I’ve just got back from a full day’s creative writing workshop at the fabulous Story Museum in Oxford, with thirteen 8-12-year-olds – and it was BRILLIANT. We did story starters (trying to identify which are real book titles and which are made up is HARD!), asking the endless questions that start WHAT IF…? (…buildings had brains? Air and water swapped over? Humans lived forever?), drama games to create character, plotting and story arcs – and front cover design, if there was time. Whew! Here’s the day, in pictures…
The Long Room – a haven for creative thinking!I had the strangest feeling I was being watched…Storytelling throne. Beautiful!I was a LITTLE alarmed by what was written on the flipchart when I arrived…an omen, perhaps?!At the end of the day, the table was a little more cluttered…A story about a boy who accidentally finds himself in Girl Land…The girls, rather taken aback by his appearance and worried he will be slain, make him drink a magic potion that turns him into a girl…but he’s deeply unhappy about this!Mellisa is on a boring shopping trip with her mother, when the lift she’s in takes her on a terrifying plunge into the depths of Hell…Escape from Bone Castle, typed onto computer by me on behalf of a boy who finds handwriting difficult because his brain is going too fast for his fingers!A Life of Running – a cracking title – with character description and story arc planA terrifyingly gory story about a man who returns home to find his brother’s remains spread across a willow tree……though the plotting of the story proved easier than the actual writing, as many writers have found!BB falls down a well. First, she is nearly rescued by bucket (but it breaks), then by a man on a rope – but he falls in too! How will they escape?! Great demonstration of rising tension!Disaster Day. Poor Tom Jones. He thought he was just going to go to the cinema…We were occasionally joined by a helpful mascot…or a wooden puppet
Many thanks to the Story Museum staff for inviting me in to be part of the Summer Story Makers week – and most importantly, thank you to the KIDS who tried everything with enthusiasm and some fantastic results! Maybe some writers of the future there, who knows…?
If YOUR child is keen on writing, there may still be spaces left for next week’s Story Makers course – and I’ll be doing my thing again next Thursday. You can sign them up for a full five days (they get to do illustration and animation and printing and all KINDS of awesomeness!) or pick and choose which days. Just go to the Story Museum website to find out more!
Jo Cotterill 