Simpsons writer Tim Long and English teachers at Stratford District Secondary School have once again teamed up to give students the opportunity to write for and learn from a professional writer through the third annual Tim Long Creative Writing Contest.
Simpsons writer Tim Long is once again ready to share his knowledge with students at Stratford District secondary school through his third annual creative writing content.
Launched in 2020 by Long and English teacher Isaac Moore, the Tim Long Creative Writing Contest gives high school students a chance to share their creative writing – whether it’s a short story, a chapter from a novel or a script –with Long and their teachers. From that pool of submissions, five finalists are selected in both the prose and scriptwriting categories to receive personalized feedback on their work from Long, as well as a small cash prize.
“It’s been so much fun,” Long said during a recent Zoom interview from his home in California. “First of all, it involves all of zero work for me, so it’s just the best kind of thing. The kids write these amazing pieces – I think last year they got 30 (submissions) or something – and (the panel of English teachers) have to wade through all of those. And then they send me five and it doesn’t feel like homework. The five are always really cool and I always end up sort of re-reading them and juggling them, ‘Oh, this one’s the best. No, this one’s the best.’
“It’s always really fun and then we do this little Zoom (meeting) with the five finalists in June. For me, it’s just a delight, so there’s no work involved at all.”
During that Zoom meeting, Long said he and the finalists work together – not unlike the collaboration in a television writers’ room – to offer feedback and constructive critiques of each of the students’ submissions. Long also sprinkles in guidance and lessons he’s learned through his career as a professional comedy and television writer, which includes more than two decades writing for The Simpsons.
Lily Webster, a Grade 11 student at the Stratford high school and the first-place winner of last year’s contest, said the feedback and guidance Long offered after reading her winning short story, Inspiration of a Writernot only helped her improve that piece but also everything she’s written since.
“It was kind of like a horror short story … about a failed author who tried writing several novels, but they all failed and he wanted inspiration,” Webster said. “He needs stuff for a new novel that would actually make him successful. It’s kind of one of those be-careful-what-you-wish-for scenarios. … (Tim’s feedback) was very useful to get the flow more natural and kind of bring it all back (to the beginning), and get more details into it and make it kind of make more sense as well. And I’ve been able to apply that to other pieces I’ve done.”
Stratford District secondary school English teacher Laurie Craig, who’s helping organize the contest this year, said Long’s willingness to share his knowledge and experience with the student writers really adds another level of excitement.
“It’s really exciting for me to see kids excited about something they’re doing on their own time,” Craig said. “So, as I’m walking down the hallways and being stopped by all these students who just want to pitch an idea they have, and to see their eyes light up like that about something they’re really interested in that’s outside of school, it’s just really exciting.”
In an effort to introduce more students to the art of writing for television, movies and theatre, Long and Craig decided this year to separate scriptwriting as its own category.
“Laurie and I thought it might be fun to have it as two categories this year instead of just one. … I felt like (scriptwriting) was a form not too many people took advantage of (last year) because I think the scriptwriting software was a little intimidating. I’ve written a lot of prose stuff too, but most of my days are taken up by writing a lot of scripts, so I thought it might be fun for the kids to take a crack at that,” Long said.
Craig said students interested in submitting in the scriptwriting category will have access to free software online, as well as a number of television-pilot scripts that Long has provided as examples of how to write for the screen or stage.
The deadline for submissions to this year’s Tim Long Creative Writing Contest is April 1. Students can ask their teachers how to submit their scripts and short stories using Google Classroom.