Gill Lewis

Seriously check out her website. It's so much fun!

Ralph Allen Writes presents Rebecca Tucker

Unfortunately Ralph Allen Writes 2011 competition is now totally come to an end. Winners have been announced. Prizes have been given. Anthologies have gone on sale. I certainly have learnt a lot from it and I think the pupils involved have learnt a lot too. Being creative is not easy, you know. It takes a lot of work but all the pupils who entered the competition are now published writers, which is amazing!

There was one girl, however, that missed out on the opportunity to be published. I'm putting it down to some computer malfunction. So here for your pleasure is a story that's definitely worth a Creative Thinkers post. Rebecca Tucker's chilling tale, Trapped Forever:

“Beware of the ring! Do not put it on your finger or you will be trapped forever!” The fortune teller’s voice was cruel and emotionless. As Harry walked out of the tent his face was as white and blank as an icy lake. He felt quite taken aback! Didn’t fortune tellers normally say what you wanted to hear?

            Over time, Harry’s family moved house, into an extremely beautiful Tudor building. After the family had settled in, Harry discovered an archaic basement. Feeling curious, he decided to explore the dusty rooms. Harry found a small box and, feeling inquisitive, chose to look. Harry opened the lid of the tiny container and found a ring with a grinning skull. Feeling rather disappointed that it was just an old ring; he put it on his finger. After all it was pretty cool!

            Suddenly, Harry found himself falling through the clouds and realised that the ground was getting closer. Harry hit the floor with a thud. He looked round the room, flooded with light. It was as empty as an abandoned cave. Without warning the light in the room got blindingly bright and it filled with fire, closing in on Harry like a hungry tiger…

            Harry woke up. Thankfully it was just a dream! Rubbing his eyes he noticed someone standing at the end of his bed.

            “Happy birthday!” his mum exclaimed. “I brought you breakfast, it’s your favourite!” She held out an enormous pile of pancakes.

            “But my birthday’s a week away!” Harry answered.

            “Don’t be daft Harry!” his mum said, handing him the pile.

Harry stopped arguing and ate his breakfast. He had to admit, it was lovely!

            At school that day everyone was unusually nice to Harry: Mrs Turner had given him chocolates for winning a maths quiz, his mum had made him a special birthday lunch, Mr Wood had given him a cake with pink icing and a candle and his class had sung happy birthday to him!

           

Walking home, a sudden noise made Harry wake up from his daydream and, as he looked up, he realised that he had no idea where he was. The sky was filled with beautiful stars and Harry felt himself turning as he tried to see them all. The stars became a blur as Harry turned faster and in their place were terrifying ruby eyes.  As he watched, unable to move, Harry saw several monsters’ heads appearing out the darkness, then their bodies and, last of all, their hideous red tails. He heard a murmuring growl that grew into a furious roar of victory. Harry shut his eyes and covered his ears, hoping desperately that they would go!

            Without warning everything changed. The dreadful scarlet creatures were replaced by a flaming ring of fire, out of which emerged terrifying, headless zombies, dripping with blood.  Suddenly, Harry remembered something someone had said to him years ago. “I am trapped forever in my dream…” Harry realised as the Zombies closed around him, ready to kill.

To order a copy of the Ralph Allen Writes Anthology please email me. They are only £5 each with proceeds split between Ralph Allen School funds and Cancer Research.

DAY 365!!! Be a Creative Thinker too...

Wow people! I have successfully reached the end of my blog challenge completing 365 posts to inspire creativity! I hope your have been motivated to get creative through at least one of the posts I have created over the last year. It's been great fun and I've learnt a lot about writing and about what creative opportunities going on all over the place, ready and waiting for us to get involved...

This is by no means the end for Creative Thinkers. Watch this space for more inspiration, but please don't be cross if I miss the odd day or two. So, as I sign off from my year of blogging, I leave you this challenge:

What do you to be creative? Write, bake, knit, dance, paint...whatever it is, try doing a little bit each day for a year and see what you can achieve. Take up my challenge and become a creative thinker for the world to see...

Be inspired. Be creative.

Day 362: The gift of the gab...

Since a very young age I've been pretty chatty, especially on a one-to-one basis. Meeting up for coffee with a friend is one of my favourite things to do.

So why am I telling you this? Well, chatting away to people is pretty handy for a creative person.

Over the summer I'm going to be working with Bath Festivals who organise two literature festivals and a music festival each year, as well as going into schools and inspiring creativity through drama and writing. It all started when I got chatting to Karl at a book event I went to over a year ago now.

Yesterday I got chatting to this women on an art stall in Bath. As I bought a piece of her art, I was chatting about finishing Uni and doing my internship with Bath Festivals...then she asked if I wanted to come a work with them on the stall!

