Tag Archives: author talk

Story Ideas: Places

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For the past few weeks, I’ve been adding a podcast to my range of content. This post is directly linked to this week’s episode titled “Story Ideas: Places”, where we look at a quick and easy way to jump-start your creative juices.

By the end of the activity, you should have a full story written up, and we’re also encouraging pupils to submit their stories to be read on the podcast (details on how to do that will be available below). With this in mind, I hope you enjoy this writing activity and read to the bottom to find details on how to submit your story to be read on the podcast.

Writing Activity Resources

Teachers

This week’s writing activity is pretty simple, but it should prove useful for those moments when a story simply isn’t coming to you. There are classroom sheets to go along with this activity. You can click here for a direct link to the Canva presentation, or download a PowerPoint version here.

Pupils/ Students

The activity sheets for this writing activity are pretty simple, and are designed with the expectation that there will be additional jotter or digital writing as well. A black and white version is available here, a colour one is available here, or you can get access to a Canva project edition (that you can edit) here.

Play along podcast episode (if you prefer)

You can play the accompanying podcast episode alongside the classroom presentation. I’ll call out the next section so you know when to change slides. (In future episodes, I’ll try to be more direct about this with something like ‘turn to the next slide’ after each section).

You can also pause at the end of the prompt on each slide to leave time for writing. All in, this will probably add up to about a 1-hour classroom activity. You’ll find the Spotify version of the podcast below, and links to it on other podcast platforms in this linktree.

On With the Activity (From here on out, this will match the content of the podcast)

Today, we’ll be looking at a writing exercise that focuses on setting and place in your storytelling. With this in mind, I thought I’d try something a bit different and begin the episode by reading the first chapter of my first book, “Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame”.

In this chapter, I played with the idea of setting. First, we look at how familiar places can become uncomfortable when we notice things that we don’t remember seeing before. Then, we look at what it feels like to feel lost, truly lost, and what our reactions to this feeling can tell us about ourselves.

You’ll see the meaning of the setting change a few times in this chapter. I hope you enjoy listening to the sample chapter, but whilst you listen, keep an eye (or ear) out for any times where the setting is moving the story forward.

(You’ll get the full chapter reading in the podcast episode. If you’d like to read the rest of the story with your class, you can also pick up a Kindle copy by following the links at the bottom of the page for purchasing, or reading for free through Kindle Unlimited, on Kindle in your country.)

The Writing Challenge

You’ll have seen a lot of focus on setting in the little excerpt I’ve just read, and now it’s your turn to experiment with a story setting.

You’ll have a full story by the end of this activity, but the direction we take may be a little different from the way you normally set up a story and I hope you enjoy it.

Story Ideas: Places

Being creative is a really useful skill in life (not just for storytelling) so learning tricks and techniques to get your creative side working is never a bad thing.

Today, we’re going to look at a quick technique that I use. It should help switch on that creative part of your brain and prepare you to create a fantastic story.

We’ll start with place as it’s sometimes neglected a little in storytelling. Starting with the place can sometimes launch you into a new story in unexpected ways.

Part 1: Somewhere different

Think of where you’re writing right now. Is there a place that could be the most opposite you could possibly imagine? Somewhere absolutely nothing like where you are sitting at this moment?

What is that place like?

What’s the weather like there?

Is it a safe place, or is it somewhere perilous?

If you were to sit down and write in this new place, what would you be writing with?

Would it be a scroll of paper with a feather quill and a bottle of ink, or would you be writing on a futuristic tablet with an AI that talks to you as though they’re the cleverest being in the galaxy?

Part 2: A stranger

OK, now you know a lot about this new place, so let’s take a look around and see if there’s anyone there.

Who are they? Are they a human/ an animal/ an alien/ or something else?

What are they doing?

What mood are they in?

You now should have a setting and your main character. This isn’t everything you need for a story, but it’s a good start.

Part 3: Getting to know people

Now ask your character a few questions. What are their interests? What are their skills? What are their main fears? What would they like to be doing this time tomorrow?

Take your time with your character. Ask weird questions, but even ‘boring’ questions can give you ideas for your story. What might your character eat for breakfast? Where do they sleep? You might be surprised at the direction their story takes.

