The Schellberg Cycle Workshop at Hartford High School 31 March 2017

The students at Hartford High Church of England were enjoying their second citizenship day just before they broke up for Easter. Staff had contacted me as a result of an email shot I sent early in 2017. They were holding a citizenship day and could I deliver my workshop to six classes. 

Normally, I work with one group of up to 36 students but this time other staff delivered my materials. I did a session at the beginning and at the end. In retrospect I think these were too long: one hour each. They should have been no more than twenty minutes each. I wandered around form group to group.

I prepared lengthy notes for the teachers and this has given me the idea that I might actually sell the workshop as a package for teachers to deliver themselves. I’m offering the notes here as a free gift if you sign up for the newsletter. If you purchase a pack or book a workshop, you automatically go on the newsletter list. This means you get free updates and new free materials and special offers on workshops.               

As always, whenever I’m in a classroom, I get new ideas. I’m now going to add discovery packs to the workshop. These will be packets of documents such as ration cards, pictures of the BDM uniform, newspaper reports etc. I’ll make twelve altogether so there is an element of choice, and make sure that there are six males and six females. Students will work in groups to present more information to the rest of their class about their character. I’m also going to prepare more guidance about the creative writing outputs.

When schools book a workshop they get:

·         Letters to send out to parents about my book The House on Schellberg Street (I handle all sales and all monies)

·         Board games (I take these home again afterwards – everything else they get to keep but the discovery packs I’ll also take home again)

·          Speed-dating character exercise

·         Letter-writing character exercise

·         The final chapter of Clara’s Story  and Questions and Answers

·         Hanna Braun’s Letters and a form to fill in about what they discover.   

·         (Discovery packs will go here)

·         Q & A for the final session and suggested creative outcomes.

·         A memory stick with all of the materials on it.

·         Updates on the project thereafter.    

Sign up here for the newsletter and get to read the teachers’ notes. There are further notes on each section of the workshop, available on request.    

I was impressed with how hard the students worked. They listened extremely well and worked hard in their sessions. A very rewarding day all told.   

You can read more about the Schellberg Cycle here.   

Lots of free offers and the opporutnity to get feedback at a fair price

The creative writing exercises on the site are gathered together in groups of five and published as a PDF.

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Use the button below and any time you would like feedback, send your work as word attachment to gill dot james at btinternet dot com. Put the PayPal transaction ID and the name of the exercise in the subject line.  In the body of the email, just say "Hi" and remind me who you are.

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Fiction Workshop 6 Setting

What is setting? Maybe:  

•         Time and place

•         We need pointers so that we get a film in our heads.

–        What might these be for time?

•         Weather

•         Plants  

•         Darkness / light

•         Festivals

–        For place?

•         What our senses tell us (See “Writing with the senses” see below)

•         Some areas perhaps need a little more:

–        Fantasy

–        Science fiction

–        Historical

–        Exotic

Description can:

•         Create atmosphere

•         Explain something the reader needs to know

•         Help the drama

•         Show character

•         Contribute to the plot

•         Work on symbolic, allegoric and prosaic levels

Writing with the senses:

–        Always produces good writing

–        Think about your setting and write about:

•         What you see

•         What you hear

•         What you smell

•         What you taste

•         What you feel

•         Your emotions and thoughts  

 

A quick creative writing exercise

–        Write a short scene about something that happened yesterday.

–        Write about what you :

•         Saw

•         Heard

•         Smelled

•         Tasted

•         Felt  (in both senses of the word) 

–        Look at what you’ve written?

•         How have you indicated place?

•         How have you indicated time?

Note that this can produce writing that is too rich so ask whether it adds to:

•         Character

•         Plot

•         Atmosphere

•         Reader’s understanding 

•         Symbols

•         Says things clearly once

•         (though consider when repetition is effective – often three repetitions, no more and no less, are effective.)

 

Extension and Contraction

Think of a story you’d like to write.

Think about the opening.

Write for ten to twenty minutes with your senses. Write about: 

·         What you or your character sees

·         What you or your character hears

·         What you or your character smells

·         What you or your character tastes

·         What you or your character feels

·         Your and / or your character’s emotions and thoughts

Now for the editing. Strike out anything which does not:

·         Tell us something about:

o   Character

o   Plot

o   Atmosphere

o   Setting in time or place that we need to know in order to understand the story.

·         Symbolize something of the story

·         Say something only once

·         Repeat effectively

 

Writing Exercise: Description without the Exposition

Write about an everyday process e.g.

•         as making a cup of tea

•         cleaning your teeth

•         switching on your computer

 

In your reading

Take a small passage of description from any book you have found interesting and look at what every single word adds to the reader’s experience.

Consider whether the writer has wasted any words.

Can you see any word, phrase or sentence which works is multi-tasking?    

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Fiction Workshop 5 Critiquing a short story

Read your writing buddy’s short story.

What do you understand?

(Remember: the best feedback you can give is simply to tell your buddy what you think the story is about and what is happening in it.)     

Are all of the components of the story there?

·         Inciting incident

·         Growing complexities  

·         Crisis

·         Climax

·         Resolution

Is the resolution satisfying?

Look particularly carefully at the opening scene.

·         How “immediate” is it?

·         What could your partner do to make it more immediate?  

Would you like to have Workshops 1-5 as a handy PDF?  Sign up here.   


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Post the transaction ID into subject of email and your answers in the body of the email or as an attachment and  send to gill at trtpublishing do co do uk  

Writing the Young Adult Novel - Getting feedback

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Fiction Workshop 4 Point of View

These are the narrative points of view you may choose:

First person

Very intimate relationship between reader and character or reader and author.

Only tells one story at a time.

May be main character, author or fictionalised author 

Allows some discussion of the story.

Character has had the growth and reader cannot have growth with the character.

Third person

Close third person

• More intimate even than first
• Reader can experience growth with protagonist

Removed third person.

• Gives author a stronger voice.

·         Allows points of view to shift.

Second person

This can feel very intrusive to the reader but can also be very strong. .   

Omniscient author

• Allows a commentary from the author
• Allows changes of point of view
• Allows different scenes with different people, a little like in a play.

Story teller

• Tells more than shows.  
• Tends not to moralise.
• Is more engaging as a performance.

Writing Exercise

1. Rewrite the opening lines of a story you like in a different person e.g. if it is written in first person, change it to third or even second.
2. Now write another part of the story from another character’s point of view. Perhaps take a minor character or even the “enemy”.
3. Write a personal first person narrative; it is really you telling this story.
4. Now write the same narrative, still first person, as if you were a different person.
5. Take one paragraph form a story you are writing and do a “patch test”.  Try it out with different persons and different tenses (past, present, future). Use at least three different combinations. Which works best? Try to get into the habit of using this “patch test” in all of your writing. Ask a writing buddy for their opinion.