At my young writers’ workshop yesterday, we experimented with bringing stories to life through drama. It turned out to be a fun and zany workshop, and I recommend this for bringing action and movement into a story. One young writer would read their story aloud, and we as a group…

I would like to call Between Sea and Sky by Nicola Penfold a ‘brave book’. This is the first book for young readers that I’ve come across which looks climate change in the eye. …

Last week’s Story Club focused on dynamic writing. We took a look at the verbs we’re using in stories. For example, does a character ‘go to the park’? Can they skip, hop, run, or dance to the park instead? How about lope, amble, drag themselves … Just changing one verb…

Yesterday at Story Club, my young writers’ workshop at Thrive cafe, we investigated writing crime. First we discussed memorable detectives, or detective pairs. Lil and Nedly of Sophie Green’s Potkins and Stubbs series are a pair that stand out to me. In this series the investigators are a little girl…

At Story Club, my young writers’ workshop, we investigated habits and routines. What is our character’s ‘normal’? Do they feed the animals on a farm every morning? Do they have Friday night family dinner? Is there a weekly music lesson they attend? These routines allow us to explore who the…

This week we were back at Thrive cafe with Story Club, my young writer’s workshop. A hybrid class with some attending by Zoom and some in person, we explored ‘deep heart wishes’.

Revealing a character’s emotions on the page is crucial for making them more real to the reader (and sometimes, the writer! How many of us have started to write in a character’s emotions and then realise we don’t actually know how the character feels? …

In this week’s Story Club, we investigated right vs left hands, and whether they ‘speak’ differently. In the past, it was generally thought that the left brain (right hand) was more involved with logic and equation-solving skills, and the right brain (left hand) dwelled in the emotional and creative…

This beautiful tale weaves a magical path to and from the past. Safiya dances between two worlds as she ‘meets’ her mother as a young teen living in Kuwait. This allows Safiya to grow a deeper bond with her mother. …