Fiction: Group 1
One really fun exercise you can do is to re-tell a story in a different voice. So example, what if I asked you
to re-write Harry Potter in the voice of a person who writes mathematics exams for a living? How would it
turn out?
Maybe something like this:
“X equals a set of people, all of whom are muggles, except for subset Y, who is a boy wizard.”
Or what if you had to write a mathematics book in the style of Dr Seuss, one of the world’s most
popular authors for small children? It would probably start like this:
“Oh the things you can do with numbers! Big ones, small ones, red ones, blue ones!”
***
We had many hundreds of entries for the award this year, and I personally took the time to look at every
single one of them.
Many were excellent. Some less so.
Some were well-researched. Others not so. A common problem was that entrants thought “the
Pearl River Delta” was a river. But of course, a delta is not a river, but an area of land.
But on the whole, they were very good indeed—especially the fictional pieces, which reached an
astonishingly high level.
But for me, and for the team at the Hong Kong Young Writers’ Awards, the most exciting thing
about the whole programme was this:
We could hear some exciting young voices – new voices, but voices with real skill in catching our
attention, telling stories, informing and entertaining us, and leading us towards a brighter future.
Those are your voices. They are important. Keep developing them!
***
Nury Vittachi is the author of the Jeri Telstar books, co-author of The Magic Mirror series, and has written
many other books for adults and children.
