Cirrus@Austlit

'This piece (one of the many children’s stories) is an engaging and imaginative story by a young girl who gave a great deal of thought to the interior life as well as the outer appearance of her main character. Young writers are often plot driven (‘and then… and then… and then’). The characters are mostly described as tall or short and their eye and hair colour is given. To circumvent this plot-driven obsession, our Story Weavers set character-building exercises during the first two sessions of our workshops, e.g. ‘What happens to you when you feel sad, fearful, angry or happy?’ The Story Weaver encourages them to think about their characters: what’s important to them, who or what they care about, what scares them or makes them happy. Through this process, children start to build a character from the inside out—something ten-year-old Lara Balyuk has amply achieved in her story.' (Introduction)