It is the end of term. Your old school has invited you to give the end of term address to the students who are leaving and going out into the world. Due to their short attention span, they have asked you to limit yourself to no more than 300 words. What do you say to these young people? You can give your speech a title, which is not included in your word count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1st place Andy – 13 points, 2nd place joint – Francesca, Martin & Ruth – 10 points each, 3rd place Christine 8 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what does that mean for the final leaderboard of the season \u2013 drumroll\u2026
In a very well deserved first place with a clear victory for the season \u2013 Andy with 30 points
In second place failing to capitalise on early successes \u2013 Ros with 25 points
In joint third place, nipping at Ros\u2019s heels, Colette and Francesca with 24 points each.
In joint fourth place Ruth and Suzanne with 18 points each.
This makes Andy our Alpha laureate for season 20. Congratulations and very well deserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is my pleasure to set your next challenge, which will be to write a DRABBLE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is a drabble, you may ask? It is a 100-word story, a mini-micro piece of fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may choose to write about anything, but one of your allotted 100 words must be the word COURAGE. Other than that, there are no rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Title is not included in the word count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To summarize, there are just two rules: Entry must be 100 words exactly, and the word courage must appear in the entry.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1st place Colette – 12 marks, 2nd place Francesca, Suzanne & Ruth with 8 marks each, 3rd place Christine & Liz with 7 marks each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaderboard The Open Page<\/strong> allows members to share their personal writing with fellow Alphas. It is a much wider \u2013 and looser \u2013 concept than the challenges as there is no brief. Novel extracts\/ short stories\/ poetry\/ flash\/micro\/macro\/nano fiction\/ fragments\/ recipes\/ drama\/ non-fiction\/ biography\/ memoirs\/ experimental pieces… you get the picture – are all suitable. Find something I haven’t mentioned and submit it to the Open Page! 1st place Andy – 9 votes, 2nd place Ros & Collette 6 votes each, 3rd place Stephen & Francesca 5 votes each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This means that the top of leader board looks like this: Everyone else has between 10 and 13 points so is very close behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this month, when romance is in the air, it is my pleasure to present Challenge 7. As you can see below, it\u2019s quite simple really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Write a love letter to a household item you couldn’t possibly live without. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1st place Christine 15 marks, 2nd place Collette 12 marks, 3rd place Andy 11 marks In this challenge, your piece of prose writing must start with … someone breaking an awkward silence at a family dinner. There must be at least three characters at the dinner. Other than that, it is over to you. 1st place Liz 12 marks, 2nd place Colette 10 marks, 3rd place Andy 9 marks The seasonal break is coming up and this gives you four weeks instead of three to write a Novel Opening of max. 1000 words. <\/strong>Please, provide a title, the genre, and, if appropriate, the intended age group. This information is not included in the word count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How are you going to hook the reader and make sure your novel is an unputdownable page turner? The first thousand words will cover the first three pages (give or take) of the book and should give the reader a perfect taste of what\u2019s to come. There\u2019s no right way to do this, but there are novel openings that simply do the trick. Over to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1st place Ros 10 points, 2nd place Andy and David 9 points each, 3rd place Ruth 8 points A complete story in 300 words. It has to begin with the words: “No-one could have foreseen the consequences”. <\/strong>Those words don’t count as part of our 300.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like that. Of course there has to be some guidance and advice. Number one and I (number 7?) propose that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n * When assessing the entries, the key has to be is it a complete story with a beginning, a middle and an end?<\/p>\n\n\n\n * How satisfying to the reader is the story? And how complete?<\/p>\n\n\n\n * Your story needs to have a complete arc. If you start by telling the reader about Christine’s sciatica, you don’t end with Rosemary falling off a cliff. Start and end with Christine!<\/p>\n\n\n\n * It is up to you whether or not you use dialogue. It is up to you how much you show and tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n * Remember that a cameo or a descriptive piece of writing rarely constitutes a story. Nor, necessarily, does a recollection or reporting of an event make a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1st place Andy and Stephen 10 points each, 2nd place Martin & Ros 9 points each, 3rd place Ruth and Colette 6 points each. You are visiting a place for the very first time (real or fictitious) and your task is to write a diary entry describing your experience. Feel free to include other senses, rather than describing just what you see, but the choice is yours. You have a maximum of 300 words of prose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1st place Francesca 10 points, 2nd place equal Andt, Ros, Suzanne & Sarah 9 points each, 3rd place Liz – 8 points. The Open Page<\/strong> allows members to share their personal writing with fellow Alphas. It is a much wider \u2013 and looser \u2013 concept than the challenges as there is no brief. Novel extracts\/ short stories\/ poetry\/ flash\/micro\/macro\/nano fiction\/ fragments\/ recipes\/ drama\/ non-fiction\/ biography\/ memoirs\/ experimental pieces… you get the picture – are all suitable. Find something I haven’t mentioned and submit it to the Open Page! First place Suzanne