Tag: writing advice

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 8th December

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Character games on Zoom and a mix of Christmas writing and crafts at schools!

Monday

Monday 11 Plus Zoom Group: Today the challenge was everyone had to create a character and add a bio for them into the chat. We then challenged ourselves to write a ‘blind’ story, (in other words, we all write something without knowing what the others had written and then paste it all together) using these characters This was a lot of fun and the story actually made sense!

Monday CJS Club: Various Christmas themed activities were on offer today, including a host of Christmas story starters, mini books they could do anything they liked with and lots of Christmassy images and phrases to create a story or poem from! They had a lot of (excitable!) fun putting various books and ideas together. I forgot to take photos but I wish I had as they were all amazing!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom group: Only a small group today but we had a lot of fun with characters too. We each created one and put them in the chat. They could be written bios or pictures. We then spun a wheel and all got allocated one randomly which we had to write something in response to. This was so much fun and although it felt a little weird writing for someone else’s character for a bit, it then flowed beautifully and some great pieces were created!

Bransgore C of E Primary School Club: Our last session with this group before Christmas so they were busy making Christmas themed bookmarks with Christmas themed poems written on them to take home as a gift for a loved one. A host of beautiful bookmarks were created!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: More character fun in this session and lots of them joined in to add a host of wacky characters to the chat. We then allocated them randomly and had a lot of fun responding with pieces of writing!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: Sam activity for this group and again, a lot of fun was hat! Some brilliant characters were put into the chat, including my favourite, ‘Bobeter’ the chicken! Some highly amusing mini stories were written for these eclectic characters!

Wednesday CJS Club: More crafty Christmassy activities and it’s fair to say everyone in this group went mad for the mini books and the images and words I’d brought in! I did remember to take photos so check them out below to see what wonderful writing and creativity was displayed. From stories, to poems, to recipe books, comics, adverts and more! Absolutely brilliant!

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School: Our last session here before Christmas so this group were writing their Christmas poems and decorating their bookmarks! Fantastic effort. See you all soon!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 1st December

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Poetry in schools and responding to wintry images on Zoom!

Monday

Monday Zoom Group: Today we had a selection of wintry themed landscape images to respond to in the chat. They could respond in any way they liked, with poetry, flash fiction, a non-fiction descriptive piece or a story! The images went down quiet well with some wonderful story ideas forming!

Monday CJS Club: This group had a poetry prompt today, which involved writing a 5 line poem about memories of a favourite toy. They could have a Christmas vibe if they liked! They also got on with more work in their newspapers!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: This group had the same wintry landscape images to respond to

Bransgore C of E Primary: As we are in the library for this club we had a slightly different poetry prompt. They had to use the last line of any book and use it to write a poem!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: Fantastic responses to the wintry landscape prompts this week, with some new pieces written as well as some using the images to tie in with their on-going projects!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: this group also gave a fantastic response to the images. Everyone wrote a brand new piece and many of them decided these could grow into bigger stories they want to continue with next week!

Wednesday CJS Club: We did some poetry on this club today, using the same 5 line poetry prompt about a favourite toy or memory of a toy. This went really well and lots of them lined up at the end to share their poems!

Thursday

Burton C of E Primary School: This week we had a small break from the on-going mini newspapers and wandered into the school library. Everyone had to find a last line from any book and then use that to write a poem, story or comic strip from! This went really well. Here are some pictures from last week of their newspapers so far!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C Nov 3rd

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This week we’ve looked at personification, specifically when describing landscapes!

Monday

Monday Zoom Group: We started with reminding ourselves what personification is and had some examples of it being used specifically when describing landscapes. The children then had a go at writing their own descriptive landscape piece using personification techniques to really bring it alive! The results were amazing and they then got back to their ongoing stories for the Lakeside View project!

There was no CJS Monday club this week due to a staff day.

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: We also discussed personification and used the examples and prompts to practice our skills. Amazing responses from everyone, well done!

Bransgore C of E School: Personification was a new concept for the youngest children in this group but they rose to the challenge beautifully and wrote some fantastic sentences! The results from everyone were of a very high standard and again we had lots of children lining up wanting to share their descriptive pieces!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Group: Amazing results in this group from the personification prompt and discussion. Again, everyone was super proud of their efforts and really noticed the difference it made to their writing! More progress on Lakeside View stories too!

Wednesday 8-11 Group: Personification was a new concept for some of the younger group and again they really rose to the challenge! I was very impressed with the personification sentences, descriptions and poems they all came up with!

Wednesday CJS Club: more fun with personification in landscapes with these guys and some stunning examples were written too! Some of the younger ones learnt about the technique for the first time and were really proud when they mastered it!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 6th October

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Newspaper covers for school clubs, creating eerie and unsettling scenes for Zoom!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: Today we were looking at how you can create horror and tension by turning everyday and ordinarily pleasant scenes into something more unsettling and uneasy… We went through some tips such as using objects, using characters, using dialogue and using the senses to make a pleasant scene feel creepy. We had some prompts to get us started and the results were amazing! Well done all!

