Young Writers - Week 6 - Writing Winter

[Apologies for no week 5 session. Rail strike, plus signal failure, plus points failure = Claire & Sukie stuck on a train at Bournemouth station for over an hour, to then be told the train would no longer be going to New Milton].

Hi Writers,

Our last session of the first term of Forest Arts Young Writers started out with a check-in where we each described our last week as a Christmas movie – we had a few Grinches among us, along with an Elf… This time we also had our new assistant facilitator with us, writer and performer Sukie Baker.

There was a fun link between the Junior and Young Writers this week in the form of the books everyone has been reading between sessions, with another mystery, ‘Cream Buns and Crime’ on the list.

In our quickfire game of charades, Poppy C gave us a very clear interpretation of ‘Santa Baby’, while Louisa kept us guessing with ‘Decorating the Christmas Tree’ and Sammy, our newest member, performed a fantastic rendition of ‘Elf’.

We read an excerpt from ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’:

‘There was no answer and Edmund noticed that his own voice had a curious sound – not the sound

you expect in a cupboard, but a kind of open-air sound. He also noticed that he was unexpectedly

cold; and then he saw a light.

“Thank goodness,” said Edmund, “the door must have swung open of its own accord.” He forgot all

about Lucy and went towards the light, which he thought was the open door of the wardrobe. But

instead of finding himself stepping out into the spare room he found himself stepping out from the

shadow of some thick dark fir trees into an open place in the middle of a wood.

There was crisp, dry snow under his feet and more snow lying on the branches of the trees. Overhead

there was pale blue sky, the sort of sky one sees on a fine winter day in the morning. Straight ahead

of him he saw between the tree-trunks the sun, just rising, very red and clear. Everything was

perfectly still, as if he were the only living creature in that country. There was not even a robin or a

squirrel among the trees, and the wood stretched as far as he could see in every direction. He

shivered.’

We focused on its exploration of the senses as Edmund enters Narnia for the first time. From the crunch of snow and pine needles underfoot to the heavy silence and the cold bite in the air, it evokes a clear sense of place through touching on every sense. We settled into some writing exercises, experimenting to see how we could evoke the feeling of specific words through sensory description and imagery.

Using the five main senses, we wrote one sentence for each to consider what words like ‘Hibernation’, ‘Gloves’, ‘Hot Chocolate’,’ Cold’ and ‘Christmas’ might look, sound, taste, smell and feel like.

Poppy M’s description of ‘Hibernation’ was deeply evocative, all chocolatey warmth and cosiness, while Berry’s ‘Gloves’ were a delight of colour and scents. We experimented with ‘Cold’ and ‘Christmas’ too, and discussed how everyone’s sensory descriptions were very different, pulling out different elements of the same concept, but how they all succeeded in giving us all new perspectives on each of the words chosen.

We also read the ‘Winter Solstice Chant’ by Annie Finch:

‘Vines, leaves, roots of darkness, growing,

now you are uncurled and cover our eyes

with the edge of winter sky

leaning over us in icy stars.

Vines, leaves, roots of darkness, growing,

come with your seasons, your fullness, your end.’

We all wrote our own ‘Winter Chant’, considering what we would like to ask for from this winter.

There were some beautiful lines in everyone’s, including Louisa’s poetic ‘to be the first footprint on the blank page’ and Berry’s heartfelt ‘The survival of everything, the banning of Global Warming. Give me all you can; this winter will be special.’

Our blogs

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

Young Writers - Week 6 - Writing Winter