Student writers from Strath Haven competed in the Central League Writing Contest on April 24. Two students from each grade were selected by Haven English teachers to participate in a competition between 12 local schools hosted at Conestoga.
Along with chaperones Ms. Lattari and Mr. Zakrzewski, Haven students Ava Wachtman, Aidan Davis, Bianca Blake, Clare Donovan, Pearl Ricci-Upin, Scarlett Rein, Kazi Bhuiya, and Roland Rennick-Zuefle traveled to Conestoga for a morning of competition, networking, and fun.
“I have participated in writing competitions before. Technically, it was a poetry contest.” sophomore Scarlett Rein said. “I was very surprised when I got chosen for this competition because I don’t do a lot of creative writing outside of poetry, but I was very excited for the opportunity because it’s a very interesting departure from what I’m used to.”
Students were given one hour to respond to a prompt in which they were instructed to start with the phrase “The message wasn’t meant for me” and include six selected words such as “clock” and “thread.”
The prompt inspired a variety of topics, ranging from murder, to mystery, to Russian conspiracies. The time constraint meant that students had to alter their writing process.
“Normally, I like to come up with the beginning, middle, end, characters, what those characters act like, and a lot of background information to include in the story,” Rein said, “But, due to there only being an hour, I just threw a bunch of words on a page and hoped they made sense at the end of the day.”
After the stories were submitted under provided pseudonyms, the English teachers judged them. The students in each grade competed against one another. Haven won first place in the eleventh grade category for junior Roland Rennick-Zuefle’s story. The prize was a Wawa gift card and an issue of Conestoga’s school literary magazine.
While judging took place, students watched a presentation from writer Steve Hanna. Hanna has worked in a variety of forms of writing including television writing and translation of Japanese literature. He gave a speech, provided advice, and took questions on writing as a broader career outside of the box of writing novels.
“I thought it was really cool,” sophomore Bianca Blake said, “I’m aspiring to be a screenwriter. I asked a question like ‘What is it like actually screenwriting?’ so I really took away all the information that he gave us.”
While stressful, many students also found the competition to be a fun opportunity, and would be open to going to it again.
“I think writing competitions are really cool. I definitely want to go for the gold next year,” Blake said. “So if I get picked to do this event again, then I’m going for first place in 11th grade.”
When faced with the pressure, students concluded that the best advice and strategy is to not overthink and simply write.
“It’s very low stakes and it’s supposed to be fun,” junior Pearl Ricci-Upin said. “Just go with your gut. If you like writing, if you want to be here, I think it’s just a fun thing to do.”
DISCLAIMER: Reporter participated in the Central League Writing Contest.
