A couple of weeks ago, my parents gave me some boxes of items that had been stored at their place since I finished school. In one of the boxes were some stories I had written when I was in high school, as well as my Communication project.
This got me reflecting on my experiences of VCE English. The two projects I remember were my Writing Folio and my Communication Project.
One of the things I enjoyed about the Writing Folio is that I could write pretty much whatever I wanted, so long as there were enough to submit at the end of the year, all in different styles and genre.
I had time to play around with different styles and formats. I wrote short stories, poems, picture book manuscripts, plays, news articles, and more. I chose the best of what I wrote to submit at the end of the year. This assignment was key to me discovering how much I loved to write.
Talking with my 17 year old, who is currently in VCE, he is disappointed that the Writing Folio isn’t something they still do. He hasn’t been asked to write any pieces just to write something. Everything has been an essay on a book that he has hated reading!
This is something I aim to do in my Imagination Workshops. I encourage kids to just write for the fun of writing and to encourage their creativity and find their own voice. It’s a chance for them to have fun with words and writing and all sorts of crazy prompts I challenge them with.
Having a writing folio was an important part of my early development as an author. I hope that I am able to provide that opportunity for the young writers I work with.