with 9 votes, second place Collette with 7 votes and joint third place to Andy, Elizabeth, Ros & Ruth with 6 votes each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leader board after Open Page 1<\/p>\n\n\n\n Francesca 8 Choose a<\/strong> flower<\/strong>, any flower which grows somewhere on planet earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The task is to write a poem in free verse (no specific form\/meter, no line-end rhyme<\/strong>), about the flower. Feel free to google your flower, find its relation to mythology, to history, to old-wives\u2019s tales etc. etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Name your flower, either in your title, within your poem, or as a post-script at the end, after your line count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have a maximum of 30 lines<\/strong>, excluding your title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enjoy\u2026 let your imagination roam free\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1st place Cat – 14 points, 2nd place Ros & Francesca 13 points each, 3rd place Colette 11 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leader board after challenge 2<\/p>\n\n\n\n Francesca 7 It\u2019s my delight and honour to start off our 20th Alpha year with this photo challenge for you. They say that a picture paints a thousand words, but I only want 300. The style is up to you, poem, letter, story – and it can be up to 300, but not over.<\/strong> The title is not included in the word count, and please do try and include a title if you can, it makes all the difference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 1st place Francesca and Andy – 14 points each, 2nd place Ros 13 points, 3rd place Maria 8 points<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leader board after challenge 1 Challenge 9 It is the end of term. Your old school has invited you to give the end of term address to the students who are leaving and going out into the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":138,"menu_order":9,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1343","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1345,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1343\/revisions\/1345"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Andy 1st<\/sup> place with 26 points
Ros 2nd<\/sup> place with 24 points
Colette in 3rd<\/sup> place with 23 points
Francesca 4th<\/sup> place with 21 points
Suzanne in 5th<\/sup> place with 17 points<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nOpen Page 2<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 There is no minimum word count for the Open Page, but to avoid a collated file that’s too long to read and assess in the time available we advise you to show due consideration to your fellow Alphas and to limit the maximum word count to 1,500. Consider the average Alpha attention span!
\u2022 Your Open Page entry should be preceded by a brief introduction stating the genre of the piece and the word count. Add any other useful information: why and when you wrote it; any problems you’d like help with etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andy 1st<\/sup> place with 25 points
Ros 2nd<\/sup> place with 23 points
Colette in 3rd<\/sup> place with 19 points
Francesca 4th<\/sup> place with 18 points
Suzanne in 5th<\/sup> place with 14 points<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nChallenge 7 – love letter to a household object<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The leaderboard now looks like this:
Andy 1st<\/sup> place with 21 points
Ros 2nd<\/sup> place with 20 points
Francesca and Colette in joint 3rd<\/sup> place with 16 points each
Suzanne in 4th<\/sup> place with 13 points
Liz in 5th<\/sup> place with 12 points
Everyone else has between 9 and 11 points so is very close behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nChallenge 6 – Family Dinner<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Also:
Include a title
Maximum word count is 300 words (not including the title)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The leaderboard now looks like this
1st place Andy & Ros – 19 points each
2nd place Francesca – 15 points
3rd place Collett – 13 points
4th place Suzanne – 12 points
5th place Liz – 11 points<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nChallenge 5 – Novel opening<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Leaderboard now looks like this
1st<\/sup> place \u2013 Ros with 18 points
2nd<\/sup> place \u2013 Andy with 17 points
3rd<\/sup> place \u2013 Francesca with 14 points
4th<\/sup> place \u2013 Suzanne with 11 points
5th<\/sup> place \u2013 Colette with 10 points<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nChallenge 4 – Complete story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The leader board is currently as follows
1st<\/sup> place Andy and Ros with 14 points each
2nd<\/sup> place Francesca on 13 points
3rd<\/sup> place Suzanne on 10 points
4th<\/sup> place Colette on 9 points
5th<\/sup> place Stephen on 8 points<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nChallenge 3 – Diary entry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The leaderboard
Francesca 12 points
Ros 11 points
Andy 10 points
Suzanne 9 points
Colette 7 points
Sarah 6 points<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nOpen Page 1<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 There is no minimum word count for the Open Page, but to avoid a collated file that’s too long to read and assess in the time available we advise you to show due consideration to your fellow Alphas and to limit the maximum word count to 1,500. Consider the average Alpha attention span!
\u2022 Your Open Page entry should be preceded by a brief introduction stating the genre of the piece and the word count. Add any other useful information: why and when you wrote it; any problems you’d like help with etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ros 8
Andy 7
Colette 6
Suzanne 6
Cat 5
Maria 4
Ruth 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nChallenge 2<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Ros 6
Andy 5
Cat 5
Colette 3
Maria 3<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nChallenge 1<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Francesca & Andy 4 points
Ros 3 points
Maria 2 points
Almost everyone 1 point<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"