Write A Book In A Day Competition
As a part of National Book Week 2018, 18 students from Years 7-9 participated in the Write A Book In A Day Competition, organised by and supporting the Kids’ Cancer Project charity. The students worked in teams to write, illustrate and publish an entire book in a single school day. They produced some incredible work and should all be extremely proud of their monumental efforts. Two students, Maud Buchanan from Year 7 and Joel Frenzel from Year 9, have written about their experiences on the day.
Student Reflections
At 8.15am, on Wednesday 22 August, a group of middle school students came to the Library with one goal in mind: to have finished writing an entire book by 5.00pm that day. We were split into two groups, writing two different stories. In each group, there were authors, editors and illustrators. In each story, there were specific elements that we needed to include. Our elements were: a forensic scientist, a tennis player, a rabbit, the Simpson Desert and a jailbreak, as well as certain words, like “clock”, “silver” and “patch”. At the start of the day, we began with a strong plot, but along the way we changed certain things, meaning that at 10.00am, we were still planning! Having to cut back on our writing time, we weren’t able to get the desired amount of editing done. However, I think that we did very well, considering the time constraints and random themes. In the end, our story, ‘Out For The Count’ was an entertaining superhero narrative with some brilliant characters. There were lots of things that I got from the day, the main ones being a sense of teamwork, new friends and a proudness of what we accomplished. I think that the competition was a fantastic way to build writing skills and make new friends, and if there is one next year, I will definitely do it again.
Maud Buchanan, Year 7
On Wednesday 22 August 2018, 18 students from the College participated in the ‘Write A Book In A Day Competition.’ After the students divided into two teams, the competition involved the teams to write a 4000 to 5000 word book with certain parameters. My team was known as Kool Kidz and Ko.
I got many things out of this competition. It tested my ability to work for long periods of time and my ability to stay calm in stressful situations. When we first received our parameters, my team split up into groups. Three people working on the setting, three people working on the characters and four people working on the story line. Once we put these key building blocks of our story together, we started the exciting process of creating our book. Again, we divided into groups, four amazing artists: Seb, Charlotte, Emily and Louis began to draw the illustrations while Jez, Tyler, Dylan, Ruby, Emilia and myself began to write chapters.
Throughout the day, we worked hard on our book, only taking small breaks at recess and lunch where we went down and saw our friends who weren’t participating in the competition. The competition tested our limits; our ability to stay calm and not get frustrated with each other. Finally, after working hard for roughly 9 hours and 15 minutes, we finished. We were all really happy with what we had created (titled ‘Hopea’) and had lots of fun while doing so. I highly recommend participating in the competition next year as anyone can do so and you can do it with friends!