My Youtube friend TaylorJames7 asked me to do a video about cursive lettering and this is it. (Cursive is posh for Joined-up!)
I was so busy staring out at the view from the staff room yesterday, I quite forgot to take a picture for my blog. Perched at the top of the Forest of Dean, the school really does have a forest view and well beyond into Wales, with the Sugarloaf Mountain in Abergavenny, Hay Bluff and the Black Mountains visible in the distance and the Forest of Dean spread out below. Quite magnificent.
I had a great day telling stories to the whole school yesterday. Forest View are at the start of a week of raising the profile of reading with Cinderford Library which, astonishingly, is facing possible closure.
I cannot repeat enough that reading for pleasure is the key to advancement in education. Literacy, as taught in schools today, is what we used to call grammar. Real education comes with the confidence to read, research and find things out on one’s own. Literacy does not prepare you for this. It may help you correct the spelling in a book but it won’t help you understand what the book is saying. Only sustained reading of fun, exciting and engaging stories and non-fiction books will ever increase reading ability, which automatically follows on into raised writing skills. You can’t improve your writing if you never see it being done! And what is there to write about if children have no experience of the world? Reading brings the world to their imaginations.
Forest View seem to understand this and are busy promoting reading throughout the school. I’m looking forward to meeting up again at Cinderford Library on Saturday to present prizes to Children who have excelled this week. See you then!
“How will story telling promote a child’s writing ability?” was a search string someone used to get to my website recently. I hope that person was looking for something to back up what they already know, for I find it inconceivable that anyone would seriously need to ask this question.
Stories are the raison d’etre of human existence. Without stories and storytelling humans go mad, cleverly spun stories can drive humans mad too! The pen maybe mightier than the sword but the pen is useless if there are no stories to be told.
What is there to write if there are no stories? How can a child have any writing ability without stories filling their head? Writing is not a a mechanical process – even accountants like to be a little bit creative at times.
If you want to improve writing, you have to read. You cannot learn to write without seeing how others do it. The main problem with lowering literacy levels at the moment, is that children are exposed to far too many extracts and not enough sustained stories with beginnings, middles and ends. Children need to read long texts and books. This way they get comfortable with the author’s “Voice” and assimilate grammar, composition and the author’s style by osmosis.
And how do you get children interested in reading books? By telling stories and reading books out loud. Children are desperate for stories. It’s how they truly learn. It is how adults learn too. Why else do politicians, religions and advertisers rely on storytelling to promote their wares? Because they know storytelling is the most powerful tool humans have access to.
You could keep a class happy all day long by just telling stories and letting them play for a bit every hour – putting the stories to work in imaginative play. They will learn more in that day than in a week of structured schooling.
So where is storytelling in schools these days? All I remember of my school lessons was when we managed to get teachers off the subject to talk about their passions – spiders or steam trains. I learned a lot in those lessons. And those wonderful story lessons where the teachers would spend the whole period reading a book. Greek myths, Just So Stories, Narnia, Swallows and Amazons – tales of adventure and human interaction, slowly learning how the world really works in the minds of others and the interaction between humans.
Find any primitive culture and what do you find? Food, Sex and Storytelling. What is our advanced culture built on now? Food, sex and telly – and what is telly, but storytelling round the fire.
Don’t waste your time asking stupid questions like, “How will story telling promote a child’s writing ability?” The proof of the pudding is in the doing, not the asking. Pick up a book and start telling stories NOW! you’ll be amazed at what happens.
It seems as though my first self-published title is in fact going to be The Ginger Ninja, which has been out of print for a few years now. I’ve been working on bringing it back to life for the last few weeks.
I’d felt that it had had it’s day and put it behind me, but many children (and adults) still ask me about it. Last year I visited Headfield Junior School in Dewsbury and was quite surprised and overcome by the warmth of feeling that the children and the school had for Ginger. They weren’t even aware that it was out of print. In fact hey trawled ebay to get more copies, so I decided to republish it myself and see what happens.
The Ginger Ninja is very important to me. My fabulous editor, Fiona Kenshole, taught me how to write in one astonishing editing session on the Ginger Ninja, as she had previously taught me to illustrate in one amazing session on Michael Morpurgo’s Mudpuddle Farm series.
Writing the book was a cathartic experience. I plumbed the darkest depths of my childhood and came up with a scarily dark idea. Fiona made me realise that the message I wanted to expound was best put across in a lighter way, that let the reader draw their own conclusions. I remember her crossing out paragraphs that meant so much to me at the time. “Preaching!” she would say. “You’re on your soapbox again!” she wailed. That day she taught me that no one likes a preacher unless they are confirming their own ingrained prejudices. We learn through subtle suggestion and osmosis.
