SelfDesign learner incorporated the competition into her learning and was shortlisted as a finalist

Written by Ava, SelfDesign® learner

I was sitting at my desk at home when I got the email notification from the CBC. I opened it and what I read shocked me. I was so excited, I ran from my room, carrying my laptop to my mom. After she read it, we both jumped up and down in joy. I had made the shortlist for the CBC First Page Youth Writing Challenge.

The annual contest’s “challenge” is to write the first page of a novel set in Canada 150 years from now. The contest is open to Canadian students enrolled in grades 7 to 12 at a school in Canada. My submission, “Reasonable Paranoia,” was one of ten finalists shortlisted out of nearly 1,300 entries submitted by kids in grades 7 to 9.

For the rest of the week after I got the email, I walked around with the biggest grin on my face. It felt like a fantasy. This was the first time I’d taken part in a writing contest – going into it, I had never for a million years thought anyone would look twice at my story.

My name is Ava, and I live in northern B.C. I am 14 years old and in grade 9 with SelfDesign® Learning Community. Ever since I was a kid, I have loved reading and was always imagining different stories. However, I never really thought of myself as a writer. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I started thinking about getting my stories down on paper.

I had worked on a couple of short stories before, but “Reasonable Paranoia” was my first serious story.

After hearing about the CBC youth writing contest, I started brainstorming different aspects about our world today and what would happen if they spiraled out of control. My mind kept coming back to the idea of the lack of digital privacy in our world. From that was born the premise for my story “Reasonable Paranoia.”

I found some aspects of the writing process and contest quite difficult. I think one of the hardest parts was the word count. The contest rules required that I keep my entry to under 400 words. I had a lot of ideas for my story, but after I had made my first draft, I was way over the word limit. Four hundred words seems like a lot until you start writing. Then you realize it lets you tell only the bare minimum about your story’s world and characters. I went over every sentence and sometimes even individual words to see if they were truly worth keeping in the story. In the end, after many drafts, I managed to get it under the word limit and still tell everything I needed to.

My favourite part about the whole experience was seeing my first, messy, and very rough draft become something I could be really proud of. I worked harder on “Reasonable Paranoia” than on any story before, and I am so glad that I did.

I found that being enrolled as a learner with SelfDesign helped to make taking part in the contest possible. For one thing, SelfDesign’s learning experience has helped me follow my passions. In the case of the CBC contest, SelfDesign’s flexibility gave me the opportunity to spend a lot of time writing and re-writing my story. For a few weeks, I was able to mold my schoolwork around researching writing advice and doing activities on writing my First Page challenge submission. I also was able to take advantage of the many online resources that SelfDesign offers to improve my writing.

This year, I have really been able to see how this contest has enriched my learning experience. Through the different steps of researching how to write a great story, I found that I really enjoyed myself. It was exciting to be able to apply the things I was learning, and even better when I got to see the payoff from my work. I think that contests such as the one I entered are amazing opportunities for students to push themselves and improve their skills. I look forward to doing more writing and contests such as this one.

Next year, I’ll be going into my first year of high school. I hope to continue improving my skills as a writer, and I plan on re-entering this contest next fall.

To learn more about our approach to learning visit the SelfDesign Learning Community page on our website.