I had a great day at Seven Stories today, running a celebration event to conclude the Amazing Archives project.
Amazing Archives was based on the Seven Stories Collection, which gathers and archives original manuscripts and artwork for children’s books. Pupils from two north east schools wrote their own stories, keeping their plot notes, character biographies, maps, diagrams, early drafts and more in a archive file. The aim was to show that writing is much more than just the end product you find in a library or bookshop’ there is a journey involved, and that journey is often as fascinating as the completed story.
One of the pupils from St Matthew’s School was asked to donate her story and archive to the Seven Stories Collecton (well done, Alisha!) where it will be kept alongside the work of Philip Pullman, Berli Docherty and many others.
We concluded the day by watching some drama pieces based upon a selection of the stories the pupils had written. Everyone had worked really hard on this and, until you’ve witness a killer dragonfly or transparent trees like I have, you really haven’t lived!
The Amazing Archives project marks the end of my ‘official’ time as writer-in-residence at Seven Stories, but I hope to work with the incredible people there again in the future.
Tommy
