By Mikayla van Loon
Young writers from all over Victoria submitted their stories into the RSPCA’s second Pawsome Stories competition but it was a boy from Tecoma who wowed the judges with his creative writing skills.
Taking home the CEO Award for creative writing, Oliver Oswald was so pleased and excited to find out his story had left an impression.
“So it was about a dragon and the main character, he found it in the sea stuck in a fishing net and then it was sick so he had to save it,” he said.
“I liked the idea of doing a story about a dragon because I have read a lot of books about dragons.”
Oliver said dragons intrigued him because they were mythical creatures and they were so different from other animals or creatures roaming the earth.
As an animal lover, Oliver said he is always feeding the birds that come to the decking, including budgies, Rosellas, parrots and magpies.
Paul, Oliver’s dad, said ever since he was four or five he was constantly writing and illustrating his own short stories.
“He’s always been a very talented writer and illustrator as well but illustrating doesn’t happen as much these days. So especially the writing is always pretty good, so we try to encourage that,” Paul said.
“Even, he used to love languages, more so previously but he’d just get phrase books out and write out a story about a blue iguana or something and then write it out in Japanese as well.”
With so many ideas constantly circling, Oliver said he often starts a lot of stories but never finishes them.
The most recent story he started was one about a plague, something he said he was inspired to write because of the current situation in the world.
With the help of his Grade 5 teacher, Oliver said having to edit his award winning story to meet the criteria was challenging, especially when he had to cut two paragraphs but it was a rewarding process.
“His teacher has been trying to work on that as well, just helping him with the editing process and going through a more structured way about what’s going to work in the story, what adds to it, especially when you’ve got a limit,” Paul said.
Oliver said after hearing most of the awards being read out at the ceremony held on Thursday 14 October, he didn’t think he was going to get an award but the very last name read out was his.
“We’re always proud regardless but we think he’s pretty talented so we’re super proud and we got a nice surprise when they made the announcement.”
