Writer gave plenty to think about
By Charlotte Thamm, Year 8, Cairns State High School
EARLIER this month a selection of Cairns State High School students from Years 7, 8 and 9 were given the opportunity to develop their creative writing skills with the talented author Cath Crowley.
She has written many successful novels, including Words in Deep Blue, which received several awards including the Gold Inky Award and Queensland Literary Award in the young adult category.
With all this experience, Ms Crowley welcomed the invitation to visit schools in our region including Gordonvale, Mareeba, Malanda and Atherton state high schools and conduct a writer’s workshop with young students who have a passion for writing.
I can truthfully say the workshop was extremely helpful and beneficial.
Throughout the day, Ms Crowley challenged the students to experiment with many activities which challenged us to think outside of the box.
For example, she would display an image and students would have to create a backstory.
One of the images was of a woman walking into the ocean, holding a hollow glass sphere with a mysterious substance inside.
As you can imagine the possibilities are endless and we had some wild theories on what the photo meant.
Ms Crowley asked us to create a story based on circumstances she would explain as we wrote.
For example, she would say, “You are walking along a path, when something falls from the sky beside you. What is it?”
Students would write about their chosen object falling from the sky.
Overall, the day was a great success and I am certain each student would repeat it in a heartbeat.
We are all very excited to put our new skills to the test and many of us left the workshop feeling very inspired.
Thank you, Ms Crowley, and the Cairns Business Liaison Association for supporting this wonderful opportunity.