The literary talents of Hamptonians from across the Year Groups were on display in the Creative Writing Awards 2021.

Budding authors were challenged to write an action adventure story of no more than 1,000 words for this year’s competition and our young writers succeeded in creating pulse-pounding, adrenaline-pumping and suspenseful stories.

Young adult fiction author Sara Grant provided shortlisted finalists in the three age group categories with top creative writing tips focusing on character and plot development, ways to create tension and how to keep writing simple and direct; she also provided detailed written feedback to each of the finalists.

Sara was very impressed with the quality of the action adventure stories from all those who entered the competition:

Surreal tales that played with reality. Twists I never saw coming. Terrifying surprises. And unique fantastical worlds coming to life in just 1,000 words. The writers at Hampton School wowed me!  It was very difficult to select the winners, as the standard of storytelling was incredibly high. All of these talented boys deserve praise and I have no doubt that if they keep going, one day I’ll be buying books with their names on the spine.

The winners from each category, who will receive book tokens, are as follows:

Junior

Winner – Ben Rowe (Second Year)

Highly commended – Sam Trotman (Second Year)

Intermediate

Winner – Vishal Saha (Fourth Year)

Highly Commended – Thomas Massey (Third Year)

Senior

Winner – Ben Green (Upper Sixth)

Highly Commended – Maxi Grindley (Upper Sixth)

Take a look at the winners reading a short extract from their story here:

All the finalists’ work will be published in the Lion Print creative writing magazine later in the summer term.

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