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09 March 2024

Posted by By Sue Edser

Killing Your Darlings

Junior Writers 

The Junior Writers were showing their pre-performance prowess in this session, ready for the writing festival’s Community Showcase the following day.

The session began with a writing warm-up, to get everyone's creative energy buzzing. Ali Sparkes asked the Junior Writers to create an Easter Bunny with a twist. This one was bad! The group wrote about bunnies who were not nice at all and if they were real, would certainly have been put on the naughty step. 

The focus then turned to the witness statements and newspaper reports about MAST’s ghost cat. Everyone read out their work and Sue timed how long they took. The lengths ranged from 16 seconds to 1 min 38 seconds, with a total running time of approximately 12 minutes. This would fit well within the 30-minute slot the group had scheduled on Sunday.

While sharing their stories about the spooky cat, there were also some mysterious dramas in the room. A man’s voice could be heard announcing for people to go to places in the building and a water bottle fell over twice. Could the ghost cat have been playing tricks on the Junior Writers?

Young Writers 

The Young Writers had their work cut out in this session, as they made their final preparations for the writing festival’s Community Showcase the following day.

Ali Sparkes began the session with a warm-up, asking the young people to write a short story about a sinister Easter Bunny. The imaginative writers came up with scenarios that made us laugh, gasp and look at the Easter Bunny story in a new light. All I can say is, guard your Easter eggs this year!

The focus then turned to the witness statements and newspaper reports about MAST’s ghost. Everyone presented their work and we talked about how to read well in front of an audience. We considered pacing and how to manage nerves. 

Ali wanted to make sure the group stayed within their time slot the next day, but the lengths of the pieces ranged from one minute to three and a half minutes. This meant everyone had to relook at their work and do the thing writers find challenging: edit! Ali explained the concept of ‘killing your darlings’ and how important it is to fit within a time or word count.

They all rose to the challenge and were excited about the Community Showcase the next day.

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