WRITING CHALLENGE: Finish the story
Note from Jeni: This website exists to tell kids’ own stories about life under lockdown, but from time to time I’ll share other cool things that kids might like. Here’s one of those!
Are you a kid who wonders what it’s like to go to university? Here’s your chance to find out!
Pandemic University is doing a cool project with The Current, a program on CBC Radio. They’ve started to tell a story, and are asking writers to finish it!
The ending should be no more than a minute long — that’s about 80-100 words.
(don’t let that number stress you out — it’s about as many words as in the four paragraphs above!)
You can listen to the challenge here, or read the start of the story at the end of this post.
How to enter your story
- Send your finished story to thecurrent@cbc.ca.
- Deadline is end of day, this Wednesday (April 29, 2020).
- You can send the written story, or you can record it — don’t need anything fancier that the voice memo app on a phone — and send in the recording.
Have fun, and hope to hear a kids’ winning story on the radio soon!
The girl threw the cup with the string attached to the neighbour boy. She’d made a telephone that was just for them, and had a cup of her own that she could talk to the boy through.
The cup landed on the boy’s bedroom windowsill. Their parents had grounded them both, but she could still see him — in his blue room, with his Mickey Mouse clock on the wall — and she would wave, and he would wave back.
Sometimes he would dress up as Superman, just for himself. And the girl would see him in his blue suit and his red cape, and thought that he looked sad, and brave.
They used to play in the willow tree on their street, swinging from its long, sweet branches, and laughing until the street lights would come on, and their moms would call them home.
The cup landed with a thump. The boy opened his window, and put the cup to his ear. The girl pulled the line tight, almost tugging him out onto the laneway. Her voice travelled like a song, over the string.
“I want to tell you something,” she said …
The Kids Write 
I couldn’t understand how to send it. Do I send it as a document, an Email, or something else? I don’t know what to do. Please help me.
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Hi Kylie!
Once you have your story done, you can can email it to thecurrent@cbc.ca (just put the text of your story right in the email). If you like, you could also record yourself reading it, then email the audio file. But it might be easier just to send the words!
Hope that helps,
— Jeni
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Thank you Jeni. I Emailed my story but it said it couldn’t send because organizational settings. If it’s too much trouble to help me I don’t have to send it in.
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Ah, I understand. I think it might be the email address you are sending from. If you are trying to send it using your school’s email address, it might not work (some schools have restrictions on sending emails, to help keep students safe). You could try sending it from a different email address, if you have one, but it might be easiest to ask an adult you know, like a parent or a teacher, for help with that.
— Jeni
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Who won the writing contest?
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That’s a good question! I think I heard one of the winning stories on the radio today (but I didn’t hear the whole thing so I can’t be 100% sure). I will see if I can find a link for you!
– Jeni
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Okay thank you!
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