Alphabet Stories
Get it in There
Hotpen
Poetry Ping Pong
Story Ping Pong

ALPHABET STORIES
Can you write a story which includes 26 words which begin with each letter of the alphabet? Can you write a story of only 26 words beginning with each letter of the alphabet? Can you do this with all 26 words in alphabetical order?

HOTPEN
In a 'hotpen' story you need to write a short story from a given opening line as quickly as you can. Here are some examples. First is the start of an example by Martin Scott, Year 9, which begins with the given words, 'It's not my fault':

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT," he said. "So what if I pressed the wrong button which launched the rocket into space ten seconds before blast off?"
"They weren't ready!"
"So?"
"What do you mean 'so'?"
"Well, all I did was press the wrong button."
"They had no oxygen masks on."
"They've got 720 days to do that!"

The next one begins with the words 'I remember...'

I REMEMBER … when I walked up to the top of the hill and saw a shabby-looking man, who was just standing there alone looking East.
I approached him.
"Why are you here?" I asked.
"Why are you here?" he replied, which wasn't the answer I was looking for, but never mind.
"I just fancied a walk up this hill," I continued.
"But why this hill, why not that hill over there?"
"Because this is my favourite."
"What is the name of this hill, then?"
"Who are you Chris Tarrant? How am I supposed to know?"
"Well, if this is your favourite hill surely you must know the name of it."
"Well, I don't know its name."
"Therefore it is not your favourite hill."
"Yes it is," I said, and we argued for a quite a while. Then I said,
"Well, do you know the name of it?"
"The name of what?"
"The hill's name, what is it?"
"I dunno!"
"Then it is not your favourite hill."
"When did I say it was my favourite hill?" asked the stranger.

POETRY PING PONG
You need a group of people for poetry Ping-Pong. The first person writes a line and passes the paper on. The second person writes a rhyming line then folds over the paper so that the first line cannot be read. This pattern continues with the paper being passed around until you have created a poem. Sometimes the results make sense, other times.... Here is one we wrote earlier. Each line represents a new writer.

The stranger was dressed in a deep black cloak
With the hand of a strangler about to choke.
He was as white as can be
And he was looking straight me.
He made my flesh creep
I just wanted to wake from this terrible sleep.
My mind was black as an overcast sky
Where the birds were flying up so high.

The same idea works just as well with a story, as you can see.

We had to start with, 'After all that turmoil the snake slithered away.'
AFTER ALL THAT TURMOIL THAT SNAKE SLITHERED AWAY… I thought 'thank goodness, it's all over'. At last I can relax. All that frustration made my head spin like a car on the Waltzer, but now it has all gone, absolutely nothing to worry about at all. But what if …
That sudden element of doubt made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I whipped round, expecting to see a flash of green as the snake hid, but found nothing. A sudden cruel 'Caww' of a bird drew my attention to the sky where I saw those horrid monsters.
Their eyes bulged horribly. You could feel, even from where I was standing, the rumble of their stomachs. I gulped, I tried to calmly walk away from the monstrous birds above my head. But they followed, coming closer. They were worse than midges, that's when I realised that I was for dinner … eek!
Oh no! I'm going to get eaten. Help! Get away you stupid things, I hate you. Help! I'm for dinner, I'm going to dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Ouch!
The swarm gathered around his head. He knew that it was useless to try to escape. They were too well organised for that. The only thing he could do was to stand perfectly still and hope that none of them would notice the ruby he was carrying under his helmet. If he was able just to remain perfectly motionless until they lost interest, he might have a chance. But suddenly …
A terrible thing happened. The helmet was knocked off revealing the ruby which was worth over a million pounds to the King of Heirzscher.
"Look!" he said "I can explain." But before he could continue, the angry army officer picked up the ruby from the extremely wet grass.
"You have stolen the great ruby."
"No, I haven't. I'm a secret agent. The king wants me to return his ruby." He was telling the truth. But the army officers burst out laughing.
"Soldiers! Arrest this man. He must be punished for the terrible thing that he has done."