What area do your creative talents lie? Drama, dance, music, writing, textiles...? Wherever it is, talking to people in your field seems like the way forward. Just see what happens. Sometimes we fall into these things, but more often that not, it's not what you know, but who you know!

Day 358: Flip by Martyn Bedford (part 2)

Often when I read books they will present me with ideas that inspire me, that spark my imagination. I get lost in my own thoughts and forget I'm even reading a book. Does that ever happen to you?

I read this in Flip by Martyn Bedford and was taken far away:

'Imagine radio and TV signals 

were visual - the sky would be

 full of them, a blizzard of sound

and image swirling through the air.'

That's exactly what I did. I imagined it. A world full of signals. You wouldn't be able to see anything but distorted images whizzing around. What if it happened to phone signals too? Nothing could be secret! As you walked along the road you would hear snippets of conversation rushing down the wires above you. What would you want to over-hear?

What cool ideas! I mean, there's potential for a Sci-fi movie/book right there.

Are you inspired yet??

Day 357: 'Flip' by Martyn Bedford

I first saw this book in Mr B's Bookshop in Bath and was captured by it's tagline:

Even wake up in someone else's body?

Sold. It sounded really exciting. A boy wakes up someone else's room, with someone else's family and has to go to someone else's school as Philip, or Flip to his friends.

But I really struggled to get into it. Is it because I find it hard to identify with a 15 year old teenage boy? I mean, I've never been one and never will be. I managed to get into the character of Lucas in Finding Violet Park and the character of Martyn in Martyn Pig, so it can't be that...

The blurb describes it as a phycological thriller, but to be honest, it's just not that thrilling. Apart from the fact Alex is living in Flip's body, nothing particularly out of the ordinary really happens. There's a lot of theory about what's happened to him and description of how he feels about it and...that's it. It kind of just went on in a loop of emotion and reaction, emotion and reaction.

Until the end. I finally got into Alex's story about two thirds of the way through and wanted to know how he was going to figure this all out. Is two third' too late?

Like I said, I'm not a teenage boy, so give it a go. It's always best to make up your own mind about books and film or any creative media for that matter.

Check out the trailer too...

Day 336: Mr Men Google doodles...

It's been one of those days where I've visited Google a lot to get this and that for my assessments I'm finishing. A pretty boring job to be honest, but Mr Roger Hargreaves has cheered up each visit. Everytime I go to the google homepage, there is a different on of these:

Mr Men have taken over Google for the day! These three are my favourite, I think (although it's hard to choose). When I was a kid I remember going round my grandparents and choosing which one I wanted them to read to me. Little Miss Tiny was my favourite.

It must be cool to think you affected so many lives of children through your wonderful stories and illustrations. Thank you Mr Hargreaves.

Take a look on the Google homepage and see which one is your favourite...

Day 230: Livewriting by MCM

Imagine writing a 52,000 work book. Now imagine writing it in 45 hours. And finally, imagine writing it in front of an audience of thousands, who give you answers you HAVE to fit into the next stage of you story.

Impossible?

Well not for MCM. In March he wrote a book called The Archivists whilst 300,000 people watched online! Isn't that incredible? I mean, talk about inspiring. Makes my 17,000 over 7 months look a bit pathetic! I guess it shows how new media is the way forward for us creative thinkers. MCM is using all that new technology has to offer to make books and stories a success. Now that's what I call creative thinking.

Keep an eye on the website. Apparently the next live write will be taking place in 6 months...

Interactive writing. It's the future!

Day 325: Be an Olympic Storyteller

Listen up all you Creative Thinkers! BT are giving people like you and me the opportunity to tell the story of the 2012 Olympics. If you've a blogger, creative writer, a graphic designer or an artist, why not get invovled and share your experiences of the Olympics. However you are creative, BT want YOU to get involved.

What do the Olympics mean to you? What's going on in your area to prepare or celebrate? How could you use your creative talents to get in on the action...?

Sign up here and find out all the details.

Get Creative. Get involved.

Day 324: Writers' Block

What do you do when you run out of ideas, when nothing inspires you to be creative?

Sometimes I get like this, especially when it's sunny. All I want to do is go outside and have fun in the sun, rather than sit in front of my laptop and write.

So what can we do when we don't want to get creative? How can we find inspiration?

Well, I've decided that I need to be proactive about it. If I wanna be out in the sun, then I need to find a creative way to do it. Sometimes I read or knit in the garden, which I love, so I think it's time I took my writing into the garden too.

Who needs a laptop when you've got pen and paper, eh? I think it'll help to write in different places. Maybe I could try writing in the park or at the beach, on a bench in town or even in my sister's tree house.

Right, that's it, I gotta try it. It's my next project, writing in different places. Wanna join me? We can be like Richard Long, whose art is walking and finding different ways of documenting it. New, exciting, experimental...

