The Big Ship Sailed

This is a playground song from my childhood and it came to mind this week as we approach the end of September. I remember a life changing event on the last day of September a decade ago.

Seeding a Story on a Blank Page

I am about to start a new book and the blank page is daunting. There is a long way to go from a thought or an idea, maybe a theme or a character, to finished novel. I use a three-step process to build a novel from story seeds

School’s Out For Summer!

It is the end of the school year and my work as Author in the Classroom has ended until September. So, back to the day job of being an Author and guess what I am writing about? Quite by coincidence, my next publication will be a Non-Fiction book for writers called: How to be an Author in the Classroom

Challenge that Squinting Modifier!

My crusade to liberate literacy and develop creative writing in KS2, suffered a setback today. I discovered what a squinting modifier is!* Arghhh! I have just completed a project to deliver over 40 creative writing workshops in seven schools creating poetry, stories and non-fiction writing. In my sessions, we start with a warm up, which

Author in the Classroom

Over the past five years, I have worked in dozens of schools delivering a wide range of creative writing programmes. This work enables me to write. The two activities of writing and tutoring are symbiotic; being an author adds validation to being a creative writing tutor and devising and delivering workshops inspires my writing.

Morning Pages and My Creative Process

Morning Pages is part of a process and not a product: I write without fear because no one will ever read it, except myself, sometime in the future when I might rummage around my hard drive for the nuggets of gold. It is a place where stories emerge, plot twists are resolved and ideas explored.

Hold The Fronted Adverbials

The fear of getting it wrong is prevalent amongst children in many of the schools I work in. It stifles creativity, curiosity and engagement. And disengaged children don’t learn very much at all.

Develop a Writing Habit

It is a truth universally acknowledged
that 100% of books which don’t get written, don’t get published. The Writer procrastinates. It is normal. We all do it. Even walking the dog in the rain seems more appealing than facing a blank page …