Freyja Pearman, an A-Level student, studying English Literature, English Language, History and Philosophy entered a recent competition all about speaking your voice and raising issues that are close to your heart.
“I entered the un-mute monologue competition for Bristol Vic Theatres. They wanted 13-18 year-olds to write a monologue about anything that bothers them and that they think they should be given a voice for.”
We asked Freyja how the competition came about and what inspired her to enter.
“I’m in the sixth form creative writing club, I don’t have time to write anything for the club, but when they have a competition up, I’ll go see what it is. Joe Marsh, the English lecturer put the competition up.”
Freyja wrote about mental health and the monsters that sometimes control our thoughts.
“I wrote about my mental health. I named the monologue, My Little Monsters. It is going to be published for people to view soon. I’m really happy, I think it’s amazing!
Since the pandemic, I’ve noticed a lot more people talking about mental health which is great as you don’t feel alone with it. I really wanted to write a monologue, it’s a spoken medium so It felt a lot more personal than a novel. If you read it out loud, it’s a lot more powerful. You can hear it once and it’s so impactful.
The main difference between a monologue and a novel is that you can say things that you cant usually write down. Why I chose mental health is because I wanted it to be very straightforward. Yes, I use a lot of metaphors about the monsters being in your life, but I wanted it to be as straightforward as possible. I wanted to cut straight to the issue with a thousand-word monologue.”
Creative writing is a hobby and a type of therapy for Freyja.
“I really like doing creative writing, I enter a lot of competitions, and I find it a lot easier to write when there’s a theme. I have a lot of ideas, but I don’t know where to put them or what medium. When it is specifically a monologue about something that I am bothered about, all my ideas are organised for me.
It’s very much therapy for me, I write a lot of stories from my own perspective as well as everyone else’s perspective. I didn’t write Little Monsters just for me, I wrote it for everyone who struggles with mental health, I addressed the audience. I said you, rather than I.”