Monday CJS Club: Last week they worked so hard on their template poems that today they deserved a more relaxed and creative session. They were all given their newspaper covers and could decorate and design them any way they liked. I brought in pictures and cut out words and phrases to help inspire front covers in a magazine or newspaper style. We also used teabags to make the newspapers look old! These were amazing and it was a really fun session with all the children fully engaged and excited about putting their newspapers together.

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom group: This group also had the tips on changing an ordinary scene into one that scares us and chose from the prompts, coming up with some seriously unsettling pieces! Well done everyone!

Bransgore C of E Primary School Club: This group got to design and decorate their newspaper/magazine covers today and had great fun in doing so. Here are some examples of their work so far.

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom group: This group had great fun with the making a normal scene creepy task and prompts! The idea is to create a very ordinary scene such as a birthday party, or watching Tv, or walking the dog, and then use either objects, characters, dialogue or the senses to create an uneasy and unsettling atmosphere. These guys were fantastic at doing just that!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: The younger group never shy away from a challenge and they also had the same tips and prompts and could choose whether to create a funny or scary scene using the very everyday setting/scenario. Their responses were also wonderful!

Wednesday CJS Club: These guys were excited to get stuck into decorating and designing their ongoing newspapers today and as you can see, the results are amazing!!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 15th September

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Article writing for everyone!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: We carried on with the articles we started last week! Great work everyone.

Monday CJS Club: Fantastic to be back with this club today, with a mix of familiar faces and new ones. We got started on article writing! They could write real articles or made up ones, and could use picture prompts and headline suggestions to help them. They made a terrific start as you can see from the images, and we will finish these off next week!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: Lots of finished articles in this group today, well done everyone! We then moved onto a poetry prompt. ‘I Am…’ poetry templates were posted in the chat for students to respond to. The template involved three stanzas, each starting with a line such as ‘I am…’ or ‘I hope…’ The first ‘I am’ line is repeated at the start and end of each stanza. These can be filled in from a personal perspective or from the pov of a character! We had a mix of responses and all were absolutely wonderful!

Bransgore C of E Primary School: Today the children finished the articles they started last week and as you can see from the pictures, they are very eye catching! From lost dogs, and shoplifters, to portals to cake land and warring islands, these news stories are extremely imaginative! Well done everyone!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: A mix of finishing articles and trying the ‘I Am…’ poetry template from this group today. Lots of work shared and a bit more progress on the Lakeside View projects too! Fantastic!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: These guys finished their articles last week so today tried the ‘I Am’ poetry template, using their Lakeside View characters for the POV! These were excellent and are definitely going in the book!

Wednesday CJS Club: Lovely to be back with this bunch today! They started their mini articles and had fun deciding what their front page news would be! The images below show how hard they worked on these today!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 7th July

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Flash fiction prompts and progress on our ‘town stories’ project!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: We started today with a flash fiction challenge. They had three options: writing their current town story in as least words as possible, writing a future story idea in as least words as possible or rewriting a well known tale or story in as least words as possible! After we had progress on town stories!

Monday CJS Club: We had flash fiction prompts also but most made progress with their town stories. We had another story typed up and finished and another one in the process of being typed up. Brilliant!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 plus Zoom club: We started with flash fiction prompts and these were excellent and mostly shortened versions of the bigger stories they are working on! Then we made progress on the town stories themselves.

Bransgore Primary After School Club: More progress on town stories with another one finished and typed up! These guys have shown a real enthusiasm and commitment to getting their stories done!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom club: Flash fiction prompts and progress on town stories in this group today! These stories are shaping up to be very special and I can’t wait to share them with you when this next book project is done! Well done everyone!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom club: We started with the flash fiction challenge and then moved on to writing more of our town stories.

Wednesday CJS Club: Flash fiction options for these guys too and more town stories finished and typed up! Excellent!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 16th June

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What did we get up to this week?? More work on our collaborative project and out anthology is ready to preorder!!

Exciting times at Chasing Driftwood Writing Group, as an anthology over a year in the making is finally available to preorder! The World You Gave Us is an anthology of poetry, flash fiction, short stories and creative non-fiction written entirely by young people who attend our clubs. On the 30th June it will be published in both ebook and paperback by our own imprint Chasing Driftwood Books and will be available across multiple platforms. I’ll share the relevant links next week when the Amazon paperback version has been approved.

our anthology!

A huge congratulation to all the young people who took part!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: This week we looked at tension; what it is, why its important and how to build it into our stories, We discussed various tips on creating tension, such as using short, sharp sentences, paying attention to sensory information and using the character’s body language, and we had tension themed prompts to respond to. Great work from all and further progress on all the town stories!