Just by writing this blog entry today, I've managed to find inspiration to get back on it.

What will you try...?

Day 318: Working with Windmills

Here is a story all about a windmill. This windmill:

But this story starts partway through, as I, the story-teller can only retell the second chapter of it's life. It was found, broken and discarded outside a house. Its sails had fallen off, its paint chipped and old. The windmill had been forgotten, in a state of disrepair, or was it?

The lady who found it decided it wasn't the end for this windmill and took it home. With a bit of glue and a few coats of paint, the battered windmill was restored to it's former glory and sits in a sunny garden for all to admire.

And now it's found its way onto a creative blog! What a wonderful example of using forgotten things to make beautiful creations. You know what they say, one man's rubbish is another man's treasure. So keep your eyes pealed. You never know what could be waiting for you to restore. It's a great way to get creative and use your talents...

What will you create?

As for the first chapter of this windmills story, well, I'll leave that up to your creative imagination to discover...

Day 316: David Gatward

So, I've written an article about David Gatward, the horror writer who is judging my competition at Ralph Allen Secondary School. It's on this website called blogcritics. Check it out if you want to know what being a published writer is really all about...

Day 306: My annotated bibliography

On Monday I have to give in 5000 words of my novel, which really isn't that much considering how long a novel is. A small one is 40,000 words and I've written in total about 17,000, so not even half way!

Anyway, I also have to give in an annotated bibliography, which means I have to explain how each book I've read has helped me with my story. Don't worry, I'm not going to bore you with everything I've 'learnt', I'm just going to star one thing from Adele Geras' Ithaka. (See Day 265 for more on that.)

In her story Geras tells Homer’s well known tale, The Odyssey from the point of view of those left behind in Ithaka’s palace. Geras’s uses loads of characters’ which means you get a really rounded view of palace life, as well as what each character wants/feels about the situation they're all in. In other words, each character has a little story of their own within the bigger story, which was really realistic.

Think of your family. The chances are most of you have pretty different days (at school, work, collage), even though you all live in the same house. You all have different things you want (a new car, a girlfriend, a cat) so when you all sit around at the dinner table, you're still a family, but also individuals. When you ask your mum/dad a question, they don't always give you the answer you want 'cause they have their own thing going on too. 

Well, this is what I was lacking in my story. In one scene, Holly is having dinner with her Mum and older brother, Tom, but Tom didn't even mention the fact that he was getting suspicious of Holly's behaviour, (she's being all secretive because of the laptop she stole, as you'd probably expect!) By Tom not mentioning it made him two dimensional, like only Holly's situation existed within the family, which is totally unrealistic.

BUT, when I read Ithaka, I saw how each character had their own thing going on and I was like, hang on, my story doesn't have that. It really made me want to write more convincing character. Cool, huh! That's why it's so great to read. The more you read, the more you understand writing. If you want to become a truly brilliant writer, you need to become obsessed with reading. That's how all the greats (like Stephen King and Jacqueline Wilson) got to the top.

Here's a list of some other great reads from my bibliography, just in case you want to read them too. I think I've written about most of them before, so search them out if you want:

Ithaka, Adele Geras

Finding Violet Park, Jenny Valentine

Breathing Underwater, Julia Green

Martyn Pig, Kevin Brooks

13 Reasons Why, Jay Asher

Life on the Refrigerator Door, Alice Kuipers

Holes, Louis Sachar

My Name is Mina, David Almond

Day 299: Carl's Beach Theatre

Today I want to dedicate this entry to a creative friend of mine who is currently developing a beach theatre. Now that's what I call a creative thinker. What better place to harbour your creativity than on a beach in Devon?

Have you ever been to a Devon beach? I have so many fond memories of beach holidays in Devon and the idea of pitching up with just a towel to sit on and watch a performance sound just amazing.

Similar to me with my writing competition at Ralph Allen School (which is going great by the way. Tune in next week for more on that!) Carl is running his theatre-with-a-difference for his final year uni project. It's so cool to do a degree where you can take what you've got and share it with the world. A Maths degree just doesn't give you the same benefits!

Check out what Carl has planned in his blog. Be inspired by what's going on around the UK. Think about what you've got and what you could do with it...

Day 298: Jenny Valentine's 'Finding Violet Park'

You know sometimes you think you've done something and then you realise you haven't? Well that's exactly what I've done with the last book I read. It was so good I thought I must have told you all about it, but, no, I haven't!

Scatty, as ever...

Finding Violet Park by Jenny Valentine follows a boy called Lucas who gets concerned about an urn left in a taxi cab office for over five years. Lucas has a real quirky voice which I really enjoyed getting to know.

The evidence of reading a good book:
You think about the characters way after you've finished, like you want to visit them again or wonder what they're doing.

