Our event at the Bath Literature Festival went very well. You may have spotted us and taken part. We thank you, for everyone who joined in with our activity and gave time for a little creativity in their day. We hope we have inspired you to be more creative, for yourself, for fun and maybe for your career in the future.
If you were unable to attend, here is a little peak at what happened that day...
This was the opening we created to start the story chain off...
Mazz, Lorien (both in the photo) and Ben spent their Saturday at Green Park Station encouraging the public to be a little creative with us. We asked them to write one sentence, or as much as they wished, for our story. Therefore together we all created a story chain.
Here is Lorien again, with our stall we had set up. We decorated it with our banner, toys, a globe and blankets to attract the public.
And here, a fellow university (and Creative Writing student) is taking part in our event. She added to our story chain and took our Penguin to ... actually I won't tell you, read below for the full story.
So, for what you've been waiting for.. what did happen to our little penguin?
Well today, we are revealing the story to you... enjoy.
This is a story about a penguin. In many ways she is an
average penguin, yet she holds a peculiar desire to travel and is on a quest
from her home in the South Pole to the North Pole. A pole undiscovered by
penguins. Elise’s journey begins by sliding down an iceberg. This is when Elise
stops being an average penguin. This penguin is going straight to New York
City!
However, on the journey across
the sea, the boat gets hi-jacked. The only thing around her for miles is an
iceberg. It was gigantic, frozen and hardened over centuries – But Elise was
not daunted! She made her way confidently towards it, determined to conquer it.
She sits alone, abandoned.
On meeting some of the local birds, a pair of magpies, she
felt bewildered. She couldn’t understand how they could fly and she couldn’t.
After all they were black and white too.
She dreamt
of being able to whistle through the blue skies. Elise decides she is going to
ask the magpies to see if they can help her learn to fly.
“Of course we can help you!” the magpies exclaimed, “But
where do we start?”
The magpies begin to teach Elise how to fly. Elise finds
this very difficult. She would soar into the air and then splash down into the
sea. This is because penguins are very, very heavy!
After a
splash that took her deep into the blue depths, she met Gerald, a friendly
octopus. Gerald had an awful headache, so Elise gave him a head massage. Gerald
was grateful, and for this, he allowed Elise to borrow his submarine to get
back to the surface.
Elise is exhausted after all the hard
work of attempting to fly and massaging Gerald’s squishy head. She fancies a
chocolate bar, to boost her energy. Worse than naughty cravings, Elise fancies
a penguin bar! That doesn’t make me a cannibal, she thinks. Little did she
know, actual penguins are used in penguin chocolate bars! However, she goes on
to eat it anyway, to satisfy her hunger.
“Hey, this doesn’t taste half
bad!” she cries.
The
magpies that taught Elise to fly spotted her climbing out of a little yellow
submarine, surrounded by chocolate bar wrappers. It was a terrible look for
Elise, how her white chest was now spotted with flecks of melted chocolate, the
food sticking to her feathers like glue. As they drew close, they noticed the
wrappers were in fact Penguin bar wrappers!
But don’t
worry, it was all a ploy, Penguin bars are not really made out of penguins.
Gerald the octopus had simply played a joke on Elise! He chuckles, then bellows
with laughter until all of his tentacles shook like jelly.
Elise was furious and decided to seek revenge on Gerald. She
dived into the sea and told all the fish and other sea creatures about what
Gerald did to her. Fish swam across the sea, a great black mass of an
indescribable number, all gossiping about the great, big octopus, Gerald.
Rumour spread and soon, no one in
the sea would talk to Gerald. Elise left before she suffered his wrath. She
swam the rest of the way to the USA, leaving Gerald’s submarine deserted on the
seas surface.
In New York she bought a coffee from Starbucks, and felt so
energized she gave flying another try.
It worked! She was up in the air,
high above the billboards and the skyscrapers, so high the Statue of Liberty
was in view.
Elise landed in Orlando and decided
to visit Harry Potter world. Why not? She thought. However, Hogwarts was too
intimidating for a little penguin, so she waddled on her way. Elise waddled all
the way to the airport, purchased a ticket and boarded a plane to England. On
this plane she met a seal named Jimmy.
“Well!” The casual looking seal
said. “If you want to find your way to
the North Pole, I can tell you, you are heading in the wrong direction!”
“I want to visit as many places
as I can on my way,” Elise blushed.
“Well, I’ll tell you, Bath is a
lovely place to visit in England,”
Elise
decided to take Jimmy’s advice. She hadn’t been to England before and needed a
place to start. She landed in Bristol airport and hopped on a train to Bath.
Her first stop in Bath was Beyond
the Kale, a great health food shop and juice bar. Feeling the need to replenish
her energy she bought a ‘blissful blend’.
After slurping up her blend, Elise headed for the river
Weir, a favoured point of interest in the town. She missed the water, and although
it was thrilling to fly, she was born to swim. When she found the river she
dived in, surfing the gentle waves with her belly.
Elise decided that it had been a
long day, full of binge eating of chocolate bars and gossiping sea creatures;
she just wanted to reach the North Pole. The only adventure she wanted to go on
and conquer today was reaching there. So, will a belly full off will power, and
probably some chocolate still, she found the Atlantic Ocean once more and she
swam and swam until her flippers ached. She told herself she would only stop to
perch on an iceberg when her flippers gave in.
Night had
fallen. Elise thought, I’m not going to make it today, and with resent turned
towards the nearest iceberg. She heaved herself up with the last bit of
strength in her flippers and fell – unflatteringly – on to her big round belly.
She didn’t
open her eyes until morning. The sun shone down on her smooth, black coat,
warming her. Awakened by the creak and groan of ice, a light ‘thud’ shot Elise
to her feet. She squinted, wondering how close she was to her destination.
When her eyes came into focus,
there, she saw the unbroken edge of the Arctic. Her trusty iceberg has
delivered her through the maze of broken ice, right to land’s edge! Elise had
almost reached the North Pole after all. Stepping onto the land, she waddled
dolefully through untouched snow. She looked over the horizon. With a bowed
beak, Elise could smell adventure ahead.
Home is where the heart is and
now Elise is there too. She heard a low groan in the distance, and with a flap
of her wings she saw large white figures come dancing across the snow to greet
her. Friends!
THE END
We hope you enjoyed our story and that we have inspired some creativity within you. Why don't you try a story chain of your own and see where it ends up, or even just write your own little story. If you want to leave any links/stories in the comments we would love to read them.
A big thank you to all the people who took part:
Mikey
Daniel
Tino Prinzi
Michael
Ockle Bockle
Finn and Phoebe G
Jason
Kai
Jamie
James
Pete Hunt
Sarah Sailsbury
Emma Hurley
Tilly
Sophie Lee
Connor Hawthorn
Rebecca
Jacob
Bobby
Ami
Ryan
Roxy
Jordan
and the members of the group who
helped the story reach its end
Mazz, Lorien, Ben, Jordan and Lucy!
Creative Writing students from Bath Spa University.
Also a huge thanks to Voices in the City (Bath Literature Festival) who let us take part this year.
Creative Writing students from Bath Spa University.
Also a huge thanks to Voices in the City (Bath Literature Festival) who let us take part this year.
Happy writing!
