STORYATHON is an exciting and free online event for Year 4 to Year 9 students from New Zealand and Australia. Year 3 to Year 8 from Australia and New Zealand.
Students are challenged to write a story that is EXACTLY 100 words.
STORYATHON has been inspired by the work of the highly acclaimed high school English teacher and university lecturer, Paul Grover.
We want students to really value writing, just as they value sports, hobbies and other popular pursuits.
Writing microstories is fun and provides students with an opportunity to celebrate writing. They’re tiny narratives challenging students to tighten their language, experiment with words and focus their message.
Fewer characters, fewer events, a better eye for detail!
Microstories can be showcased!
They are great for:
- including in school newsletters
- framing on walls
- publishing on the school website and social media
- turning into podcasts for online access
- creating corridor and foyer displays.
- Forces the writer to question each word
- Encourages craftsmanship and creativity
- Presents a unique challenge
- Forces the writer to question each word
- Encourages craftsmanship and creativity
- Presents a unique challenge
Writing a microstory is a very inclusive and accessible learning activity – all students have ideas and all students can access the microstory challenge.
Everyone can celebrate great ideas and careful craftsmanship.
Microstories focus attention on important writing features such as:
- the impact of just one word
- great expression
- effective punctuation
- crafting opening and ending paragraphs
- the discipline of writing precisely
Microstories focus attention on important writing features such as:
- the impact of just one word
- great expression
- effective punctuation
- crafting opening and ending paragraphs
- the discipline of writing precisely
Encourage students to read other students’ microstories and enjoy them too.
Students are actively involved as judges.
- Jot down ideas
- brainstorm funny events, strange happenings, things that go wrong, unexpected events, family stories with a funny ending, fascinating facts, unusual achievements or events
- Let the words flow
- Just start writing. Forget about the 100 word limit. Edit and iterate later on
- Ask “what if?”
- About the topic to inspire and create new ideas. Revisit throughout to create twists, unexpected events, new characters
- Include dialogue
- Make the story come alive and give your characters a voice
- Use punctuation with purpose
- Send strong messages to your reader with powerful punctuation (!) (-) (...) etc.
- Use sentence length wisely
- Short sentences grab attention, long sentences create atmosphere
- Improve the opening grab and ending twist later
- These will come more easily once the body of the story is written
- Pay close attention to words and sentences
- Eg ‘Quick, jump off right now!’ can become ‘Jump!!’, or ‘There were many strange things happening that didn’t make sense’ can become ‘Strange things were happening. Very strange.’
- Walk away and think about it
- Take time think about other ideas, to look in news and to experiment with ideas and words.
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Is there a cost to participate?
No, Storyathon is a free event -
How do I register?
You can register via the website -
Is student privacy protected?
Yes. Student names are never displayed in full. The default is first name and initial. -
Can my students submit more than one story each event?
Yes! Students may create up to three stories each event.