The Seventh Story by Kevin Brooke - RUNNER UP - Cherished Children's Story July / Aug / Sept 2021
The Seventh Story by Kevin Brooke
Comedy, Tragedy,
Rebirth, Quest, Rags to Riches, Voyage and Return and Overcoming the Monster.
Seven themes, seven potential stories that would cover the entire world of
storytelling.
Tasked
with writing about one of them, eleven-year-old William left school with a
feeling of dread. He knew facts, lots of them. Ask him about medieval castles,
for example, and he'd know the answer. Creative writing? That was different.
“Don't
worry,” his mum said. “Your Uncle Albert is coming over. He’ll help you.”
“Great,”
William replied sarcastically, and headed upstairs.
“Your
mum tells me you need some help with a story,” Albert said, as he stood at the
bedroom door, “and here I am.”
William
sniggered at the brightness of his Uncle’s flowery shirt, then wondered whether
Comedy could be the theme of his first ever story and he started to make some
notes.
Albert
peered over Williams shoulders.
“You’ll
need some jokes if you're going to be comedian,” he said, picking up a plastic
gun and pointing the light beam in William’s direction. “Or is this just a phaser you’re going through?”
William
looked down at his notepad, realising his Uncle’s lack of funniness was quite
tragic. He crossed out the word Comedy and moved onto Tragedy.
“As
well as a plot,” Albert said. “Every story needs characters; funny ones, not so
funny ones, nice ones, not so nice ones.”
William
held up his hand. “You're talking Double Dutch.”
“Double
Dutch?” Albert asked. “Maybe, or as I prefer, good clog, bad clog. If the
characters are too nice in the first place, how can they change their ways?”
“A
Rebirth, you mean?” asked William, crossing out Tragedy and moving onto story
number three.
“At
first a nobody,” said Albert, “then heroic and prepared to travel into
dangerous places.”
“Like
a Quest?” William said, as he crossed out Rebirth and changed the theme of his
story for the third time.
“If
so, you'll need a reason for going,” Albert continued. “If you were poor maybe,
you'd have the perfect incentive to risk everything.”
William
crossed though the word Quest and added a pot of gold to his notepad. “Rags to
riches?”
It
felt exciting to be changing the theme of his story but as he did so once
again, a realisation dawned.
“We're
back were we started,” William said. “We've been sitting here for ages and gone
absolutely nowhere.”
“Not
quite,” Albert said, pointing at the castle. “You started here, but then it
changed when you found your character; funny but tragic, then a hero reborn who
set off on a Quest to transform his Rags to Riches and finally, he came home
and completed the Voyage and Return.”
William
looked at the scribbles and sketches on his notepad and realised his Uncle was
right. For the first time, William had created something that didn't rely on
facts and in Overcoming the Monster, he’d managed to write the seventh story of
seven.
“Thank
you,” William said, smiling the widest of smiles.
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