How to be a Writer! 10 tips...

1 Get yourself a notebook and pen and take them with you everywhere you go. Use it to write down any ideas that you have when you are out and about. You should also keep lists of names that you’d like to use for characters, plus names of places. If you hear someone saying something funny, or sad, or in any way memorable or profound, write it down in your notebook. You might be able to adapt it and use it in a story.

2 Write something every day, even if it is only a short paragraph about something good, bad, or funny that happened.

3 Read – as much as you can. Keep a list of your favourite authors and books. Write down why you liked the books.

4 Write a complete story in only five sentences. Go on – give it a try!

5 Write a description of a character – perhaps a school girl or a teacher. Now write a description of the same person but this time as if the story is set 100 years ago. Then try writing the description as if your character lives in a different country or perhaps 100 years in the future. Try doing the same thing for all sorts of different characters.

6 Join a writing group at school or in your local area. If there isn’t one, why not see if you can persuade a teacher to start one?

7 Practise writing opening sentences. Make them puzzling and intriguing so that someone who reads it will want to find out what happens next. Something like: ‘He found it in the hedge on the way to school.’ What did he find, I wonder? And what did he do with it? Did he tell anyone else about it? Was it valuable? I want to find out all these things by reading on. So what opening sentence are you going to write that will capture my imagination?

8 Write a description of someone walking down the street. Describe the weather, what the street looks like, say if it is deserted or busy, and explain why the person is walking – where are they going? Now write the same description but see if you can do it in half as many words.

9 Tell a story about someone playing in the park with their friends on a sunny day. Now tell the story about the same occasion but in the snow, then do the same thing again but this time set the story in the rain. How does the different weather condition make you change your story? It should give you lots of ideas for alternative descriptions and phrases, as well as different things that your characters will do. You could also describe the completely different things that they will wear. Alternatively, you could make the story a happy one, then re-write it as a sad one, or a scarey one.

10 Find out if there are any writing competitions in your area and think about entering them. The Henrietta Branford Writing Competition is run annually for writers under the age of 18. Go to www.branfordboaseaward.org.uk to find out more. Or perhaps you read a comic or magazine that publishes readers’ work? Why not submit a story and see if they print it? Young Writer magazine is aimed at authors and illustrators under the age of 18 and has lots of ideas to spark off writing projects. They also feature work by young writers – you can find out more about the magazine at www.young-writer.co.uk ‘We are Writers’ also publishes work from young authors and is run by Scholastic. Why not find out more about it at writers.scholastic.co.uk and then speak to your teacher about it?

Biography

I was born in London and lived there for over 30 years. I used to think that I wanted to be a ballet dancer and I even went to the Royal Ballet School for a while. But I changed my mind about dancing and my first job was at a charity that promoted books and reading throughout the United Kingdom. I was really lucky because I worked in a library full of children’s books – it had a copy of every single book published in the UK for young people. I loved reading all the books and I met lots of interesting authors and illustrators. After working in the library for three years, I then got a job working for in the House of Commons for an MP. I only stayed there for a year because I missed working with books so much.

Next, I worked in children’s publishing house, where I learned to be an editor. After working there for a few years, I moved to another publishing house. I really enjoyed working with children’s books but I was also interested in the other books for adults that we published. So I then moved to the BBC where I was the Editorial Manager of BBC Books, working on adult, children’s, and foreign language learning books. It was a brilliant job and I loved it. After my first child was born, I started working as a freelance book editor and also started to write more children’s books. I also edited a magazine for teachers of English, as well as a regional magazine about Kent, where I now live. I've also edited a magazine for teachers of English, and worked on a regional magazine about Kent, where I now live.

Q&A

Where do you get your ideas for stories?

I get my ideas from things I hear on the news, and from things that happen to me, or my children. I am a very nosey person as well! It’s really helpful to be nosey when you are a writer because it means that I always want to know what’s happening, who is involved, and how something turned out. It also means that I listen to other people’s conversations when I am in the shops or on the bus or the train! Everything gives me ideas for whole stories, or incidents that I can put into stories.I am always thinking of plots for stories – some of them end up being books, but lots of them don’t! But if an idea doesn’t get used as a complete book, I might use it as an incident in another book. back to top

Do you enjoy being an author?

Being an author is sometimes easy (when the words aren’t difficult to think of and seem to flow into my computer quite easily) and sometimes very frustrating (when the words are all jumbled up in my head and don’t come out as good sentences). Mostly though, being a writer is great fun because it means that I can pretend that I am the main character of every book I write! So in one book, I can be a sports star, in another book I can pretend I am the funniest person ever, or absolutely anything else I want to be. How lucky is that? The other great thing about being a writer is that I get letters from readers telling me they enjoyed reading something I’ve written. That makes me feel good and makes me want to write more books. That’s pretty lucky too!back to top

Where do you write your books?

