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.

“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.

Workign with Students

I have my marking load in from the university now. I’ve done the first two scripts – one creative project and one “Writer’s Reflection”. They both seemed good. I’ve started looking at a second creative piece. I do like to mark as near as possible in one go so that I keep to the same standard throughout. We have mark descriptors, which helps greatly, though I often find that gut reaction is as accurate, if not more so.

It was gratifying to read that a student values keeping a journal, that they understand the power of the workshop and that they have benefited from it. Others have noticed things about their work that they had not noticed. Do they realise that I learn too? I see what they have noticed and ask the same questions about my own work. If anything recommends doing creative writing at university that does: having the chance, on a weekly basis, to workshop with a group of people who are equally serious about their work.

I do come across some incredibly tight writing from my students. Many have found a voice already. Some are also aware of a need for a change of voice and that the narrator is also fictionalised. I often come across texts which are stronger than those which are already published.

A general weakness I have found, however, is lack of structure or unconvincing plot. It seems then that writing well is not the problem. That can be learnt. Finding a really good plot is more difficult.

Procrastination

I guess I’m putting off two jobs I don’t really want to do.

One is making those phone calls, or even the decisions about which phone calls to make to get that huge novel of mine out into the world. I keep telling myself I have other things to do. I am not quite sure, actually, how this fits into the bigger scheme of things. How do I fit it into my routines which are already based on principles similar to the 7 Habits as by Stephen Covey. Am I being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, putting first things first, thinking win / win ( I get my book published; they get a great book), seeking first to understand and then be understood, synergising and sharpening the saw? I haven’t really got it safely and sensibly programmed in.

That’s easily fixed – change what you do. But I’m getting the feeling that I’m quite glad I haven’t got it properly programmed in because it gives me the excuse not to do it. Ha!

The second is getting back to “Potatoes in Spring” and writing the chapter about how the German girls reacted to the outbreak of war in 1939. I keep telling myself I don’t know a thing about it, but what happened to the writerly idea of exploring with the imagination? Is it just that I don’t want to face the issues?

I spent some considerable time yesterday writing to the Head of one of the Stuttgart Waldorf (Steiner) Schools. I already have an interesting reply from him and from a colleague of his who will really be able to help. I guess I’ll now use having to reply to them as a further excuse not to actually write that chapter.

Plus, I have to get all of my worksheets ready for a couple of school visits the week after next.

Final Draft “Peace Child”

Yes, yet another final draft. I did make quite a major change in this. I renamed one of the characters for part of the story, which for the readers slightly disguises who she is. It gives another layer of mystery, hopefully. I was intrigued, too, to spot some really loose bits. You would have thought I’d have got those ironed out by now or be experienced enough not to have them in the first place. But there they were. I guess we do carry on growing as writers. All the time.

I discussed this with a colleague yesterday whose latest book has just come out. It looked good. He was pleased with it, and I’ll probably buy a copy. But I almost detected in him the same cringe factor I feel about looking at work that was completed a while ago. He also confessed to having moved on. That is the way of it for writers.

Indeed, the new “patch” in PC does seem to stand out. It is quite vibrant. I am pleased with it. But does that create a problem for the rest of it?

The novel has also changed its name. It is now “The Prophecy”. Part II of the trilogy will be “Babel” and the final part “Peace Child”. It will be known as the Peace Child trilogy. But yes, my husband and my PhD internal examiner were right. Would young adults want to read a book with the word “child” in the title?

I’m now going to have about ten copies made into a proper book and let a bunch of people read it again. A plain dark blue cover, I think. Good old Lightning Source. I may, that way, get some endorsements even before it goes out in the big wide world.

Prose Poetry

I did some work on this yesterday and I’ll be doing more today. I think I approach it in an entirely different way from my children’s and Young Adult fiction. There is still, however, that balance of “visual” writing and aural writing. Yes, I do hear the words. But I also “see the scenes and try to record them. I say “see” because I also hear, smell, taste and feel them and am aware of thoughts in my head at the same time.

I’m finding even with this I actually write it better straight on to the computer. I remember the scene and write from that. So, what use the writer’s journal? Every use in the world. I use that for making notes of those fantastic ideas I have as I drive. I also spend time in cafés plotting and planning. I like to make notes on lectures and meetings. I rarely look at them again. It’s the mere act of writing thoughts down which seems to fix them.

I’m up to 49 pages of the prose poetry collection. I’m calling it “Glimpses”. It’s a little Proustian in its attempt to recapture times, but times complete with their atmospheres. It’s impossible to tell whether I’m getting it right. My head fills the gaps so much. Those 49 pages are complete. I’ve edited and edited until it sounds right. I’m not sure I do it so much for my novels. Yes there’s the 18 edits, but many of them are just tinkering. Longer pieces become unfixable. It’s almost easier to start something new.

I intend to make the collection something over 100 pages long. I’ve started a new section – Loved Places. The first excerpt is about Nerja. There will be further sections about Bursledon, Salford, Manchester and Bangor, - or North Wales in general. I think I’ll also include a section on “People” and “Commentary” which talks about society as it is today.

An Excuse to Travel

There has been something really great about this schools’ tour that I have been making recently: getting to see so many different parts of the country. Yesterday I was in Somerset. This time, I did manage to find a nice pub for a good lunch. I had just a Ploughman’s but it was a very filling one and I didn’t eat anything else for the rest of the day. More often, I pass lots of enticing pubs on the way. But because I’m usually on my way home or one my way up to Salford, I go back a different way and don’t see them again. Or it’s too early, and by the time it is the right time, I’m on the motorway.

Of course the journeys are mainly motorway. The last few miles are the interesting ones. Then you get to see the variety of countryside and the variety of architecture. Actually, one of the most beautiful parts of this country I’ve seen is the Peak District, and in particular High Peak. That was just forty minutes away from my flat in Salford. Thirty-five minutes was through Manchester traffic and just five in the most fantastic countryside. It was a wet, misty sort of day and it gave the Peaks an air of mystery.

The schools vary, too. Mainly the children are fine and the vast majority of them are interested. I’m amazed that the younger children find Old Fuzzy Locks hilarious, though the older ones just take him in their stride. The teachers do vary from place to place, though. I think it may be stress. Some don’t seem to engage. They are elsewhere. Others are totally with you, totally in the world of the story and as enthusiastic as the children about the writing process and the world of the imagination.

Travel is good, too. I always get ideas as I travel. In fact, the places and people, the atmospheres are fodder for my prose poetry. I wonder how long it will take me to get that collection together. It does need some work and I’m not finding it all that easy.