Storyblasting

Dear Blog,

Storyblasting was a session that involved high school kids reading out their stories and it was then expertly critiqued  by writers, Hazel Edwards and Adam Wallace.  However they settled into the roles of bad cop and good cop quite quickly. Wallace being much gentler on the students and using the sentence "I like the imagery" over and over again. Yet I had to admit that I was little jealous, I wish that when I was in high school that I had such awesome authors helping me out with my work.

"Imagine you're painting it with words," Hazel Edwards says to one of the students, they stand there holding their work tightly in their hands, their fingers probably sweaty with nerves, gripping on to so not to let it fall. They are all excited, but you can see the nerves in their faces as they get up and stumble upon their title and then realise through the bright lights the can't see the crowd, their confidence rises.  The proudly pour through their story, some of the kids hardly pause for a breath, racing to get off the stage not wanting to be the centre of attention any longer. Some of the kids don't mind the spot light though, relishing in their moment of glory, pausing at all the right places and reading effortlessly. These are the stories the audience enjoys more, we smile and clap at the kids. They are brave, braver then some of us could ever be. As they receive their praise from their mentors, I wonder about my own stories, where they need improvement and who could advise me. It seemed unlikely that I would be able to kidnap either Adam or Hazel and force the to read all my work. I guess I had to trust, trust myself that whatever work I did, after all the planning, writing and editing that it would be ok. I had to believe in myself like how these kids believed in themselves, knowing that once the audience clapped and you took your bow that it would be ok.