Preparing for the Writing Workshop

Dear Teacher,

There are a few things I would like you to do to prepare for the writing workshop. It is best if you think of the workshop as the middle of a series of lessons intended to teach children about good story writing, focusing on character development, and with the goal of producing a final draft of an extended story. You can choose some of these final stories and email them to me (if they have been typed) and I will post them on my website, for other children to read, and for teachers to see the ultimate product of my workshop. There is also a competition for the best stories, which I will judge at Christmas. The prizes are books.

1. I will send you three sheets which I would like you to photocopy for the children: the story idea sheet, the character development sheet (these two may be copied back-to-back), and a blank sheet for children to write their stories on (you may wish to use this sheet only for the final draft, to save on photocopying). The children may enjoy trying to identify the 29 characters in the border. Some are pictures from films, but all were originally books (or comics or a play).

2. Make sure the children understand the following concepts:

  • story genres (e.g. drama, historical, fantasy, horror)

  • story settings

  • nouns

  • verbs

  • adjectives

  • adverbs

3. Explain what the workshop is about: they will be learning how to create good characters, and writing and revising their own story.

4. If you have time, discuss what story characters the children are familiar with, which ones they like, and why. (I will cover this but it will help if they have already started thinking about it)

5. Give the children the story idea sheet and get them to pick one for the story they will write. They can make up their own - the sheet is just to help them, and to illustrate the range of genres and settings we find in children's books. It will also help them to decide on what sort of main character they want.

6. Give the children the character sheet and get them to think of a main character for their story. Give them 5 or 10 minutes to write down a few basic facts about them:

  • name

  • age

  • sex

  • race (meaning species as well as ethnicity - animal? Monster? Alien?)

  • appearance

  • voice (i.e. the sound of their voice - high pitched, deep, hoarse, sweet, loud, rasping etc.)

  • job/role (what the character's main activity in life is - schoolboy or girl, mum or dad, teacher, explorer, spy, etc)

The rest of the sheet will be filled in during the workshop. Any of the above details can be changed on the day, and if any haven't been filled in it doesn't matter. The purpose of this preparation is to give us more time to focus on the more difficult aspects of character development - personality, history, quirks, etc.

7. You might also ask the children to think about how their story will begin. What is their story mainly about? What would make a good story beginning? How does your main character get involved in the story? Usually you need some sort of problem or mystery faced by the main character right at the start, in order to get the reader interested in the story. The children don't need to write anything, but it will help if they have thought about the start of their story.

8. Tell the children that they will write only the start of their story in the workshop, and revise it a little in the afternoon. The story will be completed to a final draft in later literacy lessons with you. If they type them I can post them on my website . There is a competition for the best story posted, with books as prizes - to be judged at Christmas.

How to follow the workshop up in later lessons