The Whole Story is a project-based course that provides a wonderful opportunity for keen young writers to spend consecutive days honing their writing skills – all under the expert eye of a creative writing mentor. Whether your child is a novelist in the making, or they have brilliant story and character ideas but can’t yet get much down on paper, this course has been designed to equip them with strategies to become more confident and inspired writers. We aim to spark their imaginations and enthuse them with a love for writing and reading: writing is, after all, fundamentally great fun!
On The Whole Story course, we teach children how to effectively structure a story based on a classic literary genre, such as mystery, adventure or fantasy fiction. Our writing resources, designed by our in-house professional writers, provide a narrative framework from which the children craft their stories. In a small group setting that allows children to focus and interact constructively, their writing tutor will provide guidance, advice and individual feedback to each child. At the end of the course, you will receive a detailed written feedback for your child highlighting their strengths, progress made and suggested areas for improvement.
Course content
In each session, children will learn and practice different elements of story plotting while building their story:
- The exposition (i): Set up the problem, develop a compelling character and start creating your main plot.
- The exposition (ii): World building – Develop a powerful setting.
- Rising Action & Climax (i): Create an effective midpoint – find the point of no return.
- Rising Action & Climax (ii): Raise the stakes.
- Falling Action & Resolution: Final conflict. Obligatory scene and denouement.
Children spend three hours each day working on their story, providing them the space and time to develop an understanding of how to weave more complex narratives into their work, and allowing them to become confident in structuring their stories clearly from start to end.
Children are encouraged to develop their critical thinking and peer-review skills throughout the course – developing not only their writing, but also their ability to articulate constructive feedback. Expressing yourself through writing is just one way of learning how to communicate effectively and with empathy. Each of our workshops contains elements of collaboration, discussion and debate in order to cultivate the broader life skills that will set our writers up as sophisticated and compassionate learners/thinkers.
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Holiday Club: 18–22 February 2019. The Whole Story. Meeting with Frankenstein – (8–12 Yrs)
“His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.” – Frankenstein, Mary Shelley.
The car wheels crunch on the gravel as you grind to a halt. Tentatively, you step out from the back seat and breathe in the freezing air. It is so cold; it hurts your bottom teeth, so you pull your scarf up over your face so that only your eyes peer out over the top.
The driver hands you your suitcase and without looking back gets into his car and drives off, leaving you alone on the driveway. You turn and stare up at the crumbling castle. Gargoyles are just visible in the moonlight. Their distorted faces seem to leer down at you. You shudder and hurry towards the huge oak door. Where, as instructed, you knock three times.
You’ve been waiting for this moment for months. You’ve heard the rumours about strange inhuman creations that lurk these grounds and now, finally, you get to find out the truth.Join us as we explore the themes of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Create your own impression of a Frankenstein monster as we craft classic gothic tales and explore themes such as ambition and the pursuit of knowledge; the perception of beauty; conflict; friendship and revenge. Your only limitation is your courage.
Holiday Club: 18–22 February 2019. The Whole Story. Meeting with Frankenstein – (8–12 Yrs)
- Age Group: 8-12 Yrs
- Duration: 5 days. 15 hours.
- Start / End Dates: 18–22 February 2019
- Time: 10:00-13:00, Doors open 10 minutes before class. Early arrivals please wait to be invited by CYW staff to check in
- Venue: St John’s Notting Hill Church of England, Lansdowne Crescent, London W11 2NN
- Notes: All materials provided, Bring your own snack and drink for break time. All snacks must be nut free, Copyright © 2018 by Chelsea Young Writers Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction or distribution in any form of all or part of the course materials is prohibited
- Terms and Conditions: By making a booking through our site you agree that you have read, understand, and accept our Terms & Conditions and you agree to be bound by these, Cancellations received less than 30 days before the start of the program are not refundable
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Holiday Club: Easter 15-18 April 2019. The Whole Story. Fantastic Fiction – (8–12 Yrs)
Do you have an extraordinary imagination? Can you create worlds that no one else can dream of? Are your characters spectacular, courageous, magical, or mysterious? Do you aspire to travel the paths of Middle Earth, or wander under a woodland canopy in Narnia? Are you tempted to step inside the wardrobe, just to see? Do you aspire to climb the stairs of Hogwarts? Taking the train from Kings Cross first? Or do you yearn to meet Lyra and accompany her on a mission?
In this workshop we’ll get to grips with creating fantastical worlds and learn how to populate them with compelling characters. We’ll invent mythical beasts, re-write the history of magic, and conjure up potions and spells. We’ll be inspired by fantasy both past and present as we create enviable stories with a contemporary twist.
Join us as we transform our carefully created characters into plucky heroes and set them loose to fulfil their destiny. Wherever your imagination takes you, make sure you join us and breathe life into your cleverly crafted worlds.Holiday Club: Easter 15-18 April 2019. The Whole Story. Fantastic Fiction – (8–12 Yrs)
- Age Group: 8-12 Yrs
- Duration: 4 days. 12 hours
- Start / End Dates: 15-18 April 2019
- Time: 10:00-13:00, Doors open 10 minutes before class. Early arrivals please wait to be invited by CYW staff to check in
- Venue: St John’s Notting Hill Church of England, Lansdowne Crescent, London W11 2NN
- Notes: All materials provided, Bring your own snack and drink for break time. All snacks must be nut free, Copyright © 2018 by Chelsea Young Writers Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction or distribution in any form of all or part of the course materials is prohibited
- Terms and Conditions: By making a booking through our site you agree that you have read, understand, and accept our Terms & Conditions and you agree to be bound by these, Cancellations received less than 30 days before the start of the program are not refundable