Hi everyone, and welcome to Wonderful Writers - our creative writing competition run in partnership with Wirral Libraries.
There are two competitions, one for those aged between 5 and 8 years of old and the other for children aged 9 to 11 years.
So, if you are aged between 5 and 11 then you can join in. Oh, you also have to live in Wirral too.
Assuming that you do let’s get on with explaining things. Firstly, this competition is open only during the summer of 2019 – between 22nd July to 9th September 2019 to be exact. So, if you want to submit a story it has to be in by 9th September 2019 at the latest.
Secondly, let’s discuss the prizes.
Both winners of the first prize will win a family ticket to see this year’s Christmas Panto at the Floral Pavilion. Winners of the second prize will win a £25.00 book voucher. Winner of third prize will win a £10.00 book voucher. We will also award commendation certificates to all good stories not only to their authors but also their school as well.
This year’s theme is about “Space Chase” and is linked to the Summer Reading Challenge which celebrates 50 years since Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. In this competition the story is up to you. Perhaps you are an astronaut lost in space or a friendly Martian who suddenly has a spaceship land in your garden. Set your story wherever you want to it be. Could it be in your home on earth or on the planet Jupiter or even a planet you have made up in your head. It could start inside a spaceship or a space station.
Just remember the story can only be up to 1000 words.
The most important thing we are looking for is for your story to be as creative and amazing as possible. We really love reading imaginative stories.
Make sure your story has a great start, middle and ending to it.
At the start introduce where you story begins, can you describe this? We want to be transported from our office and land directly in your story so tell us what we can see, hear, smell, taste and feel.
Bring in your main character, are they the goodie? Perhaps you want them to be the baddie? We don’t mind. We do want you to describe them though. We want to close our eyes and imagine what your character looks like. Do they have a name? Characters in space stories always have out of this world names so be really imaginative when thinking of their name. What are they like? Are they playful, brave, scary, scared, naughty or clever?
Now we want to read about what happens to them. For example, we don’t want to read about a journey into space where not much happens. That’s boring – yawn! We want something interesting to happen. It could be fun, it could be sad, but it must be interesting, imaginative and exciting. Perhaps you are hurtling towards a black hole, or crash land on an alien planet, what are you going to do? Are you going to just sit there? No, of course you are not. What if local aliens come and have a look at your broken-down spaceship? Are they really the enemy? Perhaps they are friendly and curious and want to help (imagine if you were sitting outside in your garden when a spaceship from Saturn landed on your washing line, what would you do?)
Lastly, we want there to be an ending. Have you learnt something, about yourself or others?
Personally, and I am one of the judges by the way, I like stories that may me think rather than ones where people just fight each other. I do like a moral at the end of a story, just like in a fairy tale. An example could be do not be rude to people or do not always listen to what people tell you. Could there be a moral in your story?
You can stick some dialogue into your story if you want. Remember to mention how your characters talk by the way. Rather than,
“I am Lord Cosmic Charlie the Courageous,” said Charlie.
Have it a bit more like this,
“I am Lord Cosmic Charlie the Courageous,” boomed the grey bearded fool.
With all stories your reader will want to know how your character and, perhaps, the others, feels about things during the story. Are they sad and unhappy at the start, scared in the middle and hilariously happy at the end?
When you have finished your story, we want you to read through it and make sure you are happy with it. Perhaps let someone else read it and let them tell you what they think about it. Did they like it, did they understand what was going on, could they close their eyes and imagine that they were there?
Please also check that you have spelt everything correctly and, if you can, punctuate the story as much as you can. It’s always nice to have commas’ and full stops to let your reader have a breather. Using paragraphs is also a good idea as is the use of capital letters, speech bubbles and so on.
Check too that you are using really good adjectives to describe everything and verbs to describe what your characters are doing and adverbs to show how they are doing it.
Lastly, don’t forget to give it a really catchy title.
Just before I go, remember a story should be about getting what is in your imagination down onto your computer or on paper. Take your time and make sure you have written it all. Don’t worry about not writing 1000 words too. Think quality over quantity.
Please make sure your parents, guardian or carer read our rules page before you submit your story.
If you have any queries, then ask your parent, guardian or carer to contact me on wonderfulwriters@readnowwritenow.org.uk.
To submit a story you need your parent, guardian or carer to email wonderfulwriters@readnowwritenow.org.uk
Please make sure the person who submits your story has read the rules below, especially Rule 3.
Don’t forget the deadline and best of luck.
Charlie