Part 4: Go and write

You now have two out of the three basic parts of a story; the last one is called ‘plot’.

What will happen to your character next?

Will something surprising happen to them?

What will they do as a result?

Will they be happy in the end?

Write your story in a digital format, or in your best handwriting, or draw some amazing pictures to make up a ‘comic book’.

When you feel your story has reached a natural end, please be sure to share your stories on the Celebrating Stories portal.

As the weeks go on, we’ll start reading one or two of your stories on the podcast each week.

You’ll find links to share your story on the classroom slideshow, which you can download over on the website. Alternatively, you’ll find a link to it in the episode notes for this podcast episode.

Your story could be the next one we read on the podcast!

Go here for the Google Form to submit your story (click this link). You can share handwritten stories, digital text versions, or even pictures.

Thanks for popping by

As always, thanks for tuning in to listen to this week’s episode of Lit Up With Green Flame, and for coming here to read the more extended version on the website. If you haven’t already, please don’t forget to subscribe on your favourite podcast platform.

We’re on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube Podcasts, and many more. Just go to your favourite podcast app and search for ‘Lit Up With Green Flame’ (click here for the linktree that lists how to find us on your favourite podcast platform, just click on ‘Lit Up With Green Flame Books Podcast’ button to find the link). Subscribing is free, and you’ll be sure to catch the newest episode as soon as it’s live.

I hope you pop back next week when we’ll be looking at the strange world, and wild life of Roald Dahl (since it’ll be his Birthday in just a couple of weeks, he would have been 109 years old this year on the 13th September).

Also, if you’d like another writing activity to try, you could look at the one we did on Magical Realism a few weeks ago. You’ll find a link to that here.

Thanks again for listening in, and I hope you don’t mind the slightly longer episode this week.

All the best, John

free creative writing course for kids celebrating stories literacy scottish curriculum for excellence

FREE Curriculum for Excellence literacy classroom resources

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Very soon I’ll be launching a new ten-week series of classroom resources for teachers called ‘Celebrating Stories’. It’s based around the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence but many of the learning opportunities and outcomes will be relevant within other curricula as well.

Our focus?

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The primary focus will be on literacy (as you would imagine, coming from an author). However, over the course of the ten weeks, pupils will also encounter challenges and opportunities to learn within other spheres as well; including maths, community engagement, art, and some components of design and technology. (You can find a full list of curriculum areas covered by downloading this document: Celebrating Stories Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes for planning learning, teaching and assessment)

Your class will be taken through something like a miniature course in creative writing/ self-publishing. The class will choose the nature of the end result but the aim is that it will take the form of a class-published set of work which can be utilised to raise funds for the school.

Given the duration and level of work involved each week, this is an ambitious project for a class. Completing the set activities could take 2-3 hours of class work per week (or more) depending on your pupils’ level of interest.

I don’t want to be too specific about weekly time at this point as the programme is still untested. However, your class’ participation will decide how much things progress on their chosen project.

What do teachers get?

I will contribute both a teacher’s guide and relevant pupil printouts each week via email but the work will primarily be in the hands of pupils (with support and guidance from their teacher).

The course offers pupils the chance to develop teamwork and leadership skills, along with encouraging creative output, critical analysis, and developing their young enterprise capacities.

PLEASE NOTE: I can offer virtual and/or in-person support for schools (e.g. help with editing or formatting) but this isn’t a standard part of the ‘Celebrating Stories’ programme. I’m more than happy to help where I can but additional arrangments will need to be made if more involvement is needed (please contact me for details).

Will this work alongside normal classroom activities?

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All activities are checked against concrete outcomes within the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence so that the project doesn’t detract from their ongoing educational goals. (A list of key areas covered will be included in your welcome e-mail.)

Core activities are all aimed at level two outcomes, primarily within the Literacy component of the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence. Additional components, drawing on other skills, have also been checked against the relevant level two outcomes in the curriculum.

I should note that Celebrating Stories has no affiliation with Education Scotland, However, measures have been taken to ensure that this course will fit within normal classroom activities for pupils working in level two (p6/7).

