100 word challenge, entering many competitions, school blogs

[mystery]

My children are dangerously close to doing just that.

[mad?]

Amber I am sorry if you feel 'slapped down' that was certainly not my intent, rest assured from my experience on here I am well aware what it feels like. Nor Mystery was I trying to 'judge' a thread. I just thought it was an interesting topic and slightly different form the norm. I'm glad you both feel you are debating, hopefully that will encourage others to contribute as well.

[Cranleigh]

Amber thanks for the reply, will ponder & come back at some point.

To turn to these competitions - did anyone click link in OP? I think schools may encourage competition participation so pupils get some useful practice. If you write composition often enough it becomes less potentially daunting, enjoyable and second nature?

100 word challenge means, I believe, you have to write a story in 100 words - as name suggests. It looks as though you can only enter though through a school.

[mad?]

I did and I thought it looked quite fun. At DDs' primary they rarely did composition so anything would have been good, competition or not. Actually I think the discipline of trying to write something in a limited word count would probably be good for us all. I can't remember where the quote comes from but I remember something along the lines of 'My apologies for writing a long letter, I didn't have time to write a short one'
It also would seem to be something that could be pitched successfully at a mixed ability group? Perhaps not as homework though...DDs' primary would definitely have got lots of parental entrants if that was the case!

[Amber]

I did and I thought it looked quite fun. At DDs' primary they rarely did composition so anything would have been good, competition or not. Actually I think the discipline of trying to write something in a limited word count would probably be good for us all.

I am trying to finish off a 5000 word assignment. It currently stands at around 6000 words and editing it is the very devil. Whose law is it that says 'the work expands to fill the time available to do it' ( Parkinson's law?); and then extrapolates that to include other areas? Like 'the stuff you need to shove in your loft expands to fill the loft'?

In my 'O' level English we had to do a précis. Sorry, just another little deviation, but it is kind of relevant.

[Rob Clark]

Virtually impossible to edit one’s own work, Amber. I do equal amounts of writing and editing and always try (try, mind ) to let editors have a free hand with my words as I know what a pita it is to have a writer who’s overly precious about editing.

Learning to let go is a crucial part of being a writer – as it is a parent

[mystery]

Cranleigh, did you check that link I put earlier? I really do think it will interest you; nothing really to do with consumers.

This talk of composition has made me realise that at my private prep school and senior school we had to write one as part of our homework, every weekend without fail. There was a lot of writing at my state infant school too. I don't ever remember there being insufficient time to finish anything whereas my daughters at state primary seem, lower down the school at any rate, to have had to fit their writing into a 20 minute slot on one or two days a week. Then there seems to be a long build up from time to time to writing a myth or a fairy story - several weeks of build up to one assessed piece written in the final week of some unit or other.

[mystery]

Yes the 100 word competition looks good. I remember a similar one in the Sunday magazine when I was a child. This being weekly looks even better. Have you asked your school if it would sign up? I'm going to ask ours.

[mad?]

I don't ever remember there being insufficient time to finish anything whereas my daughters at state primary seem, lower down the school at any rate, to have had to fit their writing into a 20 minute slot on one or two days a week. Then there seems to be a long build up from time to time to writing a myth or a fairy story - several weeks of build up to one assessed piece written in the final week of some unit or other.

Yes, at my DDs' primary it was there was lots of focus on the plan and rarely was a piece finished. I imagine this was about trying to get them to learn how to structure a piece, a art in itself. It was me who had to teach me how to plan and execute quickly, in this case for entrance exams. I do not think exam preparation is something I would have expected the primary to invest time in, as I sit here watching laborious prevarication over the introduction to a piece of homework the idea that at times you just have to get on with it is!

[mystery]

Ha ha, we never planned, but it seemed to come out right. Maybe it led to a weakness later on, who knows. By later on in secondary school if asked to do a plan, I would write whatever it was first, and then write the plan to fit.

We were just told to have a beginning, a middle, and an end - and some balance if it was an argument!!