I suppose it’s the crux of “show, don’t tell“, that piece of advice that is given to all writers, that is so difficult to explain. If you don’t get it, it’s because you’ve got your blinkers on and you’re never going to get it until you take them off.
I also learned how to perform stories with The Ginger Ninja. The moment when Ginger understands that moral strength comes from within is a magical experience for me every time I tell the story. If everything goes well, the room becomes dead silent and I feel a wave of expectation pouring off the audience – something urges me to pause and pause, soaking up the moment. When Ginger finally understands, the release of tension from the audience is quite extraordinary – eyes sparkle and I know I have everyone with me, even the moody kid at the back who says he hates stories! The rest of the story is a romp to the finish and all the children join in with me, standing up to the bully, Tiddles. You can actually see them growing, puffing out their chests and following me, in their imaginations, as we chase the bullies out of the playground.
There have been a few times when this moment has been ruined. Sometimes it’s Dinner Ladies wanting to set up tables, other times phones ring or kids come barging in with messages for Tracy to come to her music lesson. Once, half the audience got up and left to catch the bus for their swimming lesson! When this happens I am left emotionally drained, having gone through the dark part of the story and not being allowed to reach it’s glorious conclusion properly.
So, I have proofs on their way to me. Ginger is read by much younger children than I originally had in mind, so I’ve made the type and the size of the book a fraction larger. I hope that they’ll be great. I’ll keep you informed.
I know many people have fond memories of Ginger and they always want to tell me about them, so please feel free to add yours by clicking “to make a comment” line below.
About a year agog, Kes Grey, of Daisy fame, introduced me to the idea of a catalyst book edition. What on Earth is that, you may ask?
Kes was in advertising for many years and is a great salesman! His idea was to make the most of on demand printing to produce trial editions of books that he thought publishers might pass on in the hope that they would see the potential once a bit of real marketing had been tried out and they could see the finished product.
I remember the smile creeping over my face as he explained (sold) the idea to me. Brilliant, I thought, but I didn’t have anything that fitted, so I forgot about it for a while.
Until this week, that is.
I’ve been telling a story in schools for about ten years now, originally called the naughtiest girl in the world. It’s changed and grown organically over that time.
I wrote it down about five years ago and adapted it for a novelty picture book. The recession put paid to that as the publishers at the time pulled out of all novelties until they knew what was happening with the economy.
Since then I’ve rewritten it several times. It is now a completely different story that I’m really happy with. I have two problems. The first is that I’m pigeon-holed as a young readers series book writer and the second is that I’ve really come to love pen and ink more and more and would like to do it as a black and white picture book.
Black and white picture books aren’t really done. I don’t see why not. So I think I should have a go and see what the reaction is. You don’t know until you are holding a copy in your hands. If it doesn’t work, at least I might find a publisher who would think it better done in colour – in which case I’m sure I’d be happy to oblige.
Do you think I should? Do you think I shouldn’t? Why?
I’ve added a poll on the right hand side, so you can be part of the catalytic reaction!
I’m off to a great start with my new eight book series, Olympia. Set in ancient Olympia, it explores the life and times of the ancient Olympic Games through the eyes of my young hero, Ollie, whose dad runs the gymnasium.
I worked it all out about eighteen months ago. Now the decks are clear and the project is not only underway, it’s on schedule – so far!
I’ve written the first story, Run like the Wind and – hooray! – my editor, Sarah, likes it a lot. Should I be surprised? Well, I was really pleased with the story, but working on your own in a shed at the bottom of the garden, you can lose touch with reality! It’s so good to know your editor likes your work and that the project is on the right rails.
Last year, I sent my first Axel Storm story in and received a stony silence. My previous editor had rewritten my synopsis and hadn’t told me before she left – so my new editor was expecting something quite different! We got there in the end, but it was hard work, changing my initial ideas to fit the new format.
I’ve finished the cover roughs too. The cover rough for Deadly Target is above. I have a new designer working on them as I write. I came up with a logo idea and I’m dying to see what the cover ideas will look like. I’ll probably post them when we have finalised them.
Keen followers of my artwork will notice that Ollie does not have the ping pong ball eyes that I have always drawn before! I’m being really brave and I’m going to try and draw all the human characters with simple, dot eyes.
I need to make the children look a bit older than they normally are in my books, and the ping pong eyes tend to make them look much younger. Also, I suppose these stories are a little more serious and so I feel they should be a little less cartoony. Does that make sense?
