Character bios

Competition progress plus character bios in school clubs and more quick everyday writing prompts on Zoom!

Monday

CJS Monday Club: This group had three options today. They could continue any story or poem started recently for the Bournemouth Writing Festival competition, or otherwise, they could create a character bio for a character they have in their story or they could use six memo notes to tell a story. We had a lovely mix of responses to the choices, with progress on stories, and lots of children opting to create their own character bio. Some of them also started writing stories using the memo notes! Fantastic. We also had the fountain pen to play with and I brought in my vintage typewriter which they took turns using.

Tuesday

11 Plus Zoom group: The Zoom groups have all had the following prompts to choose from this week OR they could continue with anything they already have on the go:

Write about every day small ‘wins’ or victories
Write a quick letter to your future self
Write about how writing makes you feel
What is your earliest memory?
Or take any of these phrases and write something in response;
“the ghost of you”
“the last shelter”
“that one time I forgot…”
“the river turned and churned then spat up a secret”
“everyone here is a little mad…”

Interestingly, everyone chose the same prompt! ‘Everyone here is a little mad…’

Bransgore C of E Primary School: These guys also enjoyed using the typewriter today and we had a mixture of things going on, with some choosing to do character bios, some carrying on stories they’ve started recently and others finishing off poems for the BWF competition!

Wednesday

11 Plus Zoom Group: This group had the same prompts to choose from and we had a wide variety of different responses, plus progress on on-going stories!

8-11 Zoom group: These guys have really been enjoying the prompts choices lately, and today was no different with lots of prompts being tackled in the spirit of ‘quick everyday writing’! Fantastic!

CJS Wednesday Club: I didn’t take the typewriter today as I walked to the club and the typewriter is very heavy! I have promised to bring it next week though! This group were either carrying on with the BWF competition stories or they were learning how to create a character bio! There was also the option to write a story or comic strip using the colourful memo notes.

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School: These guys were mostly working on stories for the BWF competition or they were creating character bios! Great work from all!

Monday

Monday Zoom group: The new collaborative book idea was explained to this group today and voting commenced on four options we have in creating a short story collection together. The idea is everyone will write their own story and will come up with their own character but the stories all have to be connected some way. We did some character work today to get started! The options are:

An OBJECT is passed through the stories and every story must include this object somehow

A SHARED EXPERIENCE on a train – everyone creates a character who then responds to something that happens on a train

A SHARED EXPERIENCE in a town – we collectively create a town and everyone creates their own character, we agree on an event and each character responds to the event

A SHARED LOCATION – everyone creates a character and writes their own story but all the stories must connect with a shared location

Monday CJS club: Voting for the collaborative short story collection idea and character creation! We also had character interviews where the group get to ask the ‘character’s questions in order to get to know them better. As you can see, the bios are wonderful!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom group: After working on character ideas last week, this group got to vote on the collaborative project idea today. They also carried on creating characters, adding back stories and motivation and more. Fantastic. I’m very excited about the characters being created in this group!

Tuesday Bransgore School: This group also voted on the collaborative idea, and started character bios. We had a few ready for interview and will do the rest next week! Here are a few examples:

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom group: Voting for the group project idea and progress on their previous group story, plus creating characters from scratch OR adding more detail via back story, motivation and more…

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom group: This group also got to to vote on the collaborative book idea and then returned to creating characters for it!

Wednesday CJS club: We voted on the collaborative idea, and finished the interviews we started last week! More work on character bios. Here are a few examples: