30 April 2024
Posted by Harley Truslove
New Term & Elevator Scripts
The wonderful Ali Sparkes was leading the group today, so we started with one of her worksheets where our writers had to fill in the gaps:
Emma burst into the kitchen holding a ___
She stared at Sam and then she yelled ___
Sam got up. He was wearing his ___ so he felt___
He opened his mouth and ___
Emma ____
The running theme seemed to be cats, with three of them appearing across the work of our six different writers. Glockenspiels, cardboard spacemen, and two house fires also featured.
Moving on, we discussed how we felt when we walk around art galleries. There were various responses, from incredibly enthusiastic to less excited when dad wanders off and gets lost…
Ali handed out stickers of three different famous paintings (Mona Lisa, The Girl With A Pearl Earring, and American Gothic) and challenged our writers to come up with stories about the subjects of those paintings in whichever manner they chose.
We had a wonderful selection of pieces including:
Mona Lisa being stuck in a capitalistic hellscape and musing about the sadness of her existence; “Martha” complaining about her husband “John” and his prized pitchfork in American Gothic; and the story of The Girl With A Pearl Earring going from her younger years in a Greek village and transferring into the view of painting herself.
Next up in our jam-packed session, Ali laid out a series of characters on slips of paper and challenged the group to pick one which appealed to them, then put the writers in groups of three. The idea was if the people they had chosen were all stuck in an elevator, how would the scene play out? The writers were given ten minutes to write a script and it was a rather energetic exercise.
Our two elevator groups were:
A stockbroker who was also a psychopath
A dinner lady who was also a compulsive thief
Circus performer
And
A delivery rider for Dominos pizza
A young heiress and horse rider
A full time vampire
Finally, with the last few minutes of the session, our writers were put into pairs and given a five paragraph story and challenged to improve its prose.
Altogether it was a very lively session, and a wonderfully energetic start to the term! Thank you Ali!
Archive
Junior & Young Writers Week 3: Return From The Magical World
Junior & Young Writers Week 2: African Mythology
Problems, Problems, Problems...
Cautionary Tales & Christmassy Opening Lines
You've Gotta Have Pace, Pace, Pace
Junior & Young Writers Week 1: Alien Encounters
Junior & Young Writers: Week 5 - Play on Words Pt. 2
Junior & Young Writers: Week 11 - end of term showcase [build a bard workshop]
Junior & Young Writers: Week 10 - Greek Theatre - chorus stories
Junior & Young Writers: Week 9 - Greek Origin Stories - Spring
Rubber Ducks & Writing Festivals
Junior & Young Writers: Week 7 - Greek Hero Stories [the 12 labours of Hercules]
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
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'