Lucas' story twists and turns as you get to know all about his family and their dysfunctional dynamics. Can Violet, the dead lady in the urn really link in any way to his strange family? I mean, what do you do with the urn of a lady you never knew?

For me the best part was the ending. I'm usually disappointed with then, but this one was really affective. You'll have to read it to find out why...

Jenny Valentine won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for this story and she's written more since, so check her out.

My cover doesn't have the teeth on it - weird!

Day 293: The Fiction Project

So, yesterday when I was 'researching' Takeshi Kawano's Melting Sculptures, I found an advert for this;

It's a project which is fusing words and visual art and making a book out of it, which will tour America, from coast to coast. Just think of your ideas, in a book, wandering around America...what a great opportunity! The cool thing is anyone from anywhere in the world can get invovled, which includes YOU! If you're into art, drawing, writing, graphic design, illustration...then check out their website. Once you're there, you can chose a theme and away you go! You could use an idea you've already got or be inspire here and now by one of the themes.

So, what are you waiting for? Go be inspired and be part of the project.

Day 277: T. M. Alexander at View Art Gallary

How much creative inspiration can you get from one night? Well, last night I was blown away by the amount that was thrown at me as a creative thinker.

I was lucky enough to attend T. M. Alexander's book launch in Bristol. She's one of the judges for my writing competition and has just brought out her third book in the Tribe series, Labradoodle on the Loose. She gave a talk to the crowds of people attending, all about the fun author things she gets to do, including receiving the Hull Children's Book Award, doing loads of school visits and writing, of course. It was so exciting to listen to all the ins and outs of living a real writer's life.

Afterwards she spoke to me about how the publishers had decided to change her book order round and release the fourth one before the third! That's the reality of being a writer, I guess. Funnily enough, I don't get told stuff like that on my course.

On top of all of this, the book launch was held in the art gallery, View. So much creativity in one place I nearly died! And there were free smarties! What more could you want from one evening?

There are seven artists being exhibited at the gallery including a guy who'd graduated from Bath Spa only last summer. I was so impressed to see Will Kendrick's work on display, I had a big chat with the owner about it and learnt loads about owning a gallery too. A career change, perhaps...?

Opening yourself up to new creative experiences like this is so inspiring, so why not take a look and see what's going on around your area. Keep your eyes peeled, folks. Creativity really is everywhere!

Circle Painting, Will Kendrick >

Day 271: World Book Night

Following on from World Book Day on Thursday, tonight is World Book Night, which is aimed at encouraging adults to read and enjoy books. 1 millions books will be given away for free across the UK and Ireland by givers. They are enthusiastic readers who have applied for 50 books each to spread around. My housemate, Alice managed to get involved and is putting 50 copies of Beloved by Toni Morrison on a train in Swindon for people to pick up, take away and read.

There are twenty different book titles being given away including One Day by David Nicholls and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. So, keep your eyes peeled folks and you could land yourself a free book!

There are hundreds of events going on all over the place tonight, so get involved. Find out what's going near you here. In Trafalgar Square, London, there is a big celebration with over 5000 people attending and readings from famous authors like Mark Haddon and Phillip Pullman.

If books are your thing then this is your night. Hey, if books aren't your thing, this is the perfect opportunity to try them out.

Day 270: Who will write the next all-time Classic?

Over the past few days, I've been to a few more Bath Literature Festival events and have seen quite a few authors speaking about their work, about writing process and about books in general.

One interesting question that came up in the The Classics talk on Wednesday was who writers write for. Books like Rebecca by Daphne De Maurier and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy  have been entertaining readers for decades, but did their authors imagine that their stories would still be enjoyed in the 21st Century? Were they writing for us or were they writing for their own generation?

I think this idea is really interesting. When I write my stories or even my blog entries, I am writing for you, right now, for the youth of this generation, not those who are going to live in 50 years time, but maybe other people do write with future generations in mind, trying to make it timeless. I wonder if they have a reader in mind as they sit there, plotting and creating characters. Perhaps these things just happen. To plan to be a international best seller decade after decade is probably not the best way to write, but what do I know?

If you wrote/are writing a book, who would/are you writing for? Do you have someone in mind? Do you write for yourself? Something to think about... 

Day 254: Arts Award. Get Involved.

If you are sitting there thinking no one cares about your creative talent. If you're wondering why the government are cutting all the Arts funding, then don't fear...

I found out about this yesterday and was SO excited. It's an award you can work at, kind of like the Duke of Edinbourgh, but for the Arts. You can put it on your CV and it even goes toward UCAS points for Uni.

I wish they had this award when I was a school! If you're between 11-25 and you wanna get invovled in the arts, this is the award for you!

Check it out here and see where it can take you...