Such a relief that fourteen children came along to last Saturday's session (including two newbies, so welcome to Shaun and Jack). Having announced my departure in June, I rather expected all my regulars to give up on the group and abandon it so I was very pleased to see so many of you there; huge thanks to you all.
We continued to work on story writing, and on this occasion, I was demonstrating one particularly effective way to create convincing characters to give their stories even more oomph. They adapted this so well that many then showed me characters they had invented that actually sounded like people they knew! This just goes to show that there is a natural writer in each and every one of these children and I do so hope that they will continue to nuture this long after I have moved to the south coast! I know Sara will do her best so please support her the way you have supported me all these years.
Addiscombe Young Writers is something of an anomaly really. When I started it six years ago, I really had no idea how I was going to make it work and in my haste to put together a manual for Sara, I have come up with some astonishing factoids.
* Approximately 150 children have been members.
* There has been one exhibition of work.
* Two books produced.
* Close on 500 certificates awarded.
* Five picnics in the park.
* Around twelve children have been presented with books designed to help them hone their craft.
* Approximately 200 exercise books have been given out.
* There's been two group mascots.
* An estimated 300 work and exercise sheets have been produced.
And that isn't all by a long shot.
I am so proud of you all, children and grown-ups alike and very proud indeed of everything the group has achieved.
See you all on 5th May.
Thursday 26 April 2018
Wednesday 18 April 2018
Wonderful Stories Just Waiting To Be Written!
I cannot believe it has been almost two weeks since my last post! Where has that time gone? Even I was taken by surprise when I woke up this morning (Wednesday) and realised that it is only a couple of days until the next Young Writer session! So, as promised in my previous post, here is an update of what we are now doing.
After months of patient poetry writing, there was an audible sigh of relief from the Young Writers when I confirmed a return to story writing. I gave out two info sheets - one was a general guide to the nuts and bolts of actually writing and the other gave a number of ideas for the Young Writers to work with. It was wonderfully refreshing to see how quickly they took to the suggestions made - especially considering that the first half hour of the session was given over to announcing the forthcoming changes due to my move with Steve to the south coast later this year.
Story writing is a bit like baking a cake. You need a number of carefully balanced ingredients in order to produce a finished masterpiece. In this case, instead of sugar, flour, eggs etc, you need a good opening sentence, a couple of well rounded characters, some descriptive scenery and, of course, an idea to expand on. Once that is all in the mix, the actual cake is the finished story and the icing on that cake is knowing others will read and enjoy that story. The cherry on top is obviously if people ask to see even more of your work. The cake analogy has always worked well with the Young Writers, even the youngest ones. After all, we all love a slice of delicious cake!
Writing is a wonderful gift and with stories, you are the master (or mistress) of your own universe. You create the places and situations and you people it with characters you have created. This is so magical and so beautiful. It does not matter one jot if you mix famous characters of history with creatures of your own invention as long as the story carries both along to a successful and relative conclusion. The only trap I occasionally see our young wordsmiths fall into is the use of other people's characters. Including Spiderman and Wonder Woman in your own story is fine at this level. But it is always better to go with your own ideas. Tyler, for example, has invented a durable super hero called The Shadow. He has even given back story on how The Shadow comes into being. Tyler also knows that short, sharp sentences build tension and whenever I read one of his Sci-Fi creations, I feel rather like I am on an extreme rollercoaster ride! And the beauty of it is that Tyler did not even know he was doing this; it has just come naturally to him because of the kind of stories he prefers to write!
Every member of Addiscombe Young Writers, past and present, has their own voice. Creating stories and poetry is a way to make it heard. And that, mums and dads, is the most important thing of all!
See you all Saturday!
After months of patient poetry writing, there was an audible sigh of relief from the Young Writers when I confirmed a return to story writing. I gave out two info sheets - one was a general guide to the nuts and bolts of actually writing and the other gave a number of ideas for the Young Writers to work with. It was wonderfully refreshing to see how quickly they took to the suggestions made - especially considering that the first half hour of the session was given over to announcing the forthcoming changes due to my move with Steve to the south coast later this year.
Story writing is a bit like baking a cake. You need a number of carefully balanced ingredients in order to produce a finished masterpiece. In this case, instead of sugar, flour, eggs etc, you need a good opening sentence, a couple of well rounded characters, some descriptive scenery and, of course, an idea to expand on. Once that is all in the mix, the actual cake is the finished story and the icing on that cake is knowing others will read and enjoy that story. The cherry on top is obviously if people ask to see even more of your work. The cake analogy has always worked well with the Young Writers, even the youngest ones. After all, we all love a slice of delicious cake!
Writing is a wonderful gift and with stories, you are the master (or mistress) of your own universe. You create the places and situations and you people it with characters you have created. This is so magical and so beautiful. It does not matter one jot if you mix famous characters of history with creatures of your own invention as long as the story carries both along to a successful and relative conclusion. The only trap I occasionally see our young wordsmiths fall into is the use of other people's characters. Including Spiderman and Wonder Woman in your own story is fine at this level. But it is always better to go with your own ideas. Tyler, for example, has invented a durable super hero called The Shadow. He has even given back story on how The Shadow comes into being. Tyler also knows that short, sharp sentences build tension and whenever I read one of his Sci-Fi creations, I feel rather like I am on an extreme rollercoaster ride! And the beauty of it is that Tyler did not even know he was doing this; it has just come naturally to him because of the kind of stories he prefers to write!