What does ‘level two’ mean, who is this for?

This programme will primarily be of interest to teachers of p6 and p7 pupils in Scotland. (That’s around 10-12 years old, for those who are unfamiliar with the Scottish system for year-groups).

It has been designed for a single class (of around 30) but could also be used as a year-group project with minimal changes.

COST DISCLAIMER:

I should note here that there is no cost for joining the programme. No funds will be requested  (nor expected) on the part of Green Flame Books in relation to the e-mail based version of ‘Celebrating Stories’.

However, you may choose to pursue certain formats of media that (outside of the programme) will cost money (e.g. printing costs if you choose to hire a local printing company to print a booklet for you).

Though this may initially cost the school funds, the young enterprise component of ‘Celebrating Stories’ is aimed at helping pupils consider ways in which they might recoup any costs which arise from their activities. A whole section of the course looks at how pupils can use this as an opertunity to raise money for their school.

Any and all funds you raise are purely for your school.

Want to get in early?

If you would like to be one of the first to use this resource (or if you would just like to keep up with what I’m working on for/ with educators) you can subscribe to my teachers’ mailing list by following this link.

If you have any questions please post them in the comments below or as a reply to the welcome e-mail you receive from me.

Hope to hear from you soon,

All the best, John

Friends Of Old St Michael’s Children’s Book Day

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This Sunday (25th August, at 12:30) there’s a great children’s books event along at Old St Michael’s Church Yard in Crieff. Positioned right on the site of Crieff’s first ever school.

Somewhere to enjoy a last wee taste of summer

The old school building has been gone for a while but it’s nice to be in touch with a bit of the town’s history; standing where it once stood.

As it looks now it’s a bright, open, grassy spot under a bit of tree cover. It’s a space that a lot of people in the town don’t know about but thanks to the work of the ‘Friends of Old St Michael’s’ it’s looking lovely and fully equipped for all sorts of events (and don’t worry there is cover if we get a spot of rain, they have a marquee set up ready).

Something fun to make back to school a little easier

The whole of Sunday’s event is family-friendly and there’s loads to do while you’re there. Learn to write with a real quill (like Harry Potter!) with Library of Innerpeffray, or listen to a story from an expert Storyteller. You can also travel through time with artefacts from Perthshire’s past from medieval times and the Victorian era.

Along with this you can participate in various art activities and enter a book review competition by sharing a review of your favourite story (with some GREAT PRIZES FOR THE BEST TALK).

And Little Old Me!?

So why am I telling you all of this? Self promotion obviously. I’ll be there as well, talking about the Jack Reusen books and about story-craft (and there might be a free book or two as well).

As you might know from previous posts, I offer bookwriting workshops in schools and I always love to hear what sorts of stories kids have locked up in their heads. I won’t be running a workshop on Sunday but hopefully we’ll get kids excited about writing their own stories, told from their own unique perspective on the world.

If you want to be kept up to date about the event (and you’re on Facebook) you can either mark yourself down as ‘interested’ or ‘going’ on the Facebook event page. That way you’ll be notified of any changes or other updates (plus it helps me feel good to know we’ve got a good crowd along 😉 ). It’s always good to support these sorts of events when they apear in town, hope to see you along on Sunday.

All the best,

John

Reminding an Author about writing: Visiting Braco Primary School

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This post is long overdue. I normally like to post about a school visit within a few days but I’ve been swamped with writing/book related work over the past couple of months.

Finally, I have a little breathing space so I thought I’d pop on and talk about my visit to Braco Primary School.

I was lucky enough to get to talk to the whole school. The children were brilliant, welcoming, and they asked some really interesting, and surprising, questions (like ‘Do you talk about ethics in your books?’ and ‘How does an author make money?”).

Everyone likes a story

multi colour rainbow shoes john bray author crieff perthshireI don’t always talk to younger year groups, as the Jack Reusen books are aimed at children aged 7 years and up. However, I came prepared with a wee story I wrote a while ago called ‘Drip the Bogey Ogre’ (you can read the whole thing by clicking this link). The primary ones and twos were lovely and we had a fun five minutes or so talking about my shoes as well (I wore my multi-coloured shoes).

