Young readers can strengthen their writing skills and see where their imagination takes them (and... shh… keep up their school-skills!)
We are looking for budding authors aged between five and nine years old to write a short story. It can be in the style of this month’s PJ Library books – a new take on an old idea like On Noah’s Ark, or the telling of a true-to-life event from Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed.
Maximum length is 500 words. Illustrations are optional.
Jacqueline Harris, author of Write Your Own Book, will judge the entries and choose winners from two age categories. They will each receive Paperchase vouchers and PJ Library gift packs.
Email entries to info@pjlibrary.org.uk or post to: PJ Library in the UK, JHub, Haskell House, 152 West End Lane, London NW6 1SD, by 5th September.
(Posted entries cannot be returned unless a SAE is provided).
Here Are Some Top Writing Tips from Our Judge:
- Talk about your story before you write it. Tell someone about the characters and the plot and ask them what they think.
- Borrow ideas from other stories you have read. You could write another version of Noah’s Ark from a different animal’s point of view.
- Just write. Do not worry about anything else to start off with, just get your ideas down on paper. Or ask someone to help write it down for you; the story is the most important thing at the beginning.
- Check through it. Once it is written, you can go back and edit it for spelling and punctuation, checking it makes sense. If you do change something than neatly cross it out as you may not want to write it out all over again.
- Use great words. It can make all the difference to a story, so think about the best words to use and interesting ways to describe people or events.
- Pictures. Your reader may love to see a drawing so feel free to illustrate your story if you want.
- What’s the plot? There is no rule as to how much you should write at one time. You can write a bit and then come back to it later or write the whole lot in one go! The only thing that it has to have is a beginning, a middle (where something happens) and an end.
- Viewpoints. If you choose to write another version of a story you know, think about the most important parts of the plot and what will have to be in the story. It might be from a different viewpoint. Was it like for the huge elephants to be in the Ark? Or how did the cheetahs manage without running about for forty days and nights?
- That’s amazing! If you choose to write about something that really happened consider what will be interesting for someone else to read. It should be a bit unusual to capture the reader’s attention. If Ketzel had just been about an ordinary cat would it have been so interesting? Try and find a true story about someone in your family that might be really interesting to tell or maybe about something amazing that happened to you!
July 14, 2016