Sit Down and Write

Our featured writer for this week is 11-year-old Katrina. She finished her story in about four hours (or even less) during our Write Away! Weekend, one Saturday afternoon.

Sometimes you just need to devote time to write and stick to that schedule, sit down and write (and write and write…). As what American journalist, author, and dramatist, Gene Fowler said about writing, “Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”

Katrina says she loves writing because it helps her express herself and it is really fun to write. We can’t wait to write with her this summer!

There were no drops of blood at our Write Away! Weekend but an out-of-our-planet story from Katrina.

The Darlek Strikes Again

by Katrina, 11 years old

I have been on Mercury for about five years now and I think it is 2025. I was actually supposed to go to Sun station 25 to get arms for the next war but we had to take a break to walk around, stretch our legs, and fill up our gas tank. I am with Martha Jones and The Doctor. They happen to be doctors and The Doctor is actually an alien, the Time Lord, to be exact.

We are stuck here because our ship’s engine exploded because of the heat and Martha used diesel, and not gas. We are looking for materials for a new engine but we can’t find anything which isn’t too surprising because we are on Mercury. Mercury is nothing but a vast, empty void.

I realized something or someone was following me when The Doctor said he could sense something familiar. It was a Darlek; an octopus-ish kind of creature encased in metal so it looked like a robot. It also shoots lasers from its hand which looks like a whisk and it usually says “Exterminate.”

I went to shoot it with my laser gun and it saw me and started chasing me when I tripped on my skirt, fell and broke my arm. I was expecting it to “exterminate” me when The Doctor came and just kept talking to it. Suddenly, Martha came, attacked the robot with a large rock and killed the octopus inside. After that, we finally found the parts we were in search of from the robot itself and we built a new engine. After that, we went to get the arms to protect our planet from alien invasions but unfortunately our engine was not compatible with our spaceship. So now we are stuck on Mercury.

We realized that we wouldn’t be getting off this planet for a while so we made plans to build a home and try to fight from here. We also knew that we could make weapons from the ship but we had to scale it down. We are keeping our hopes high for an alien to find us so we could use its spaceship to get home but for now, we wait.

This article was first published in ManilaSpeak.com on March 28, 2017.

***

Where the Write Things Are is a creative writing center for kids, teens, and adults. If you love writing or need some inspiration to get to write, our writing studio is the place to be.

Check out our monthly classes at

writethings.wix.com/writethings and facebook.com/writethingsph.

Summer Creative Writing Classes and Workshop for Kids and Teens:

Young Writers’ Hangout (1:30pm-3pm)
April 22: Creative Nonfiction Writing with Susan Lara (guest author)
April 29: Practical Grammar for Creative Writing & Social Media with Nikki Alfar (guest author)
May 13, 20, 27: with guest authors
June 3:How to get writing ideas with Russel Molina (guest author)
Wonder of Words Workshop – May 8, 10, 12, 15, 17 and 19 (1:30pm-3:30pm for 8-12 years old; 4pm-6pm for 13-17 years old) with guest authors Pam Pastor, journalist and editor of Super section of Philippine Daily Inquirer; and Sarge Lacuesta, award winning fictionist and editor-at-large of Esquire Philippines Magazine