Entries will be judges in the following age categories: 11-13, 14-16 and 17-18 - for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. Prizes will include a writers starter kit, WHS vouchers, cinema tickets, and an overall prize of an ipod mp3 player! All entries will be showcased on Cubeweb and 1st prize winners in each category will have their work printed in Cube Magazine.
Click on the images to the left to view in more detail and read on for helpful tips for getting started. At the bottom on the page you will find a link to an online entry form.
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 All entries must be no more than 350 words
No more than 2 entries per person
Deadline for receipt of all online entry forms is 6pm on 31st July 2006
Young people entering must attend, (or have attended in the last 4 years) a Yorkshire secondary school.
The 9 winners will be notified in September 2006
Winning entries will be announced and showcased on cubeweb from September 2006
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Your writing doesn’t have to be a definite form like a poem or a short story. And you might be a little unsure what a particular image is about which is fine. We are not asking that you interpret exactly what is going on in any image, unless you choose to. The image can just be a starting point, you can make your own conclusions and ideas about it or the bigger picture, or just take the suggested mood or theme that the image inspires.
Try these ideas:
Imagine you could step inside the photo. Use your five senses to describe the experience.
Write from the photographer’s point of view. What made them take this picture? How were they feeling?
Write in the voice of one or two of the characters in the photograph. It doesn’t have to be someone you can see.
Emotions. How does the photo make you feel? What memories does it evoke? What associations does it have for you?
Write from the point of view of one of the objects in the photograph. How does it feel to be a skyscraper in New York or a tree reflected in the lake?
Write about one of themes suggested to you by the photos – loneliness, identity, decay, isolation for example.
Think about what you can’t see around the picture. What might have been outside the frame area of the shot? What might be hidden behind something out of view?
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Try these starting points...
Look at all the images and see which image instantly appeals to you. Then think about why. What is it about that photograph that caught your attention? If it appeals to you, the chances are you’ll be able to write something interesting about it.
Instead of just sitting down and writing a story or poem, try doing a mind map of all the words and associations that occur to you when you look at the image. This way you’ll build up a stock of ideas that you can use and come up with original links between them.
Still stuck? Try free writing. This is a bit like mind mapping, only this time you just write whatever comes into your head until you find out exactly what it is you want to say. Keep your hand moving, don’t stop to read through, don’t edit. When you’ve run out of steam, see if you can shape your writing into a poem or story.
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Writing a poem
Poems come in lots of different forms. Some of them rhyme and some of them don’t.
Rhyme
If you want to rhyme your poem, think carefully about the rhythm; like songs, rhyming poems usually have a regular beat. If you enjoy rhyming you could try writing in a particular form like a sonnet, villainelle or pantoum. Look on the web or in poetry books for examples.
Free verse
Remember that poems don’t have to rhyme and most of the best modern poems don’t. Free verse allows you to really say what you want to say, without the restriction of rhyme. The sounds of words are still important though and, in a poem, every word needs to count. Make sure you’ve used the best words and ideas you can come up with. Think about using techniques like alliteration to make your poem more powerful. Again look on the web for support if you wish.
Description
This could be an intriguing passage from a story you have written, or the setting of an important scene in a play, story or film even.
Writing short stories
Writing short fiction is harder than you might think because you need to say a lot in a small space. These are some of the things you might want to keep in mind.
Think of a small idea that can be contained in a short space
Don’t waste time with too much scene setting – go straight into the action.
Set up a question right at the beginning to provide intrigue and make people want to read on.
Try to use just one powerful image to set the scene.
Keep the reader guessing until right at the end and finish with a surprising twist.
Too many words? Go through your writing and take out some of the adverbs and adjectives. Make the other words work harder. Use unusual, precise verbs like sauntered instead of walked slowly.
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