Wycombe High Students produced outstanding work as part of an English department competition, in which creative writers had just 100 words to write a short story on the theme of ‘Trapped’. News Crew’s Deya Obhi has the lowdown.
Recently, the Wycombe High School English Department, in association with Young Writers, gave all years the chance to exercise their creativity by writing a short story inspired by the word ‘TRAPPED’. At first glance, the brief appears extremely vague, giving room for endless plot lines and character development. However, the twist was that every entry had to adhere to the measly limit of 100 words! Despite the unforgiving conditions of the competition, the work produced by students across all key stages was written to an extremely high standard. I spoke to the winning candidates to get some insight into each of their works in their own words.
Lauren, Year 13
Lauren’s explanation for her piece was definitely thought provoking. “In most media exploring immortality, the immortal beings, such as vampires, are shown as powerful and limitless, whereas I wanted to present immortality as something fragile and easily lost. Of course, as a statue you would also be alone, unable to communicate. Additionally, I’ve raised questions regarding knowledge; as a statue, you would be exposed to a great deal of history, learning about the human world, but unable to do anything about it. Therefore, is knowledge worth it if it cannot be acted on or shared?” Well done Lauren! This was such a creative concept written tremendously well, which certainly makes for an interesting and inspiring read!
Sanaa, Year 11
Sanaa shared how she formulated her ideas and what the process was like. “I came up with the idea because when I first read the word ‘Trapped’, I thought about someone being physically trapped/unknowing of where they were and also feeling trapped within their own thoughts. I tried to incorporate the physically trapped aspects into describing someone who was trapped within their own thoughts. The process was quite hard as getting my thoughts for the story into words was quite difficult and I wanted to find the best words to express the story appropriately.” Congratulations to Sanaa! Many of us can probably relate to the feeling of being trapped within our own minds, and she managed to put this into words in a really impactful yet thrilling way.
Sophie, Year 7
Sophie drew inspiration for her piece from numerous places. “I came up with the idea as I wanted to be original. I was reading a book at the time (Seekers) which is about three bears, two in the wild and one in the zoo. This gave me inspiration to do an animal in a zoo, trapped. Also, I had recently visited a zoo and loved watching the penguins swim around and they were beautiful.”Â
She also shared how she formulated her story and how she felt about the whole process. “I wrote a few drafts, and then combined them all together to make the story. I found the process very fun as I love writing stories. It was also quite frustrating as it was hard to work with only 100 words. But overall it was a lovely experience.” Amazing work Sophie! The way you were able to amalgamate all these ideas into so few words while keeping it entertaining is something to be proud of.Â