The School for Young Writers in Christchurch is holding a Summer Writing School and Workshops, 16-20 January 2017. The Summer Writing School comprises a week’s worth of writing for teenagers, with special guest tutors alongside some of our regulars. On the final day students will get an opportunity for 1:1 mentoring as they complete a piece for the special magazine that they will produce.
There are also opportunities for younger children (Year 7-9) to let their imaginations loose in short workshops with James Norcliffe and Heather McQuillan on the 24th January. Information can be found on their Facebook page. (Please note: the years 4-6 sessions on Jan 23rd are now full).
Why go to The School for Young Writers throughout the year? Who is it for and what will they get out of it?
The School for Young Writers is for Years 3 to Year 13. Young writers get the pleasure of working with skilled teachers in groups of like-minded children. Regular tuition produces results. We also have a correspondence programme for those who can’t make the class times.
What kind of writing activities and exercises do you do?
Heather: Stories, poetry in all its forms, creative non-fiction, jokes, flash fiction, memoir, song lyric, play script, monologue, twists on genre, fantasy, slam poetry, whatever the children ask for and whatever our creative tutors can come up with.
Tell us about some of the tutors at the school.
Summer school tutor, James Norcliffe
Glyn: James Norcliffe is one of New Zealand’s most admired writers of poetry (Burns Fellowship and many other awards) and fiction for young readers. Heather is also an award-winning writer of fiction for young people as well as poetry, short story and flash fiction ( She is the current National “champ” in Flash fiction). Gail Ingram is New Zealand’s best poet for 2016 (New Zealand Poetry Society). Greg O’Connell is renowned for his interactive poetry shows and poems published in the School Journal. Stephanie Frewen is an award-winning scriptwriter. The plays her students write are broadcast on Plains FM and many are preserved for all time in Radio New Zealand Sound Archives.
Can you share some top tips for youth who want to write?
Join the School for Young Writers (of course). And enter the competitions in our Write On magazine. Teenagers submit to Re Draft – an annual anthology of the best teenage writing in New Zealand.
What about young people who think “I’m no good at writing…”
Glyn: Some of our best writers said that when they joined us. We are not there only for the gifted and talented. People don’t know they have a talent until they try it.
Heather: Sometimes young people have not had the opportunity to express their own creativity through writing. Our programmes are “low stakes.” We don’t use rubrics, mark or judge writing. Our goal is to help a young writer develop a piece to be the best expression of their ideas. This is a joyful process.
What changes do you see in the students over the course of the year?
Glyn says the changes are “immense” and Heather agrees: “For some it takes a few sessions to warm up and let their ideas free. Once they do then amazing things happen. Learning that all writers redraft is often key to the breakthrough.”
Can you share some highlights from the School for Young Writers this year?
Glyn: The greatest kick for me was to see the change in a young writer who came to us writing very dark stuff. By the end of the year, eligible to enter our annual Re-Draft competition for teenagers, this person won a place in the 2016 book The Dog Upstairs. This nationwide competition is for writers up to university level, so it’s a great achievement for such a young writer to win a place.
Heather: This year we held a poetry reading event in association with WORD Christchurch and New Zealand Poetry Day. It was a thrill to see usually shy young people stand up and read their pieces with confidence. I also love working in schools and a seeing the transformation over two days as reticent, vulnerable writers realise that they have something worthwhile to write, something that others want to read. Standouts have to be a group of Year 7/8 country boys (never laughed so much in a workshop) and a gorgeous group of teenagers in Queenstown who were open, enthusiastic and extremely talented. They even gave up their Saturday to attend.
Your favourite authors writing for children and young adults?
Of course we love James Norcliffe! Most of our young writers are also avid readers and they recommend writers to us!
Some of YOUR Top picks of books for youth in 2016?
Heather: Being Magdalene by Fleur Beale. I went back and reread her others. Anything Patrick Ness has written. I’m a bit behind on my YA reading having been a University student this year and reading the modernists. I’m looking forward to some holiday immersion in YA books.