Monday CJS Club: Mostly progress on town stories today with a few actually finished! Amazing! Well done everyone. We also had a chat about tension and discussed the techniques we can use to add tension to our stories.

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom club: This group also had the tension tips followed by the tension prompts and we also had great progress on all the town stories. Well done to all!

Bransgore Primary School: Today we discussed how to add tension to stories and made more progress with our town stories with a few finished! Great work!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: The same discussion on adding tension to scenes, tension themed prompts to choose from, followed by progress on our town stories. Great work from all. Their on-going collaborative story is also nearly finished!!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: These guys did really well responding to the tension techniques and the prompts combined! Lots of progress!

Wednesday CJS Club: This group also discussed how to add tension to stories and continued to make progress with their town project. We also have a few finished stories in this group now!!

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 19th May

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Progress on our next big writing project!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: We started with a writing prompt: “The view from here is…” They could go any way with this, responding with non-fiction, or using it to get into the POV of their character for the town project. We had a great mix of responses as well as more progress on the plots for the town stories!

Monday CJS Club: We also made progress on stories, with everyone either working on plots or actually starting their stories. We discussed different ways to plot a story too.

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 plus Zoom club: Responses to the prompt, “The view from here is…” which went very well with this group. Each member used the prompt to get under the skin of their town project character and some stories have now been started too! Excellent!

Bransgore School club: We looked at different ways to plot a story and worked on plots for most of the session, though some people have started writing their stories too!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom club: Writing prompt responses, plus plotting for our stories and using the prompt to get into our character’s and explore their viewpoint, whether physical or otherwise! Great work!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom club: Another mix of fabulous responses to the prompt, plus plots advancing for town stories!

Wednesday CJS Club:

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 12th May

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What did we do this week? Creating characters for our next big writing project!

Monday

Monday Zoom Club: This group voted on the event they think our town should experience and worked on their character bios for the short stories we will soon be writing. They also made progress on their own individual writing projects!

Monday CJS club: The last club to vote on the event the town experiences, plus adding their character’s homes to the project book and any suggestions for town names. Some stories have even been started in this group! Here are a few examples of their characters and stories…

Tuesday 11 Plus Zoom group: With voting for the town event now over and counted, I was able to reveal to this group that the ‘strange creatures spotted’ option won! This option had the most votes by far so I hope everyone is going to be excited about writing stories for it. All they have to do is ensure their story mentions the town and the event! They can have any other plot they like, or they can make their story about the town and the creatures spotted there.

Tuesday Bransgore Primary School: The children voted for their favourite town name and continued to work on their characters. Some created more bios for their story, some worked on homes for their character and some started planning their stories! Fantastic work! Here are a few examples:

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 Plus Zoom Group: We discussed the result of the vote on the event that happens in our town and we voted on a name for the town. They then had options which including adding to their character bios, creating a home for their characters, drawing maps of their part of town or starting to plot their story. Great work everyone!

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom Group: This group also voted on the name for our town, and we had a mix of some children working on character bios, some creating homes for their characters, and some starting to plot their stories… Fab!

Wednesday CJS Club: This group also voted on our town name and I can now exclusively reveal that Lakeside View won the vote! Thank you to everyone for making such great suggestions. We had more character work from some and plotting and even starting stories from others! Here are a few examples:

Children’s Writing Clubs W/C 21st May

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What did we get up to this week?

There was no Monday clubs this week due to it being a bank holiday. There was also no club at Bransgore school due to an inset day there. Here is what the rest of us got up to!

Tuesday

Tuesday 11 plus Zoom group: For this session, we discussed our group story which is now finished and has has been edited a few times. We discussed changing a bit towards the end that didn’t quite work and once that is done, the story can be added to the anthology all the groups have been working on. Today we also had a writing prompt: From a window. For this, they could write a fictional or non-fiction story, or a poem, describing a view from a window. We also discussed my new idea for another collaborative writing project all the groups will get involved in and this group were really enthusiastic about it!

Wednesday

Wednesday 11 plus Zoom group: Similar to the above, we had some discussion over their group story which is drawing to an end but will need editing when finished. I set them the From a Window prompt and also explained my new idea for a short story collection.

Wednesday 8-11 Zoom group: This group had the same prompt and most of them decided to respond to that. They could also carry on with ongoing stories or poems too, and a few of them went with that option. They also seemed keen on my new idea for a big writing project!

Wednesday CJS Club: Today I told the group about my new idea and they had plenty of questions about how it will work. We set the goal for this term of each creating a character and working towards a short story for that character. We talked about simple and complex character bios and everyone started creating one. Towards the end some of them pretended to be their characters and were interviewed by the rest of us!

See you next week where we will have more news on the anthology AND the new book idea!