writing

Mr Clover’s Summer Writing School

July 28, 2016 by Andrew Clover Leave a Comment

missperegrine'shome Hello, hello, come in, welcome to the school!

Well… maybe school seems the wrong word. I don’t imagine this happens in a building. I see us assembling outside an old shack, at the edge of the forest. There’s an informal atmosphere. Soon children will be standing up, to astonish the group, with tales of What Will Happen When Crocodiles Talk, and The True Story Of How My Brother Nearly Died.

And you’ve astonished me this week, because people have been writing in from round the United Kingdom, including one – hello Steven! – who is spending his summer, staying in the Orkney Isles, with his ancient great uncle, and about four thousand sheep. Several of you have been swapping recommendations. (Several teenagers are craving more John Green. How about a couple of the books John Green recommends himself – eg We Were Liars and Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children? The pic is from that.)

Best of all, several of you have sent in ideas that have occurred to you last week, and here are a few good ones…

IDEA: I come down to breakfast to find my mum is a hedgehog.

IDEA: A lonely boy makes friends with a ghost and solves the mystery of what kills him.

IDEA: A girl buys a special perfume which makes her irresistibly popular to everyone she meets.

For some reason, most writers were between the ages of 9 and 14. (You can be any age, at the Writing School, even adults. At this point, I’m setting you the same exercises I’d be setting if I was running a team of grown-up writers, working on a TV show). But the idea that tickled me the most was from Sam, who was my youngest writer this week (he’s five)….

IDEA: There is a frog who has one very very strong leg and it is so strong he can kick baddies into outer space.

I really laughed at that one, which set my imagination working. (Does the frog have another leg, which is actually quite weak? How often does he kick baddies into outer space? Does he accidentally kick someone who he actually likes and get forced to rescue him?) These are the things I’m thinking about. And these are the questions you will develop…

I would like you, please, to take one (or more) of your IDEAS, and try writing the story of what happens. Not in detail: I’m after what we’d call a PREMISE. That’s where you write between 6 and 15 lines. If you’re not sure what might happen, just try telling yourself the story.

Good luck! Have fun!

Mr Clover

Write a story about your holidays before you go back to school

July 22, 2016 by Andrew Clover Leave a Comment

Hello my cheeky friends!

It is a glorious thing, isn’t it? The sun is shining. The summer holidays are stretching before us. It is time for walking down the street sucking ice lollies.

It is also the perfect time for all things to do with books.

What do you do on these hot evenings? It’s too hot for the Xbox. It’s time to spread a rug, under a tree. It’s time to read.

It is also the time to write.

You will have an amazing summer, if, while you’re having your own excitements in real life, you do some writing. Not just because, come September, you will feel fantastic if you’ve written your own story, or drawn your own comic, but because writing stories makes your whole life feel more adventurous.

But possibly you have not the first clue how to get started.

And that is why I am inviting you all to join Mr Clover’s Summer Workshop, during which I shall set you fun challenges, that will help to make your stories grow in your imaginations.

Right… Here is the first one…

Suggestion One: Get a notebook

Much is going on, as the holidays begin. Use your notebook to start keeping a diary. You don’t need to say everything – just what you learned that day (I’m keeping one in the Parents section). The important thing is to get into the habit of noticing what is happening.

This is important, because, in these next few days, my friends, you will be getting ideas for stories.

Yes, my friends, you will notice – if you keep a look out – that in the next few days, ideas for stories will be fluttering into your heads like butterflies. You’ll be having a dreamy moment, and for a second, you’ll imagine a story you’d quite like to write. Find your diary, and get those ideas down. You might want to try several. A good trick, also, would be to write down TEN IDEAS quite quickly. “IDEA: I’d like write a detective story, set in a school.” “IDEA: imagine if all the teachers turned into dinosaurs…”

If you get any good ones, send them in. When we gather here next week (Thursday 3 pm) I’ll read out some good ones. Till then, have fun,

Mr Clover

Children, become Writer of the Week and win cool stuff

July 17, 2016 by Andrew Clover Leave a Comment

Hurrah and hooperloolerlay!

I am in the running to become the new Night Zoo Keeper. Night Zoo Keeper is, by about a hundred miles, the coolest website for getting kids to enjoy their writing, so, if you’re a School Visitor asked to become the Zoo Keeper, that’s like being an actor, invited to play Batman.

I hear I’m up against someone brilliant (a former kids’ presenter, who’s got a string of bestselling books), and to clinch the job I must come up with some excellent Story Starters, which have got a proven success for getting kids writing.

So in a moment I’m going to set you a suggestion. Please try writing, in response to this, and send me your results – even if they’re not that good, just send ‘em. (Clover Rule One: don’t write quality, write quantity). The best one will be selected Writer of the Week. They will be feted, and photographed, and will be sent cool stuff.

Here’s the suggestion…

A story starts with the word but

Start a story, in the very spot you’re sitting. Notice three things that are being deliberately boring. Describe them. Emphasise their tantalising tediousness: as you do, you will feel a word coming that will explode the boringness, and kick the adventure into action – the word “but”. Write “but” and then the first sentence of the adventure.

Here’s the first one, from Ella in Sturry.

I was sitting at my mum’s computer. In front of me, a tin of old pens gathered dust. Some dying nettles scratched at the window. Some books stood on the shelf before me. They were silent, undread, dull. But then I noticed that one of them started to jiggle.

It wobbled towards me, then it dived off the shelf, onto the desk, with a bang.

It had opened on page 76, which started with the words “Go into the garden, and find the old gnome…”