“In Search of Lost Time” by Marcel Proust holds the world record for the book with the highest word count. It has nearly 1.2 million words in it!
Alan Moore, the famous comic book writer, wrote a very short story of only 6 words which simply went: “Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time“. Which we think is awfully clever 
So clearly a writer can create wonderful prose in any number of words as long as they feel inspired to do so.
The 100 Word Challenge is an extremely popular weekly writing task aimed at children. Each week a prompt is set on the 100WC.net blog that is designed to inspire a piece of writing no longer than 100 words. That’s the golden rule. This is how the website describes it:
“It is a weekly creative writing challenge for children under 16 years of age. Each week a prompt is given, which can be a picture or a series of individual words and the children can use up to 100 words to write a creative piece. This should be posted on a class blog and then linked to the 100 Word Challenge blog. The link is usually open from midnight on Wednesdays until midnight the following Tuesdays.”
Hundreds of schools from all over the world do the 100WC every week. Everyone in the 100WC team is encouraged to comment and feedback on the 100 word pieces. It’s a wonderfully effective way of building an audience for your work.
We were very humbled and excited to be able suggest a prompt of our very own, starring Tim & Moby. We have created a brand new, short animation that you can see below. The BrainPOP team will also be reading the blog posts and Tim & Moby themselves will be commenting on their favourite entries.
When the week is over we’ll feature the very best ones on our blog too.
The two versions below are identical but use different video services, in case one is blocked in your school.
YOUTUBE VERSION
VIMEO VERSION
Good luck everyone!
May 17th, 2012 at 8:24 am
Thank you all SO much for setting the prompt this week. I’m sure it is going to be very popular with the children and we will get some wonderful entries. You will need to keep popping into 100wc.net to read them. hope you will be able to leave some comments and suggest some for the showcase next week!
Thanks again!
May 17th, 2012 at 1:23 pm
Hi Mrs Skinner,
It was our absolute pleasure! We’ve been so excited to provide this week’s prompt. We hope you get lots of entries, we’ll be doing our best to spread the word and comment where we can.
Tim, Moby and the BrainPOPpers
April 26th, 2013 at 9:34 am
Hi there!
I was just wondering whether it would be ok for me to use your image (the one right at the top with the 100WC words on it) for a blog which is intended to be used in Wales for the 100WC? Would this be okay?
April 26th, 2013 at 9:50 am
Hi Serena,
Absolutely! Go for it and good luck with your 100WC, we’re big fans here – if there’s anything we can do to help publicise it just ask
April 26th, 2013 at 9:52 am
Thank you, Chris!
Diolch yn fawr
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