From there I went on to talk to the older school. There seems to be a collection of would-be authors in the older school and they all had questions about improving their writing and about aspects of the writing process like motivation and inspiration.

I hope I didn’t sound too repetitive but one thing I kept going back to was the fact that writing is like exercise; you need to do it regularly to be in good shape, and you have to have good quality ingredients to put into it.

With writing, you get out what you put in

Just as a healthy body comes from regular exercise and good nutrition, so too does a healthy capacity for writing come from writing regularly and consuming only good quality books.

These sorts of things always have more impact when you use an example. I shared an experience from when I was writing ‘Marcus‘ last year. At the time I hadn’t written a horror story for young adults (12 and up) before so I started reading around to get a feel for the topics and limits associated with that age group.

Some books I read were fantastic but there was one (it will remain nameless) that was less so. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the story but I didn’t see what it was doing to my writing until editing time came along. It turns out that the chapters I wrote whilst reading this particular book were some of my worst, characters grew flat and I found it hard to get my bearings. Much editing was needed before they went public.

This was my takeaway advice for Braco Primary’s writers; do everything you can to make sure that what you are reading is good. Combine this with paying attention to the world around you in your own way. Understanding what your own point of view is will enable you to find your own voice. However, you’ll find that, only by reading work by experienced and talented authors, will you be able to make that voice as articulate and coherent as it can be.

Thank you for the enthusiasm boost!

Not only was my visit to Braco Primary an enjoyable one but their questions and enthusiasm for writing gave me a much-needed boost in the midst of this year’s NaNoWriMo (something that’s always welcome).

Thanks again for having me Braco Primary. I hope you enjoy the first two Jack Reusen books and I hope to have book three ready in the near future.

School visits

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apple-256261_1920I think we may now have officially hit the point where all local school children have returned from their holidays (or thereabouts). In light of this I thought I’d put out a quick reminder to any teachers reading about school visits. I’m available for book talks and writing workshops and I currently have a fairly clear calendar (though it is starting to fill up with other things).

I’ve never charged for school visits but I do normally bring along books for sale at a special price (I’ll figure out pricing long in advance of a visit to leave teachers time to get information out).

In the past I’ve hosted book talks for whole schools, for individual classes, and for middle-sized groups sorted by age. I’m also happy to spend a little more time with older children who might want to learn more about the writing process in a workshop setting.

If you think you’d be interested please get in touch. For those who want to do a more focussed book talk I can provide class copies of the Fey flame to give you/ your students a chance to read it in advance (either to review it or to let pupils get to know about the books before I come along).

If you are interested in arranging something please get in touch by e-mail (click this link) or by messaging below. I hope to hear from you soon,

All the best, John

Playing to an empty room? (and some info about competitions)

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theater-105573_1280Just a short one tonight as I’m getting my ideas together for my book talk at ‘Writers Live!’ on Saturday. Basically that’s the main thing on my mind at the moment; will people come to my book talk? The idea of talking to an empty room is far more daunting than the thought of talking in front of a big crowd.

So far responses on the events page seem promising so I’ll try and hold back on the anxiety, also I’m really looking forward to seeing some of the entries for the competition I’m running in conjunction with Fun Junction.

I’ve actually got two different competitions running in conjunction with my book talk for Crieff Arts Festival but only one of them ends this weekend: The ‘Design a Jack Reusen Character’ competition is being run in conjunction with Fun Junction (where entries can be handed in). Simply design a character to feature in a Jack Reusen book. I’ll write the character into a short story which will appear on this site soon after the arts festival, but it will also be appearing in print and released inside a book that’s due to come out just before Christmas (I’ll post the title of the new book tomorrow night 😉 ).

You can submit a picture, a character description, or both. Just in case you don’t get a chance before the talk, I’ll also be bringing a big pile of paper and pencils along to the Strathearn Artspace on Saturday so that children (and adults if they want) can draw up their characters and hand them in either to me on the day. You can also drop off entries at Fun Junction up until 5:15pm on Saturday (if you want to take your time drawing/writing). Judging will take place this weekend and entries should either be dropped in to Fun Junction, or scanned and sent digitally to either the Jack Reusen facebook account, twitter account, or to jackreusen@hotmail.co.uk.