Every member of Addiscombe Young Writers, past and present, has their own voice. Creating stories and poetry is a way to make it heard. And that, mums and dads, is the most important thing of all!
See you all Saturday!
Sunday 8 April 2018
And The Big News Is ...
Thank you to everyone who came along to Saturday's Young Writer session. Being the tail end of the Easter holidays, I was not sure how many of you would be able to make it so it was a pleasant surprise that eight Young Writers turned up with their grown-ups in tow.
Now that the session is over, I can make a more general announcement about what is going on and it's this. Me and hubby Steve will be moving down to the South Coast at some point before the end of the year so I will not be running the Young Writer group from 2nd June onwards. When I first spoke to the library team about this way back in January, I asked if there was any way they could envision continuing the group once I have moved on. It eventually transpired that Sara - who runs the Chatterbooks group at Ashburton Library - would be interested in perhaps amalgamating the two and, on Saturday, came along to introduce herself and Chatterbooks to the Young Writers.
This will inevitably mean some changes, which Sara is keen to embrace. Chatterbooks is mainly a reading group but they do encourage Creative Writing in the way of competitions, guest speakers and adventures in writing by perhaps imagining what it would be like to be the hero or heroine of whatever book the group had reviewed. I will be giving Sara a manual detailing how I have run AYW - ie the Certificate Trail and awards and we will all just have to see how things pan out.
As I said on Saturday, I will still be contactible by email and most of you should have my mobile number so if your talented wordsmiths need advice, I will endeavour to oblige. One mum asked if I could continue the group virtually and this is something I will have to look into before I can let you all know - a lot depends on time and my other commitments, but having said that, I would certainly like to hear how everyone progresses, so it will not be goodbye, just cheerio.
I will be around for the next four sessions and I am still going to compile our poetry leaflet, so all is not lost.
I will update on everything we did writingwise next post in a day or two but I wanted to bring you all up to speed following Saturday's announcements. Speak soon.
Now that the session is over, I can make a more general announcement about what is going on and it's this. Me and hubby Steve will be moving down to the South Coast at some point before the end of the year so I will not be running the Young Writer group from 2nd June onwards. When I first spoke to the library team about this way back in January, I asked if there was any way they could envision continuing the group once I have moved on. It eventually transpired that Sara - who runs the Chatterbooks group at Ashburton Library - would be interested in perhaps amalgamating the two and, on Saturday, came along to introduce herself and Chatterbooks to the Young Writers.
This will inevitably mean some changes, which Sara is keen to embrace. Chatterbooks is mainly a reading group but they do encourage Creative Writing in the way of competitions, guest speakers and adventures in writing by perhaps imagining what it would be like to be the hero or heroine of whatever book the group had reviewed. I will be giving Sara a manual detailing how I have run AYW - ie the Certificate Trail and awards and we will all just have to see how things pan out.
As I said on Saturday, I will still be contactible by email and most of you should have my mobile number so if your talented wordsmiths need advice, I will endeavour to oblige. One mum asked if I could continue the group virtually and this is something I will have to look into before I can let you all know - a lot depends on time and my other commitments, but having said that, I would certainly like to hear how everyone progresses, so it will not be goodbye, just cheerio.
I will be around for the next four sessions and I am still going to compile our poetry leaflet, so all is not lost.
I will update on everything we did writingwise next post in a day or two but I wanted to bring you all up to speed following Saturday's announcements. Speak soon.
Friday 6 April 2018
Important Session!
Hi Young Writers, mums and dads. How was your Easter? I went away for the weekend to Cheshire. We visited the Terracotta Warriors! It was fascinating to see these life size models that are thousands of years old and discovered as recent as 1974! They were in remarkable condition, preserved to perfection and each one had a story to tell! Truly amazing!
Don't forget about tomorrow's session. PLEASE PLEASE P L E A S E do your best to attend as I would love to tell you our news face to face but if you really cannot make it, I will understand and I will do a blog update after the session so that you can all catch up.
Also don't forget to bring in any short poems the Young Writers would like to be considered for our poetry leaflet. I will fit as many in as I can so I need lots brought along. Would love some more suggestions for the title of the leaflet as well, so jot them down and bring them in and we will put them to the vote.
Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow then!
Don't forget about tomorrow's session. PLEASE PLEASE P L E A S E do your best to attend as I would love to tell you our news face to face but if you really cannot make it, I will understand and I will do a blog update after the session so that you can all catch up.
Also don't forget to bring in any short poems the Young Writers would like to be considered for our poetry leaflet. I will fit as many in as I can so I need lots brought along. Would love some more suggestions for the title of the leaflet as well, so jot them down and bring them in and we will put them to the vote.
Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow then!
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