Meantime, back to the keyboard – seven more stories to write and a schedule to meet!
Want to be a successful writer? It’s a stupid question really. Everyone who seriously puts pen to paper wants to be a success and they dream of the lifestyle that goes with it. The truth is that not that many people get to make a full-time living from their writing and even fewer make the jump to the big time.
Those that really make it big are often not very good writers who happen to hit a nerve at the right time that makes people buy their books. What on earth made everyone go out and buy Dan Brown’s the The Da Vinci Code
? I’m sure most of the copies sold weren’t ever read. A madness took hold of us, the zeitgeist – whatever. While The Da Vinci Code
was selling in squillions, hundreds of other well-written, worthy and probably better books were written but never made the jump into the book buying public’s imagination.
So what can you do to give yourself an advantage? I think there is one simple thing that you can do that will help you get a foot on the rung of the best-seller’s list. People buy stuff that is already selling. If you can show that others are buying your books then it makes it easier to sell the next one. Buyers like to know they have made a good decision and if everyone else has bought the book, then the chances are they’ve all made a good decision. If they haven’t then at least they all go down in flames together.
There really is a simple thing that you can do. I probably applies to every other profession too.
When I was at school, I lined up at the end of the hall, because my surname began with an R, which put me, everyday, at the end of the queue with all the other no hopers… the Smiths, the Thomases and the Wilsons.
The Adams, the Browns and the Coopers would get fed first, get picked for the team first and would generally get a fraction more time at stuff than us, waiting to be chosen at the end. So they got more practice and a heightened sense of entitlement. It’s taken me this long in my life to work it out!
What should you do to become a successful author? Change your name of course! The brilliant thing about publishing a book is that you can have a nom de plume.
A name like Aaaron Aardvark will get you to the top of the list – the first choice that readers are given. Most buyers can’t be bothered to go any further and will buy your book because it is there in front of them. Any advantage is an advantage. Looking back I can see many situations where things would have been easier if I’d been thrown up to the top of the list by the simple fact of having a different name.
It’s probably too late for me now, I’d have to develop an alter ego and write quite different books – but then again… maybe that’s an idea I should follow up?
It’s always a strange moment drawing the last illustration for a book and even more so for a series.
I’ve been living with Axel Storm in my head since March 2007, and probably before, in different guises. He came together at Bristol airport, while my Flight was delayed on the way up to Scotland. I could probably hunt down the original sketch of the idea if someone asks me to in the comments below!
He’s all boy and the stories are all adventure. I managed to achieve what I set out to do. Have no girls, except for his nannying mum! This really is an adventure series for boys and I hope they will take to Axel and read them all.
So, the end of a series. Eight books, eight stories, many rewrites, eight layouts, eight sets of pencil sketches, Eight covers to be designed and painted, about five hundred black and white drawings and now it’s all over bar a bit of final editing for the last two books.
What am I going to do now? Work up some ideas that are busting to get out of my head and then it’s onto my next eight book series! What’s it going to be? At the moment it’s called Olympia, but that might change. It’s about a boy who wants to be an Olympic Champion in ancient Greece. Oh, is the Olympics going to be in london an a couple of years time? I hadn’t spotted that one!
The first four Axel Storm Books are now available in hardback.
On my way home from a walk in the forest this afternoon, I spotted a tiny doll’s cloggy kind of shoe on the pavement. I could have walked past, but something made me stop and pick it up.
I examined it briefly – not really very interesting – part of me wanted to throw it away, but something made me hold onto it and I put it in my back pocket and carried on walking. Less than a minute later a story formed in my head based on that tiny little shoe
When I got home I started working out the story as a mind map. You can see it and the toy shoe in the picture. Of course I’m not going to show you the whole plan for the story because – well, that would be telling!
It is amazing how tiny little things can grow so quickly into something so amazing as a fully formed idea ready to draw pictures and write words – ready to bring the whole thing to life.
I’m well into book two of Axel Storm artwork now. The book is called Storm Rider. Axel gets caught up in the ropes of a helium balloon and dragged up into the sky where a violent storm is brewing. Is he going to make it? You’ll have to wait until the books come out later this year to find out, but here is a sneak preview of some of the artwork I did today – the very moment that axel is hauled up into the air.
Actually, this is all great fun for me as I’ve not drawn artwork for about four years now, I’ve done my last four series entirely on the computer. It was a bit strange at first, but I’m getting into the swing of it now. The lady at the post office is pleased to see me with my bundles of artwork. It’s not quite the same, just pressing a button and emailing a whole books worth of artwork in seconds.
