Project Remix

Hello, readers! As you might know, I have been writing for a very long time, but did not show a single person my work until I was thirteen or fourteen. My Dad knew I was an introvert about my writing, but he also knew that I wanted nothing more than to become a writer one day. However, being an introvert about my work and wanting to publish aren't easily cohesive, so he suggested that I join a teen writing website called movellas.com. Since then, loads of amazing things have happened to me, and a great number of them are due to Movellas! With their amazing community, invaluable support and great competitions I gradually emerged out of my shell and became proud of my writing for the first time ever. Throughout all the years I was active on the site I entered many of the competitions (I was only successful in a few of them!) and this boosted my confidence hugely, and reminded me that it might someday be possible to pursue my dream of becoming a writer.


A couple of weeks ago, I received a very exciting email regarding one of these competitions. However, it was unlike anything I had ever come across before on the site. This competition was one of the most exciting competitions for young people that I have ever heard about before. The email was regarding an invitation to the awards ceremony of a competition called Project Remix, a competition to find the UK’s best young writers and creatives. The competition encouraged young people aged 13-19 years to take inspiration from their favourite writers to make their own creative work in response to their books and stories. The possibilities for entries were enormous: Write a fanfic, design an alternative cover, reboot a story for their own spin-off comic strip, or even write a piece of original music inspired by a writer's work.

Even more exciting; the Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman herself chose her favourite entries in each category. There were hundreds of entries, all from the categories of:

. Creative writing: write your own piece of fiction inspired by your chosen book, story or poem. Word limit: up to 2,000 words.

. Comic strip: create your own comic strip inspired by your chosen book, story or poem. Limit: up to three A4 pages.

. Cover design: design or illustrate your own alternative cover for your chosen book.

. Book trailer: produce a book trailer – a short piece of film, like a film trailer – for your chosen book, story or poem. Limit: up to 2 minutes.

. Music: write and perform a song or a piece of original music inspired by your chosen book, story or poem. Limit: up to 3 minutes.

The Movellas Team and Malorie Blackman were astounded with the incredible quality and diversity of all the entries, and I think this shows how talented teenagers are, and how much they can achieve when they really put their minds to it. 

As soon as I heard about this competition and the awards ceremony I knew that it was something I wanted to follow up and spread the word about; anything that includes inspiring teenagers to get creative is something I will be interested in! I couldn't wait to meet the young people whose entries had blown away the Children's Laureate and speak to them about their creative endeavours. When I joined Movellas back in 2012 the site was mainly focused on creative writing, with a sparse number of book trailers and book cover design. It was amazing to see how the site had evolved, and how competitions like these were reaching out to a greater number of young people, appealing to all different kinds of interests.

A few posts will popping up over the next couple of weeks with interviews with the winners and an outline of the event- keep your eyes peeled!

Check out Movellas and Project Remix here:

www.movellas.com

http://www.movellas.com/projectremix

http://www.childrenslaureate.org.uk

http://www.childrenslaureate.org.uk/news-and-blog/news/99/

Until next time :)