Like many authors I like to visit
schools and talk to the children about my work. I also run workshops to
encourage the children how to come up with ideas for stories and to get them
writing. They’re always good fun and I love meeting the children, it’s one of
the best parts of my job. One of the things I like to do is to build
up a story around the class and see what ideas the children come up with.
Here’s a picture of me with some of the children of Straits School,
Dudley. We’re building up a story with a box of toys. It was a brilliant story
all about a crocodile and a peacock who lived in Sunshine City. We had lots of
fun thinking of the names of the characters and making up a story about them.
Sometimes I show the children a picture of
an unusual house and ask them who lives there, then we make up a story about
that character. The children come up with lots of weird and wonderful answers
but I’ve noticed that the favourites are aliens, zombies and princesses that
have been kidnapped by a wicked witch. The scarier the story the more the
children love it. They have a great sense of fair play though and the baddies
are always killed in the end and the princess always either outwits the witch
and escapes or occasionally a prince drops by and kills the witch for her.
These workshops are a bit noisy
as the children shout out ideas, then another child will carry on with it, or
change it, and the story gets crazier and crazier. I like that. I like to see
children bursting with ideas. And when I tell them we’re going to do some
freewriting, that they’re not to worry about spellings or grammar for now but
to just write their story down and go back over it later to correct it, their
pencils practically whizz over the paper. Many a teacher has told me how
refreshing they’ve found it to forget all about structure for a while and let
the children use their imaginations with no restrictions. I think it’s good for
us authors to do that too. Sometimes we just need to write what’s in our head
and see what story comes out. We can always go back and tidy it up after.
4 comments:
"Sometimes we just need to write what’s in our head and see what story comes out. We can always go back and tidy it up after."
Yes! Yes, yes, yes!
That sounds like so much fun! Children love stories, the places their imagination takes them is wonderful, often suprising and I wish they all had the chance to be part of creating a magical tale. I know that for me, personally, as long as I'm laughing as I'm typing I'm happy (yes, I'm just a big kid)!
"when I tell them we’re going to do some freewriting, that they’re not to worry about spellings or grammar for now but to just write their story down and go back over it later to correct it, their pencils practically whizz over the paper."
I've found that too! I always tell them some writers plan lots, some only a little and some don't plan at all. Whatever works for them is fine.
But they often can't believe it about spellings - and keep asking me how to spell a word...
"Sometimes we just need to write what’s in our head and see what story comes out. We can always go back and tidy it up after."
A big yes from me too!
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