Deadline for doors and windows story: 2nd December 2013

Animal, vegetable or mineral?

A shorty this time because I know you're all still trying to catch up! Compare your character to something from the natural world - what would they be an why?

Dealing with life's little catastrophes

Your character is on their way somewhere Very Important when it starts to rain.  Heavily.  With no umbrella and no coat.  How does your character react?  Do they embrace the glory from the heavens or do they curse and mutter their way to safety?

Confront your fears!

What is your character afraid of?  Force them to confront their biggest fear - what is it and how do they behave?

We're going down!!!

Your character is in an aeroplane, crashing it's way into the wintery sea below.  How do they behave?  What do they do?  Do they calm others or sob wildly?  Do they stay firmly in their seats or rush around the aeroplace?  You decide!!!

Main Theme for Term

Righto people - our main theme is going to be 'Doors and Windows' - so the sky is the limit as long as it's around that theme.  Deadline is 29th November - enjoy writing!

Challenge!

This is my challenge to you fellow creative writers.  This term, i.e. before Christmas, I would like everyone to have entered at least one creative writing competition - we're all brilliant, so let's start earning some reward for our hard work.

The BookTrust website has a great list of competitions so get on there and choose something to have a go at!  Keep this post updated with your entries and success!

Welcome back!

Your character is at the start of something new - describe what it is and how it is making them feel.  It might be a new thing to eat, something new to wear, somewhere new to go or something bigger such as a new home, new job, new life even...

Leaving on a jetplane...

Your character is taking a trip - what kind of a trip is it?  Are they going on holiday or is it business?  Are they going to Europe or further afield?  Are they excited about it or dreading it?

Non-Creative Task

As we are nearing the end of our first year of the Belper Inkslingers, I just wanted everyone to take a moment and think about:

- What bits do you enjoy?
- What bits don't you enjoy?
- Do you find it useful?
- How else do you think we could make it more useful?
- What else could we do to make it better?

Any ideas gladly taken - one thing I definitely want to do is put someone else in charge of making the magazine as I always find I run out of time!

Freya

On a journey

Your character is going on a long journey - how do they travel?  Do they enjoy the journey or are they just eager to get there?

Your character goes on a date...

Love is in the air and your character is stepping out with their beau!  Describe their first date using free verse!

Character in danger!

Your character suspects that they are being followed.  Write a short scene (of no more than 400 words) describing how they behave and their thoughts.

Are they confident or nervous?  Are they terrified or do they think it's a joke?

Tuesday 4th June Challenge

Right, now we've created our characters, it's time to do something with them!

Using the character that you created last time, write an account of them at a family dinner.  Decide who their family is, what kind of a house it is, what they eat, etc.  How do they react when eating dinner?  What do they talk about?  Use your imagination, but make your character real!

A character of our own

You need to create a character of your own choice.  You need to introduce them, including their physical appearance, their background, their personality, their likes and dislikes and anything else that you can think of.  Over the next few weeks, we're going to be putting these people into new situations and seeing how they react so make sure you know your people inside and out!

Creating a character

In up to 150 words create a home setting for one of the following characters so that we can imagine the absent person vividly: a middle-aged recluse; a heart-throb actor in a TV soap; a foster child; a famous writer with writer's block; a modern artist; a female detective.

Now create a list of five cherished items belonging to the same character.

Summer Term Big Project

Right then, for this summer term's big project for the magazine, I'd like us to think about songs with a story.

So, step 1, find a song with a story - there are some great ideas on this website or if you're looking for my favourite suggestions then how about Copacabana or Matty Groves?

Step 2 - rewrite it!  You can choose to either:

1. Write it as a first person account of events or
2. Write is as a newspaper article of events or
3. Write it as a script

Your choice but make it as creative as possible!  Let me know in the comments which song you're going to do and which approach you're intending on taking (although you can always change your mind!)

Freya

Character Voices

Choose two characters from the following list and develop their voices:  a fitness fanatic; a disillusioned nurse; a bored, gifted student; a jovial social climber; a music-loving dentist; a coochie-coochie pet lover; a stern old man.  Make the voices different in rhythm, sentence-length, vocabulary and degrees of eloquence.  Write two monologues of up to 300 words each.

Asymmetrical people

People's faces are rarely symmetrical.  Look at the people's faces around you and notice the minute differences in each side - see each face as two sides and each side having a character - what different characters might be in that person's face - artful dodger/serious student; romantic poet/traffic warden; wise child/partygoer.  Write 250 words of this person's thoughts, trying to let both sides of their personality come through.

Baubles of beauty

Write a detailed description of a Christmas bauble, with a focus on what the bauble is reflecting of the room it sits in.