What drives you to commit so much passion for this work?
Glyn: All of our tutors do it for the love of writing and with a passion for ensuring the future of New Zealand literature.
The School for Young Writers is based at Hagley College. What’s the association?
Glyn: Hagley College offered to support us and we gratefully accepted. We are a separate organisation and a registered charity. Hagley is our venue.
Tell us about the publications the writing school is associated with.
Glyn: The School for Young Writers has always emphasised the importance of publication. Without it, writing is like a house without a roof. Write On magazine gives everyone a chance to strive for the pleasure of seeing their name in print and encourages them to lift their game as far as possible. The Re-Draft competition began when we had developed teenage groups whose work was good enough to publish in book form. Re-Draft challenges our senior students to pit their skills against the best in the country. The results are amazingly good. New Zealand literature is alive and well and has a good future. Your blog should include this.
What are some things you’ve heard the students say about their experiences at the writing school?
Glyn: You should see the smiles on their faces when they emerge after two hours of fun learning. They don’t need to say anything. It shows. The younger ones often excitedly share their work with Mum on the way home.
Heather: They keep coming back and stay for years. For some of the students The School for Young Writers is their safe place, they make special friends and can be themselves. We love quirky. We value individuality.
Check out what is on offer for youth at the Summer Writing School this January.
Recently I braved the heaviest rain of winter to attend the WORD Writer’s Workshop “Teaching the Monster to Speak” hosted by the energetic Tracy Farr.
Tracy Farr (image credit, Matt Bialostocki)
Tracy, who was born across the ditch but who we’ll claim as a Kiwi as she’s lived in Wellington for the past 20 years, wrote The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt in 2013 and received accolades for creating characters so real they could walk off the page. Tracy started her second novel and was determined to achieve the same rich characterization. She investigated her writing process so she could replicate it. The twenty or so other workshop attendees and I were fortunate enough to be able to share her wisdom.
To make truly original, realistic characters, Tracy advises authors to stitch them together, physically and psychologically. To extend the Frankenstein metaphor further, she suggests splicing character traits and collecting body parts. Take your mother’s dark eyes, your cousin’s dress sense (or lack of), your colleague’s habit of giving you compliment sandwiches and your dentist’s squint, and you’re on the way to making your Monster. Tuck away images or sayings specific to your Monster into a real or virtual folder via Pinterest or Scrivener. Make mood boards and observe, collect and record “whatever buzzes”. Place your Monster into a setting and move it around so it can start to take on a life of its own.
The idea is to transform/invent/disguise people you know to create your characters. Tracy says “be aware of when you’re copying and when you’re creating” and encouraged us to do a writing exercise every day. She assured us that, if we do this, something (or someone) will turn up.
Tracy Farr’s new novel, The Hope Fault, is due for release by the Freemantle Press next year. Make sure you keep an eye out for it – an eye, his ear, your brother’s obsession with drones, the butcher’s stutter, the purple coat you saw at Farmers… Make it real then make it strange. Happy stitching!
We have just subscribed to a fantastic magazine that is for Kiwi kids and by Kiwi kids. Toitoi is a journal for young writers and artists that gives Kiwi kids the chance to submit their own writing and pieces of art to be included in the journal. There are 100 pages of original stories, poetry and artwork in every issue. Check out these examples from Issue 3 this year:
It looks really fantastic and who wouldn’t want to see their story, poem or artwork published in a magazine! You can brag to all your friends and your family will be super proud of you. It’s a quarterly journal so that means that there four chances throughout the year for you to submit your writing and art and see it published in the magazine.
Anyone aged 5-13 years can submit a piece to Toitoi. To submit a piece all you have to do is go to the Toitoi website, click on ‘Submit’ at the top of the page and email your submission to the editors. The next deadline is 8 July so you’ve still got a few weeks to get your submission in. What are you waiting for?
