05 October 2020
Posted by Tabby Hayward
ON A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT...
13 attending
This week, with Halloween not far off, we were looking at ghost stories! What's more, Blandford Literary Festival are hosting a ghost story competition, with a deadline approaching on the 26th October, so we also had this in mind for our young writers, who may wish to enter...
We began by combining the ghostly with the autumnal, coming up with similes and metaphors to describe some stormy weather (e.g. the wind was a wailing woman, the sky was as dark as a funeral, etc). After sharing some of these with the group, we then read an extract from, arguably, the greatest ghost story of all time, The Woman in Black! In the extract, the narrator is alone in Eel Marsh House, with only Spider the dog for company, while a storm rages outside, and he hears what he believes to be the cry of a child out on the marsh... He becomes convinced of a ghostly presence in the house with him...then the lights go out! We looked at techniques used by the writer, Susan Hill, to build the tension and suspense and create a haunting, eerie atmosphere. Then, putting all this together, we began writing our ghost stories, while listening to sounds of wind, rain and a crackling fire on YouTube, to build the perfect ghost-story atmosphere!
When it was time to share, there were a fantastic range of spine-tingling stories to hear, from George's genre-bending sci-fi ghost story, to Kira's mysterious man in a dark hat, to Evie's character pulling back a curtain in a seemingly-abandoned house by the sea to reveal.... (we had to wait for the next installment, after a very dramatic cliffhanger!)
Next, the young writers were given a choice - either to continue with the story they had begun, or to begin a new ghost story set in an unexpected location for the genre... Some examples I suggested were a shopping centre, a beach, a water park, a fairground and (my personal favourite!) a garden centre! The challenge was to make any of these places, none of which fit the traditional criteria for a ghost story (dark, isolated, lonely, abandoned, wild, etc) into the setting for a chilling tale! Thomas and Elsie both managed to make a garden centre incredibly sinister, and George created a truly disconcerting atmosphere on a bright, sunlit, busy beach. Meanwhile, Evie and Kira both continued their stories they had begun previously, developing in exciting new directions...
We're so excited to see how these stories develop and hope many of our young writers will enter the Blandford competition!
Archive
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
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Young Writers - week 4 - Nature Writing [animals & wildlife]
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Young Writers - week 3 - Nature Writing [trees/plants/flowers]
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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
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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
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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
