Word War Won?

By Ciadish

Sat, 12 Nov 2022
  • 1318 reads
12 comments
 

‘I  have a book for you.’

Lucy looked at the fairy.

‘A book?’

The fairy produced a leather-bound tome, pages dancing with illuminated letters.

‘This book.’

‘I’ve never seen one,’ said Lucy.

‘Doesn’t surprise me You’re too young to remember the word wars aren’t you?’

The eight year old nodded.

‘First, the humans closed the libraries. Then, they stopped storytelling at school – tried to turn stories into a set of rules. No one likes learning rules without play, so children stopped writing. The Monopolis took over when it sensed books were weak: a fearsome ever-growing beast that destroyed writers by devaluing books. Authors grew thin and hungry. They stopped writing and got ‘normal’ jobs. That’s why everyone’s so angry nowadays – the stories are swirling. Humans don’t realise how dangerous stories are if too many of them roam without being captured.’

Lucy looked at the book, holding her breath as she turned the pages. It was harder to read than her Instructional and the words were different – they flowed more freely  - but the more she looked, the more she recognised the shapes.

‘What can I do?’

The fairy handed her a pen and ink bottle, conjured from the air.

“Write.”

Certificate U
Story
Fantasy
Children's

Comments

Submitted by Di_Hard on

this is one of the bees living in my bonnet, too. I have been shocked and despairing and angry that my son went through primary and secondary school and in all that time was only asked for two pieces of creative writing, when he was six! There seems to be an obsession with getting children to write reports. And no joining the dots to understand the lack of creative expression may be causing depression and frustration and anger.Equally frightening is that he told me yesterday,when his friends are upset about something, rather than articulating the issue themselves, they share links to someone else doing so! How did education become a way of subduing intelligence rather than expanding it?

Your story puts all this in a lovely, unranty way :0) The feeling of wordless frustration like sparks in the air

 

Submitted by Ciadish on

So glad that the reality was visible under the fairy dust. I enjoy writing stories that work for children and adults. This was originally written for a 200 word flash competition (be great if flash fiction was a category on ABCtales as there are loads of incredible flash writers) and didn't place. I revisited it slightly to post here. It's potentially also the germ of an idea for a book,

It frustrates me that story is being stamped out: it's integral to everything. Killing story-love in children with excessive homework, over-structuring rather than teaching about flow states - or just letting kids have fun writing - and having to learn obscure grammatical terms that even many award-winning writers aren't aware of, seems incredibly destructive. It's one of the reasons I run STAMEN events when able (STEM + art + nature) - I get to spread story love along with other education - and sometimes even dress as a fairy https://groweatgift.com/2017/07/19/faerie-fun-at-latitude/ Sadly, I'm largely housebound now (though still away with the fairies).

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Great idea for a book

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

That makes me incredibly sad Di! I had no idea there was no creative wrfiting in schools nowadays

Ciadish, even though we don't have a specific category for flash fiction, we do get lots of brilliant flash - in fact maybe I will pinch that as an idea for a future Inspiration Point!

Great ending to your piece!

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Makes me so angry! It is a class thing as creative writing still a thing in private schools. Deliberately shutting down the imaginations of children who don't go to expensive schools, when imagination is the one thing we all have which is free! As though an unecessary luxury. Imaginations are not the same as avocadoes :0)

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

it definitely existed at my sons' state school when they were there, but my youngest is 30 so some time ago. Maybe they've messed with the curriculum (not work-centric enough)

 

Submitted by Ciadish on

I agree entirely, which is one of the reasons I do all I can to provide free creative education for free - see

https://groweatgift.com/2017/06/17/30-ways-to-play-with-nature/

https://groweatgift.com/2017/06/12/30-ways-to-get-creative-for-30-days-w...

https://groweatgift.com/2017/06/14/30-ways-to-go-wild-with-science/

(Also passionate about arts for pain relief/self care, which I see as related: if creativity is driven out of you when you're young, it means you're missing a really valuable way to manage your emotions/life - though obviously, different things work for different people. Arts and crafts help me massively, along with nature though https://groweatgift.com/2019/12/10/wellbeing-art-and-nature-as-pain-relief/)

Such a brilliant line in your comment, "Imaginations are not the same as avocados" Could be a great first line of a poem or story. Is the topic something you'd enjoy writing about? You definitely seem to have passion for the issue and that's such a core part of writing, for me anyway. When something matters, the words flow (unless it matters too much, in which case the brain/anxiety/fear can sometimes block the flow, at least in my case)

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

So sorry to learn you are in pain and not well. Agree completely that Nature helps a lot with many issues. And writing is great for connecting with people. ABCTales has been a life saver for me :0)

Dragon skin sounds a genius way to use up plastic pill sheets

 

Submitted by Ciadish on

I've got more into microfiction and poetry as my health has affected my energy/pain levels more and more. I *love* six word stories of all kinds, plus flash from 25-200 words (is there an official categorisation of flash length? I just like messing with form rather than being that up on the details and every competition seems different.) 

Also a huge fan of 'found' poetry - I'm currently making poetry from my prescription medication inserts. I hate waste and am on loads of meds so have lots of potential poetry in medical leaflet form. I've been using a marker pen to remove words/parts of words which has worked better than I thought it would, but now considering cutting them up into individual words to give more scope for play/mindfulness activity in the cutting-up into words (Am also thinking up art ideas to do with empty pill packets - the boxes are easy, but blister packs more of a challenge, though I have used them as dragon skin for festival creations in the past)

Are there any other writers who also make art on ABCtales you'd recommend connecting with, whether photography, painting or something else entirely?

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

yes, I think that is the case? Here, anyway. Huge emphasis on business studies, but not every child wants to be a hairdresser or cake decorator, as we don't make things anymore. Sure I have ranted about this before, apologies Ciadish :0)

 

Submitted by Ciadish on

No need to apologise - I'm really interested in education/ensuring everyone gets fair access to a full and happy life/encouraging creativity and storytelling. This is my kind of chat!

That said, I also think making should be part of curriculum, based around the Heritage Crafts Association Red List and all the Arts and Crafts movement skills + modern maker movement - and we should make a return to it as a professional option too. Many kids who struggle with thought-led education, thrive with action led education - I've seen it at science festivals again and again, where a child who 'doesn't like science' *loves* making dry ice ice-cream (in a risk-assessed way), toy-hacking (thus engineering), making origami pineapples and dinosaur towel origami (thus learning paper/towel engineering), creating something out of Lego or clay or making arduino robots. If something's fun, they enjoy learning - thus, to me, learning should be as fun as it can be, and storytelling should run through all education (& at least half of education time should be spent outdoors in a wild garden/forest school/helping at a farm)

(I'd also love to see the return of the communal village fire for storytelling - which may only exist in my imagination but I like to think it's one of the ways story evolved over the years. Imagine meeting your community, kids and adults alike, and trading stories every Saturday (or whenever) night, sitting round a fire and sipping hot cordial, apple juice or mulled wine/eating toasted marshmallows and roast chestnuts/really getting to connect with your community (because community connection is what helps the most vulnerable of us most, particualrly when services fail - though I hate the word vulnerable after its misuse/overuse in the pandemic - too close to 'disposable')

 

Submitted by rosaliekempthorne on

Love this story. And all the discussion it's generated. Nicely done.