We’d like to share information on this local competition for kids – entries must be received by 6 May 2016. Local author and NZSA member Michele Clark McConnochie is celebrating the release of the final book in The Strange sagas of Sabrina Summers trilogy. This competition is dyslexia friendly – just have fun with your imagination. You can enter the illustration contest or costume competition too!
Go to Michele’s website to find out more about how to enter.
Find out about the 13 May prizegiving at Central Library Peterborough, 4.30pm. You can meet local authors Gavin Bishop, Heather McQuillan, Helen Mongillo and Michele Clark McConnochie, find out if you’ve won and join in the fun! Spot prizes for best fractured fairytale costumes, readings from Michele Clark McConnochie and from the winning entries, plus games and more.
How to enter
WHAT?
Short stories of between 200-500 words on the theme “The Day I became a Fairytale Character.” Extra points for making the judges laugh!
OR
A colourful illustration of one of your favourite fairytale characters, but make it strange!
WHEN?
Entries opened on 2 April 2016 and must be received by 6 May 2016.
Judges are
Illustration: Gavin Bishop & Helen Mongillo
Story: Bob Docherty, Heather McQuillan and Michele Clark McConnochie
This comp is open to all Canterbury residents aged between 6 and 12 years of age.
Prizes
Best story: $50 Smiggle voucher & copy of The Uncooperative Flying Carpet
Best illustration: $50 Smiggle voucher & copy of The Uncooperative Flying Carpet
Surprise spot prizes for best costume on Friday, 13th May!
School or homeschool libraries will receive copies of all three books in both dyslexia-friendly format and traditional paperback.
It’s over a week since I started writing this year’s NaNoWriMo, and it’s been rough going. Since my plot has veered markedly off-plan I’ve been frantically trying to keep one step ahead of my typing, but often my brain is slow in coming up with ideas. And the plot holes! My god, the plot holes are so large I could fly a spaceship through them.
One way I attempt to inspire myself into writing is to read books with the same kind of tone that I’m trying to achieve. Since my initial idea involved gothic adventure this has meant a lot of Daphne du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, and Henry James. I might re-read Northanger Abbey next to add some humour.
If you’re also writing this month, what have you been reading? Or are you all novel all the time?
National Novel Writing Month started on Sunday, the 1st of November, or for the super keen, after midnight on October 31st. To the uninitiated, this is the month set aside for those of us crazy enough to attempt to write 50,000 words by the end of November (about 1667 words a day).
This isn’t my first time attempting NaNoWriMo — I first joined (and won) in 2003 — but the past few years have been flops, ill thought out ideas quickly dying on the page. This time I’m slightly better prepared, having characters and plot in mind before starting to write. I was all set to write a gothic science fiction adventure — you know, Jane Eyre in space, that sort of thing — but I’ve only written 2,000 words and already it’s heading off in a totally different direction. Sigh.
Never mind; this year my goal is simply to keep writing, no matter what rubbish comes out. While one of my writing buddies is already on 25,000 words (how?!) my style of writing is more like… staring in desperation at the ceiling after every sentence, kind of thing. Hopefully by the end of the month I’ll be more in the groove, but not the grave. Although, thinking about it, being buried alive is very gothic novel, so you never know.
Is anyone else mad enough to attempt NaNoWriMo this year? What are you writing about?
It’s 2am, I can’t get back to sleep. What to do? My super alert 2am brain has the answer:
Let’s blog!
Sometimes I get asked about blogging: where do the ideas come from; when do I get time to blog; what’s the whole process? In a nutshell, I believe – if it’s keeping me awake at 2am, it’s probably something other people will relate to and maybe want to read.
Here’s this morning’s 2am musings – all eminently bloggable in my opinion:
How can I be a fantastic granny? Where’s the book on The Dummies’ Guide to Grannyhood? I can generate quite a bit of brain-play on this topic, but it never sends me to sleep. Next.
