Young writers win spots in story anthology
A PAIR of young wordsmiths will have their stories published in an anthology.
Millie Brierley, 11, and Rowan Sutton, 13, are among 30 youngsters selected from thousands of entries in the ‘National Short Story Week’ competition.
The King’s School students were challenged to explore the theme of ‘lies’.
Millie won a runnersup award in the Year 7 category while pupil Rowan Sutton, 13, did the same in the Year 8 section.
Millie’s story centred on a young girl who comes across a wishing tree in a forest with a special rhyming message: “One wish only, understand? There are rules, so listen good. No one killed or back from the dead. Once you wish, that wish cannot be unsaid.”
She chooses to change her identity, only to find that her new life of luxury and privilege does not bring her happiness. She has been transformed into an attention-seeking, spoilt brat who lies constantly to embarrass her parents.
Millie said: “The secret is to use a lot of descriptive words and add as much detail as possible.”
Rowan, 13, centres his story on a young boy who knows when anyone and everyone is lying and how what might be seen as a blessing becomes a curse: “He could see a sphere above every person’s head in which there was their ‘status’ as he liked to call it. It was simple. The sphere was green if they were telling the truth, black if they were lying, and white if they told a white lie.
“As he walked down the street, the conversations around him showed up in lots of different colours, most of them green with the occasional white or black.”
Rowan said: “The secret is not only in the writing of the story, but just as importantly in editing your work. I took two days to write my story, then came back and spent another two hours polishing it.”
Librarian Olivia Walwyn, who organised the school’s entries, said: “To have two of the award winners in one school is fantastic. Millie’s and Rowan’s stories are highly imaginative and pose perplexing moral questions.”
The anthology will be published in November with royalties going to Teenage Cancer Trust.