Hurrah and hooperloolerlay!

I am in the running to become the new Night Zoo Keeper. Night Zoo Keeper is, by about a hundred miles, the coolest website for getting kids to enjoy their writing, so, if you’re a School Visitor asked to become the Zoo Keeper, that’s like being an actor, invited to play Batman.  

I hear I’m up against someone brilliant (a former kids’ presenter, who’s got a string of bestselling books), and to clinch the job I must come up with some excellent Story Starters, which have got a proven success for getting kids writing. 

So in a moment I’m going to set you a suggestion.  Please try writing, in response to this, and send me your results – even if they’re not that good, just send ‘em.   (Clover Rule One:  don’t write quality, write quantity).   The best one will be selected Writer of the Week.  They will be feted, and photographed, and will be sent cool stuff. 

Here’s the suggestion… 

A story starts with the word but

Start a story, in the very spot you’re sitting.  Notice three things that are being deliberately boring.   Describe them.  Emphasise their tantalising tediousness:  as you do, you will feel a word coming that will explode the boringness, and kick the adventure into action – the word “but”.  Write “but” and then the first sentence of the adventure. 

Here’s the first one, from Ella in Sturry.

I was sitting at my mum’s computer.  In front of me, a tin of old pens gathered dust.  Some dying nettles scratched at the window.   Some books stood on the shelf before me.  They were silent, undread, dull.  But then I noticed that one of them started to jiggle. 

It wobbled towards me, then it dived off the shelf, onto the desk, with a bang.

It had opened on page 76, which started with the words  “Go into the garden, and find the old gnome…”