry? Does it repeat itself? Is it speaking in a riddle? Does it speak in short sentences or long sentences? Is it descriptive and colourful with its language or just the facts and straight to the point? Is it positive or gloomy? Is it angry? Is it impatient? 

After sharing these (some incredible personalities were created, including a tennis ball which is terrified of hitting the ground!) we moved on to dramatic monologues. 

The young writers could choose from either the previous prompts OR come up with their own person. The person could be historical, current, famous - they could talk in riddle, they could talk with an accent... etc! 

Furthermore, the older group read Einstein's Bathrobe by Howard Moss and gently analysed the use of description from the bathrobe's point of view. Then, using this as inspiration they wrote their own versions from other historical (or not!) figures. We had stories from all kinds of historical people, including the perspective of Anne Frank's diary. 


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