I put down all my initial ideas for stories in a notebook. Actually, I’ve got quite a lot of notebooks and I use two or three at the same time. But I try to keep all my jottings about one particular book in the same notebook so that I don’t get confused. I like to write with a sharp pencil or a coloured gel pen. Once I’ve sorted the basic plot for a book in my head, I go and sit at my Apple Macintosh which I keep on my desk, in front of a window that looks out on the street outside my house. Then I start to type out the synopsis of a book as well as details of the main characters that will feature in the story.back to top

When do you write?

I like to start writing in the morning as soon as I can after walking my dogs. I walk them every day, whatever the weather – actually, if I didn’t take them out each morning they would nag me until I gave in anyway! While I walk, I sometimes think about the book I am writing or other ideas that have just come to me for another story. By the time I have finished walking, my brain has woken up thanks to all that fresh air! If I haven’t sat down at my desk before 9.30am each day, I feel guilty. If I am having a good day, I will find the words come easily and I will carry on writing for a long time without wanting to stop. Other days, I find it harder to find the right words. If that happens, I set myself little goals to achieve: I might make myself carry on writing until I have finished a chapter, or perhaps I will aim for a time on my watch. I treat myself to a cup of tea when I have reached my goal! I stop writing to eat some lunch and do some reading. Then I go back to my desk and write some more. I stop writing when my children come home from school.back to top

Do you think it is a good experience?

Being an author has been a good experience for me. I learn something every time I write a book. I also like to think that the more I write, the better I get at writing. I write something, leave it a day, then go back to it and correct it. Sometimes I completely re-write it. The funny thing is re-reading something I wrote a while ago: I often can’t remember writing it at all! The one strange thing about finishing a book is it makes me wonder what happens to all the characters? In my head, I create a whole group of friends and can imagine exactly what they look like, what they wear, what their homes look like – even what they sound like. Sometimes, I create whole families or schools full of people, depending on what I am writing. Then I finish a book and I miss the characters. It makes me wonder what they are getting up to now.back to top

How long does it take you to write a book?

It depends on the book! I usually write between 2,000 and 4,000 words a day. I read through what I wrote the day before and make changes to it before I start writing the next chapter. After I have finished the first draft of a book, I then send it to my editor at the publishing house. The editor reads through the manuscript and then sends me detailed comments about parts of the book that I can improve. When I first start a book, the editor tells me the total number of words that the complete book should be: it might be 10,000 words or 20,000 words, or maybe more. Usually, I get carried away with the plot of my books and I nearly always write far too much. So the editor usually goes through the manuscript looking for places where I have given too much detail or perhaps put in an incident that isn’t needed because it isn’t crucial to the plot and doesn’t help the story to move on quickly enough. After the editor sends me all the comments along with the marked up first draft, I then sit down at my kitchen table and start to work out how and where I will make the changes that are needed. Sometimes I laugh at the silly mistakes I made in the first draft and it makes me realise how important it is to read things through lots of times because every time I read something, it’s like reading it for the first time. It will probably take me about a week to rewrite and finish the second draft of a novel.If I’ve done a good job, the editor will be pleased with the second draft and it will then be copy edited, ready for the illustrator to start work and the typesetting. But sometimes, I might have to make a few more changes to ensure that the story is just right.back to top

Did you write books when you were a child?

I used to enjoy writing creative stories for my English teacher and often did pictures to illustrate the stories. But I can’t ever remember writing anything longer than a short story. Looking back, I wish I had written a novel when I was younger because I think I would enjoy reading it now.back to top

Did you read lots of books when you were a child?

Always! I enjoyed reading fiction and non-fiction, especially books about history and art, and books on things to make and do. I also liked reading funny poems. But I didn’t just read books – I read the backs of cereal packets, lots of comics and magazines, and I also used to read the newspaper with my grandmother. I think that reading lots of different types of things helps to make you a better writer.back to top

What was your favourite book when you were a child?

An honest answer would be the book that I was reading at the time I was asked. But I especially remember a series of books about a character called Mary Plain. Mary Plain was a real live bear who lived in a zoo in Switzerland. I thought Mary was terrific because she got into trouble and did naughty things and I wanted to be Mary Plain. But I also loved reading the Secret Seven books by Enid Blyton – for some reason, I didn’t like the Famous Five nearly as much so I only read one of that series. I also liked the school stories she wrote about Malory Towers and another school called St Clare’s. Honor Arundel was another author I enjoyed reading, as well as Elizabeth Goudge and Rosemary Sutcliff.I used to make regular visits to my local library and I also belonged to a children’s book club which was great because it introduced me to books I might not otherwise have discovered.back to top

Where do you live?

I live in Kent.back to top

Do you have any pets?

Yes! I have two dogs called Cecil and Sidney, and two cats called Mabel and Ruby.back to top

Do you have a favourite colour?

I don’t think I do – although I really like reds and oranges.back to top

Do you have any hobbies?

I like to listen to music (all kinds) and I enjoy singing with a choir. I also like to make craft things, especially knitting and embroidery. I think I mentioned before that I like walking my dogs too. Oh, and I also like to pretend that I am good at gardening – I spend a lot of time in my gardening pottering about, but I don’t think I’m really much good at it.back to top