Living in Other Worlds

Because I’m currently on sabbatical from the University of Salford and because one of the things I’ve agreed to do is complete the first draft of a novel, I’m spending a little more time than normal on my writing. I’m up to three hours a day – about 3000 words and am spending another three hours a day on research. In November, I go up to 4 + 2 and then in December 5 + 1 etc.

My project is to do with the Holocaust and brings in three strands. The usual players are all there: the victims, the bystanders, the perpetrators (though I’ve not tried to get into their minds – and there’s a thought -maybe I should), the innocent and the resistant. During the rest of my working time I’m keeping the other balls in the air. In my leisure time even I happen to be reading a book with a Holocaust connection. I talk to my husband and he is a fascination to me: he is a second generation Holocaust victim and I’m finding out more about his family than he knew himself.  

TV programmes like QI, good food and wine, and connections with all my friends keep me sane. But the rest of the time I’m back in the 1940s and really feeling the anguish on all sides (except the perpetrator’s, though I have watched Eichmann’s trial). I read the facts, find out what the settings were like and explore it all with my words. It takes quite a lot to drag me back to the 21^st century.

When we write we become absorbed into the worlds we create, perhaps even more so than when we read.  

“The Lombardy Grotto” as a basis for your courses

As I make my way from school to school reading from this book and talking to students and teachers about writing in general and this book is particular, it does occur to me that it could form the basis of a very good course. It would even be a course which could be quite crosscurricular.

One could, draw out the following points:

1. Characters. I use Chapter 2 quite a lot. Here they meet Uncle Sparky for the first time and find out more about Jayne, the main character and her two brothers Toby and Michael. You could use this chapter to analyse how we know what they’re like, but also to look at how a writer creates character. Then students could write their own.
2. Writing with the senses. Well, exactly how do you describe chocolate to someone who has not eaten it before? Chapter 5.
3. For that matter, could we invent some food? There are plenty of new tastes in the Lombardy Grotto.
4. How do you create a fantasy setting? This goes through the whole book. The river may be allowed to go backwards, but only if that is consistent with the world you create. Establishing the fantasy world requires as much research as writing an historic novel. It’s just that you search within your imagination. What fun one could have creating another world with a group of Y6 students.
5. Making a computer game based on this story. Well, after all, that is what Uncle Sparky does in the end.
6. Examining the story arc. What is it? Is it there? Could the youngsters create their own?
7. And of course, that favourite question, “Where do you get your ideas form?” I’ve pretty well explained that to those schools I’ve visited. Maybe we could get the students to create their own story from the same stimuli. Or perhaps we could collect some random items to spark off a story.

If anyone out there is interested in developing this further, do contact me. I’d be happy to put together some work packages if there is enough interest.