03 Sep 2021
I was told about the Brolga Young Persons Writing competition by my English teacher, Iva Slavica. She handed me the paper and suggested I submit a piece of writing. The first piece I wrote was about 200 words over the 750 limit that was placed on the competition, and unfortunately couldn't be submitted, whereas the second and final piece I wrote concluded at exactly 750 words (thank god, I didn't feel like having to write a third!). One inspiration for my piece was a song called Wishing Well by one of my favourite bands The Oh Hellos. Their songs are ethereal and often upbeat jigs.
When I received the news of my placing in the competition, it was well past the bedtime for everybody else in my household and though I was excited and surprised, I could neither make a noise nor tell anybody about it, and had to wait until morning to mention it to my family and friends.
The prompt for this particular competition was “Building Bridges” and I decided to take that literally in my interpretation, with the protagonist of my piece being one of many builders in their civilisation. Though I wish I could say I had a master plan or secret message within my piece, I honestly did not. Most of the writing happens in a blur and without serious planning, however one almost motif in my writing is my tendency to kill off a primary protagonist or secondary protagonist, and for this particular piece, I certainly didn't stray from my personal touch.
Amelia Scott, Year 11
Read Amelia's story "The Wind Calls"