Toulouse: a novel written by… 107 BTS students
A target of students from the Lycée Ozenne in Toulouse is preparing to write a novel which will be published next May. An unprecedented initiative in France.
It all starts on a small student piece of paper. Each student is invited, in a few words, to imagine the beginning of a story by ending the sentence: “This is the story of”. It is from this subject that a large-scale work is prepared at the general vocational school of Ozenne, in downtown Toulouse. 107 students will write a novel. This large-scale project is carried by the association “Repairing the language, I can” directed by two novelists, Alain Absire and Sandrine Vermot-Desroches. Their mission is to promote writing and reading in middle and high schools. But for the first time in France, it is young adults who will be responsible for publishing a novel.
“At the beginning, I wondered how was going to make a novel with so many people” smiles Angèle Dehecq, second year student of BTS communication in high school. Especially since the students are inventive. “There were a lot of different themes brought up at the start. It ranged from student insecurity, to beer, through politics or school harassment ”continues the young woman. With this immense puzzle of ideas, the novelist Alain Absire, co-founder of the association “Repairing the language, I can”, draws a common thread by relying on the most promising ideas. “What matters is that everything is used. No idea is lost, everything is there ”explains Sandrine Vermot-Desroches, the president of the association. “Then you have to create the narrative structure, the adventures, imagine a scenario, characters etc. “
Concretely, this exercise involves discussion with the students: “We try to immerse ourselves in the story and in the characters. All our ideas are written on the board, as we express them, ”explains Élodie Bressoles, a BTS student in managerial action support. Since the end of November, the plot of the novel is ready. The students chose to tell the story of a man with an incurable disease who will soon lose his sight. He then decides to embark on a journey across the world. His journey will lead him to make all kinds of encounters: migrant, trafficker, abused woman, former classmate … which can cause blindness (Editor’s note) ”explains Alice Boeuf, a BTS communication student. “In addition to the richness of this meeting, it shows that it is essential to learn about what we are going to write” adds Sandrine Vernot-Desroches.
Because the association’s project does not stop at the school year. It will be published during the month of May in bookstores and then presented, by the schools themselves, on the occasion of the Book Fair for high school students in Occitania at the José Cabanis media library.