Build a Book in a Day

I did one of these sessions in a school on Monday and I’m doing another one on Friday. One learns and refines as one goes along.

Both of this week are in primary schools, Y5 and Y6.

It’s a hectic but very productive day.

The students do finish between two and four pieces of work. In the afternoon, they’re involved in editing, designing, marketing and illustrating.

Well, on Monday we did it. We produced enough material for a whole book and a good one at that. It was chaos, but chaos always does lurk behind beauty. And it isn’t chaos, really. It is just proactive cause and rewarding effect.

I have worked out how to make the writing part go more smoothly. I won’t expect full length stories. We’ll use the introductions to build plot driven and character driven stories to then write some flash fiction. I’ll ask the Y5 teacher if they feel comfortable introducing the acrostic poems. I’ll then introduce haikus to Y6. Then I go to Y5 to introduce plot driven stories. Back to Y6 to introduce character-driven stories. Then to Y5 to introduce Flash Fiction. Y6 to introduce Flash Fiction. Y5 then do opposite poems, going through the Gargoyles and Angels exercise. Y6 can do Flash Non-Fiction. Finally, default activity, crosswords for Y6, wordsearches for Y5. I’ll create a group story with each year group, which I’ll write up and can be included in the book.

But I haven’t yet got my head around the chaos of the afternoon session. Perhaps that is something which will become clear on Friday.

Prose Poetry

As I drove back form Blackpool after seeing my second cousin, Liz, I had a piece of prose poetry going around in my head. It was actually three pieces I guess, about the three times I’d been on a beach with her. It kept on nagging at me, and consequently, I’ve had to give it some time over the weekend.
Prose poetry, or at least what I call prose poetry, is very tied to time and place. You almost need to write it whilst you’re in situ, a little like haikus. If you can’t write it whilst you’re there, it’s good to visit it with your imagination and then write with the senses. That always leads to good writing of course. But then you need to get the balance of emotional engagement and grounding in time and space right.
Well, I’ve finished one piece. I suppose I’ll do the other two later today.
I’m building up a collection called Glimpses. I’ve promised myself I’ll finish it by the end of March.
Well, my book tour will be taking me all over the place, at all sorts of times, so I guess I’ll be able to get a lot of time and place writing in.