GO Storymakers is GO's newest, new thing, and we're very excited about it!  GO Storymakers is an after school club for gifted students (and other students who are passionate writers) at the special introductory price of $50 per New Zealand school term. It is open to writers and other storymakers at primary (elementary) and secondary schools around the globe, but is run from New Zealand, and covered by New Zealand's laws.

Who is a storymaker? Just in case you were wondering, a storymaker can be a writer who writes, or a writer who doesn't ... actually ... write. Is that clear? No! OK... erm, it's like this... some of the kids we have taught who think up the best stories just don't like writing, or find it very difficult. They make audiofiles or cartoon strips, or they find someone extremely kind who writes things down for them (and I do hope they do something kind in return). We like writers here, and we like other kinds of storymakers too. We also like writers who write in genres that aren't actually stories, just in case you were wondering.

Each week there will be three suggestions for writers (and other storymakers) about topics, points of style or other writing considerations. Members may write in response to these suggestions or write freely in their blog and portfolio pages on topics of their own choosing. Each member is also asked to give some warmly helpful feedback to two other members each week. You can follow one suggestion, or all three, or write your own thing but enjoy sharing it with the online community here.

Printable Information
Introducing GO Storymakers - MS Word File	Introducing GO Storymakers - PDF File

Sample Writers' Suggestions
Topic - Places

1. Think of a place that makes you feel alive, challenged or valued. What are the things in this place which connect with these emotions you feel? What are you sensing, when you go there, and which senses connect with that place most strongly for you? In a genre of your choosing, paint a picture of this place with words.
   
   
   Places with rushing water can feel energising and exciting.
   Image by Wikimedia contributor, Santasa99.
   
   
2. Choose one of the unusual landscape photographs at Out Of This World: Earth’s Most Bizarre Landscapes as an inspiration for writing. You may research the place, and write factual information. You may write a poetic response to the landscape. You may write an advertisement for the place that you choose. You may write a fictional story of how the place came to be, or about event that might take place there.
   
   
3. Blackout poetry. Choose a piece of writing about a place. Print a webpage, cut a page out of a newspaper or magazine (with permission of the owner), or photocopy the page of a book. You will be scribbling on this page, so don't take an original page that is of value to somebody. Alternatively, if you know how, you can take a screenshot of a page, and black it out with your computer. Find the interesting words and phrases on your page. Find enough "small" words to connect them so that they make sense, although leaving out small words can give writing a more poetic feel. These words are your poem. Black out all the rest.