Wishes, Hopes and Dreams - New Year, New Stories

This week we started the first ‘Story Clubs’ of 2023. Story Club is my young writers’ workshop, currently for 9–16 yrs. Launched in March of 2021, when Cambridge was tentatively beginning to ease out of a tight lockdown, we are still going strong (with some original members)! We are still enjoying the community room of Thrive cafe (and the hot chocolates). And the story ideas are as engaging as ever.

For the first set of workshops for the year (which are now split into a Zoom session Tuesdays and an in-person session Wednesdays), we looked at wishes, hopes and dreams. In other words, character motivation and goals. What do our characters want? Is there backstory — why do our characters seek what they seek?

You may not be surprised that a couple young writers created characters seeking a pet. The bond between young people and animals can be a wonderful one (and I haven’t grown out of it myself!) We also had a search for a lost twin. A lost Mum. A search for a childhood friendship, in a way a search for childhood itself. And big issues like solving the plastic problem in the ocean and stopping poverty.

We discussed how the big wish and a smaller wish can go hand in hand. For example the search for the lost Mum takes the character to many countries in Europe, meeting her need to travel and try different foods. The story tackling ocean plastic began with one turtle, a great focus for the larger issue.

What did our group wish for ourselves? After all our characters mirror life! The young people hoped that 2023 would bring pets, holidays, the chance to try gymnastics, the chance to try Something New and physical growth. And of course the wish to read great stories was mentioned a few times!
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Happy New Year everyone. Do you have a wish for 2023?