13 January 2024
Posted by Sukie & Claire
Hi Writers,
Welcome back to Term 2 of Forest Arts Young Writers! We hope you’ve all had a restful time off, and an
inspiring New Year. While January can be a stressful and strenuous time for some of us, it’s also a great
time to get started on new paths and try our hands at new skills, so we’re looking forward to seeing more
of this term’s members next week and maybe even starting to work toward submitting some competition
pieces at the end of term (or perhaps even showcasing it?)
This term we’ll be focusing on The Art of Writing and doing some deep dives into the different elements
that create great writing. This week we were thinking about Character.
During our check-in we all described our weeks as an animal.
1. Claire - a bear, hibernating
2. Poppy M - a sloth, slow
3. Sukie - a beaver, busy
4. Berry - a panda, not doing much
5. Poppy C - a tiger, a crazy, wild week
And we talked about what we had been reading over the holiday period, with Poppy M telling us a bit
about the next in the mystery series with great names - ‘Spoonful of Murder’, Berry sharing ‘Jaguar
Trials’ and ‘The Lighthouse Intruder’ and Poppy C describing some of the nonfiction she’d been reading
recently, and expressing an interest in more history and historical fiction.
After setting the space and reconnecting with the three golden rules (have a go, no self-diss and have
fun!), we played a quick few rounds of Buzzy Bees: The Alliteration Version! When Claire gave a letter,
we all had to freeze as an alliterative pair of words (an adjective and a noun). We were treated to ‘Perfect
Poppy’, ‘Slithery Snake’, ‘Sorrowful Sadsack’ and ‘Long Lamppost’.
We spent a while discussing essential components of storytelling, including character, plot and pacing,
and Poppy M made the great point that a good blurb is really important when marketing a book, as it can
be easy to give too much away or leave the reader confused by not giving enough information.
We looked at three excerpts that exemplify character introduction, which are listed below:
‘A Christmas Carol’:
‘But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping,
clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous
fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features,
nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and
spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry
chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and
didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.
External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill
him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting
rain less open to entreaty.’
‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’:
‘Aslan stood in the centre of a crowd of creatures who had grouped themselves around him in the
shape of a half-moon. There were Tree-Women there and Well-Women (Dryads and Naiads as they used
to be called in our world) who had stringed instruments; it was they who had made the music. There were
four great centaurs. The horse part of them was like huge English farm horses, and the man part was like
stern but beautiful giants. There was also a unicorn, and a bull with the head of a man, and a pelican,
and an eagle, and a great dog. And next to Aslan stood two leopards of whom one carried his crown and
the other his standard.
But as for Aslan himself, the Beavers and the children didn't know what to do or say when they saw
him. People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the
same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at
Aslan's face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming
eyes; and then they found they couldn't look at him and went all trembly.’
‘The Northern Lights’:
‘She was a coarse and greedy little savage, for the most part. But she always had a dim sense that it
wasn’t her whole world; that part of her also belonged in the grandeur and ritual of Jordan College; and
that somewhere in her life there was a connection with the high world of politics represented by Lord
Asriel. All she did with that knowledge was to give herself airs and lord it over the other urchins. It had
never occurred to her to find out more.
So she had passed her childhood, like a half-wild cat. The only variation in her days came on those
irregular occasions when Lord Asriel visited the College. A rich and powerful uncle was all very well to
boast about, but the price of boasting was having to be caught by the most agile Scholar and brought to
the Housekeeper to be washed and dressed in a clean frock, following which she was escorted (with many
threats) to the Senior Common Room to have tea with Lord Asriel. A group of senior Scholars would be
invited as well. Lyra would slump mutinously in an armchair until the Master told her sharply to sit up,
and she’d glower at them all till even the Chaplain had to laugh.’
We talked about Scrooge being described entirely through a list of traits, and how quick and effective
that can be - we know he’s a horrible person right from the start! - and compared it with Aslan’s
introduction, where he is described in part through other characters who associate with him and the main
characters’ responses to him. We also talked about how a character’s strengths and weaknesses can be the
same thing in different situations, or different amounts - for example, stubbornness and perseverance.
We explored character creation through a game of Character Consequences, where everyone took a
sheet of paper and wrote the name of a character on it before folding it over and passing it to the right. We
described the characters one feature at a time before folding it over and passing it along and created Mr
Bubble, whose eyes were as twitchy as squirrels and whose voice was as scratchy as a record player; Sam,
whose ears were like the handles of a jug owned by a giant, and Mila who moved like an avalanche and
whose voice was as crunchy as frost.
Now that we’d settled into character creation mode, we use the Character Profile sheet to create our
own character profiles, considering what their family might be like, or their voice and eyes and laugh, and
what their strengths and weaknesses might be.
To close the session, we talked about the eight basic word types (verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs,
pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and interjection) and used them to play a round of One Word Story,
creating a short, dramatic tale of love and betrayal:
‘Once there may have been a ally, disgusted creature called Bob, and his beautiful wife slaughtered
him in the most beautiful blue ocean. He ended the contract decisively because he couldn’t breathe.’
Next week we’ll be discussing setting and genre, and we may even have a try at creating a murder
mystery…
We’d love to see some more new faces this term, so if anyone knows a budding writer aged 11-14,
we’d love to hear from them! All of our Junior Writing sessions are free and bookable through the Forest
Arts Centre, so come along and have a go with us!
Archive
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
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