Why are good things so often earnest, so humourless: Organic this, Spiritual that, Dietary whatever. Where’s the light-hearted look at Rammed-Earth Housing or Climate Change or Yoga. But wait, what about Yoga Bitch? I read the subtitle: One Woman’s Quest to Conquer Scepticism, Cynicism and Cigarettes on the Path to Enlightenment. Next topic please.
What is the relationship between isolation and polarisation of behaviour? Take The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin and Plainsong by Kent Haruf. Lone men in isolated places and the arrival of pregnant, feral teenage girls. Is there a blog on mirror-image books? Not tired yet. Next.
Why doesn’t anyone tell young people that once you have kids you can’t really travel for ages? OK, you might manage a trip to Hanmer Springs – with military precision planning. Either that or you dotravel with kids and spoil everyone else’s holiday. Try reading What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding. Almost there, but Next.
How come we think we have to travel all over the world to gain spiritual enlightenment, when it could probably just as easily happen from home? Because it makes for a better read? A good book on this (and with a terrific title) is Contents May Have Shifted by Pam Houston. Brain winding down now.
Finally drift off to sleep. Leap out of bed (OK, drag self out of bed) at 7-ish. Bash out blog before brekkie and submit it.
Are you a young writer who wants to improve your writing? Do you love to meet authors and hear how they write their books? We’ve got two events coming up at Shirley Library just for you!
On Saturday 8 August Shirley Library will be hosting some of the wonderful authors who are finalists in this year’s New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Karen Healey is a finalist in the main book awards and both Desna Wallace and Natalie King are finalists in the Children’s Choice Award. There are two events for kids and teens that you can come along to for FREE:
Writing Workshop with Karen Healey, 10:30am-12:00pm, Saturday 8 August – Join Karen Healey, author of While We Run, for a young adult writing workshop. Recommended for ages 10+.
Fast Track Fiction, 5:00-6:00pm, Saturday 8 August – Join Karen Healey, Joanna Orwin, Desna Wallace and Natalie King as they unlock the secrets of their success as writers. Recommended for ages 10+.
You need to book for both of these events but they are free. To book phone 03-941-7923.
You might like to read the finalist books from these wonderful authors so check these out:
It was a bit of a homecoming – the origin of this book was co-editor Jolisa Gracewood in Connecticut observing Christchurch after the September 2010 earthquake. Her eagle eye took note of some great writing that our earthquakes “shook loose”.
Contributors Megan Clayton, Lara Strongman, Nic Low, and David Haywood read a sampling of their essays. We heard about birth, about messages from the past to the future, about Ōtautahi loosing itself, and ratty haircuts.
Each tale and teller different, unique. But in all of the stories, you felt the personal and the universal.
Tell you what is an omnium gatherum of great recent New Zealand writing, mostly from out on the Web. If you wanted to compare it to food – you could say a degustation or tasting plates – but actually the essays are more substantial than that. Each piece is a complete meal and you can dip in and read, or devour it cover to cover (I did the latter). It features Eleanor Catton, Elizabeth Knox, Tina Makereti, Steve Braunias, Naomi Arnold, snails, cycling, gardens, Kim Dotcom, and Rihanna’s tattoo.
The School for Young Writers in Christchurch is holding a Summer Writing School and Workshops, 16-20 January 2017. The Summer Writing School comprises a week’s worth of writing for teenagers, with special guest tutors alongside some of our regulars. On the final day students will get an opportunity for 1:1 mentoring as they complete a piece for the special magazine that they will produce.
Glyn: The School for Young Writers has always emphasised the importance of publication. Without it, writing is like a house without a roof. Write On magazine gives everyone a chance to strive for the pleasure of seeing their name in print and encourages them to lift their game as far as possible. The Re-Draft competition began when we had developed teenage groups whose work was good enough to publish in book form. Re-Draft challenges our senior students to pit their skills against the best in the country. The results are amazingly good. New Zealand literature is alive and well and has a good future. Your blog should include this.
Christchurch City Libraries Blog 