The second competition will now be running until the end of August: Simply explain what you liked most about ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame‘ on the facebook page to be in with a chance of winning a signed copy of either ‘Jack Reusen and the Spark of Dreams‘, ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame‘ or (if you don’t mind the wait), you can get an early release, signed edition of ‘Jack Reusen and the Children of Fate’ when it comes out in the Autumn.

If you haven’t already, please pop along to the events page on facebook and say whether you’ll be able to make it along to the book talk (if I know that people are coming I might be able to relax enough for that ‘humming’ noise in my ears to go away 😉 ). As always thanks for reading, all the best, John

Crieff Arts festival (Crieff Literary festival?)

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crieff arts festivalI’ve just been asked to join an event at the Crieff Arts Festival on 22nd of August. By the sounds of it I’ll be first in a solid line-up of local authors and poets; starting at 10:30am with myself and culminating with one of our best known authors; Helen Grant. I’ll add the names of other authors and poets on here once I know more.

Helen has posted her own description of the arts festival, and what she’ll be up to, over on her blog if you fancy getting a bit of an insight (here’s the link). As for me I haven’t really decided what to do yet. The most obvious will be a reading but there’s a chance that there might be a few readers of the books along for the talk so I might split the talk between reading excerpts and answering questions.

My kids quite often get impromptu stories fresh out of my mind (some of them set in Fey) for bed-time but I’m not sure if I’m confident enough to do the same thing in front of a crowd just yet. Jess Smith (one of the other authors who will be talking at the event) is a live storyteller and I really admire anyone who can do what live storytellers do, there’s something really absorbing about that kind of storytelling. I don’t think this will be my storyteller début somehow, I’ll wait and see.

If you’ll be in the Crieff on the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd and fancy popping along to hear me blether away about Jack and Thea, and read a wee snippet from one (or more) of the books, then pop along to the Strathearn Artspace on the 22nd of August at 10am (that’s when doors open, my talk will be at 10:30). Hope to see you then, all the best, John

Comrie Primary

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Today I was at Comrie Primary School for a book talk. It was lovely to revisit my first primary school, and odd to see how different the school looks now I’m not four feet tall.

By the sounds of it there are a good few budding authors among Comrie Primary’s pupils and they had a lot of interesting (and some very practical questions) about writing.

That’s the fun thing about these kinds of events. Aside from getting a bit of feedback on my writing, these talks definitely help me build self-awareness as an author.

How do you make a character? Why do you write in this genre? What should someone do to become an author?

It’s tough sometimes; some of these questions are relatively easy to answer, yet I feel a little under-qualified to answer others.

What do I do if I want to be a writer? I was tempted to answer ‘you write’ but that’s too glib (and dangerously close to sarcastic) an answer for a budding young writer. The truth is that there doesn’t seem to be one way to ‘be a writer’ but even that would be an unsatisfying answer.

Instead we got into discussing some surprisingly practical elements of the writing process: from sentence structure and grammar, to royalties and the earning potential of writing. It was a surprisingly thorough discussion to be having with primary school children.

I’ve just been informed that the pupils have decided to create illustrations of some of the characters from the book. I look forward to seeing the results and will hopefully get a chance to share them on here if I can.

Of course; if you know any children who have read the book(s) and who feel like sending in pictures of characters these are more than welcome (adults can send things in too if they like).

I love doing school talks so if you’d like me to come to your school please get in touch and we can try and arrange something.

As always, thanks for reading, all the best, John

That was brilliant!

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Just finished my talk at Our Lady’s RC Primary School, Stirling. All the kids were fantastic, loads of good questions and they seemed to really enjoy meeting Jack.

I had been particularly worried about what the older kids would think to the book but I got big laughs for a good few bits (don’t worry they were supposed to be funny).

I would do that again in a heartbeat. If you’re a teacher, or are connected to a school in some way, and you think the children at your school would enjoy a book talk/author visit please let me know.

Grabbing a cup of tea in the staff room now, I’ll post again soon with an update on the progress of ‘Jack Reusen and the Spark of Dreams’. All the best, John