Writing Prompt – Tiny Diary, Big Secrets!

If you haven’t already seen it, there’s a great online project starting over at https://www.ourcoronadiary.com/ with a huge resource of writing and drawing tips from LOADS of great authors and illustrators.

A couple of my writer mates were involved in putting the project together and kindly invited me to supply a diary themed writing prompt. So here it is:

TINY DIARY, BIG SECRETS!

  

One of the best things about keeping a diary (at any time) is that you can be totally honest about how you feel. Have a rant, vent some spleen, write down all the things you’re too polite to actually say out loud! Be honest and get any frustration, fears and anger you might be keeping to yourself, out onto the page – it might help.

For instance:

• What’s the worst part about being stuck indoors?

• Who is the most annoying person you’re confined with?

• What do you miss about life as it was before?

But also, what’s the best part about being in lockdown? See if you can think of one good thing to go with every bad aspect!

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OR … you could use YOUR experience to write about somebody else – a fictional character who finds themselves in confinement. They might not even be in our world or time! 

• Who are they?

• Where are they?

• What is their ‘prison’ like?

• Why can’t they leave?

• What would happen if they managed to escape? Will they try?

• How do they pass the time in confinement?

Sometimes it’s easier to write about how YOU feel by giving your feelings to a fictional character and seeing how THEY deal with the situation. A fictional character can say and do things that maybe you can’t.

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To give a twist to this challenge, try writing or drawing your diary on very small pieces of paper. (They will be a lot easier to hide from prying eyes if they’re small!)

Maybe your character in confinement isn’t supposed to be writing so they have to hide their diary too? Or perhaps paper is in short supply, so they have to write on whatever scraps they can find.

The idea is that your story will be physically confined to a small space too!

For example, you could take a sheet of A4 and cut it into long thin strips (like bookmarks), then write or draw a comic strip on those. If you have some very small Post It notes, you could use those. You could even cut up a sheet of A4 to make a tiny book to write or draw in!

What’s the smallest space you can find to write a story? It would be great to see how you get on, and how small a space you managed to squeeze a story into!

Have fun and don't forget to check out all the other great ideas and suggestions over at the Our Corona Diary project.

Stay safe and all the best,

Dave

Kids' Lit Quiz and SCBWI Conference Photo Gallery

On Monday, six-eights of The Edge spent the afternoon at The Broxbourne School for the North London heat of the Kids' Lit Quiz. There were 28 teams from different schools competing for a place in the UK final on Friday. I was part of one of the two author teams, alongside Fiona Dunbar (Kitty Slade Mysteries), Sita Brahmachari (Artichoke Hearts) and Sophia Bennett (Threads). Despite spending much of the time scratching our heads and marvelling at the speed with which the students answered the quick fire questions, we ended the day as the winning team by a single point. Sadly the author teams don't qualify for the final, but it was a great opportunity to meet so many enthusiastic young readers. Check out Candy Gourlay's write up and superb photos here. 

The previous week I was in Winchester for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators Conference. As promised in the previous post, here are few photos and a video from the Edge panel event.

Spot the baldy! (No prizes I'm afraid) 
I'm in there somewhere, sitting next to my editor, Jasmine Richards.

It was a real privilege to listen to Frank Cottrell Boyce.

I even managed to pluck up the courage to say "hello".

Anthony McGowan's Human Powerpoint of Freitag's Pyramid. 

This year's cake did not disappoint.

Candy Gourlay, deserved winner of the Crystal Kite Award 
for her superb debut, Tall Story.

The Edge Graffiti Wall with Paula Rawsthorne, Sara Grant and I.

Not quite sure what to say about this one …

The Edge panelists get ready for action. 
And below a video clip of our body-swapping introduction.

Thanks to Candy Gourlay, Miriam Halahmy and Sara Grant for letting me use their photos.

Great book blogs to visit

This week I'm saving my planned post for another time, in order to re-direct you to a couple of other book blogs well worth a visit.


A good place to start is the excellent Notes from the Slushpile, for the first instalment of their That'll be the Debut feature – an interview by Candy Gourlay with Edge authors Bryony Pearce, Katie Dale and I. The piece took the form of a conversation between the four of us, about our experiences of being debut authors. It was great fun to be involved and makes for an interesting read.


On The Edge blog itself, Katie Dale asks why so few teen books from other countries make it onto UK bookshelves and considers cultural reference points that are somehow Lost in Translation.

As part of Fluttering Butterflies Awesome Women series, Keren David talks about the women who inspired her life and her writing.


And yet another Edge author, Paula Rawsthorne is this week's debut author on the brilliant Tall Tales & Short Stories blog.


Then there are the fascinating Writing Room Revelations running on Nicky Schmidt's Absolute Vanilla, featuring Meg Rosoff, Nicola Morgan, Keren David, Jon Mayhew and Miriam Halahmy to name just a few.

Finally, it's always worth stopping off to see what Nick Cross has to say at Who Ate My Brain. This week Nick poses the question of re-readability.


Thanks and happy browsing …

Taking a Dark Ride in the Owl Bookshop

Action shot: me buying a copy of Dark Ride

On Wednesday evening I returned to the Owl Bookshop in Kentish Town for the launch of Caroline Green's debut, Dark Ride. I met Caroline for the first time at Miriam Halahmy's book launch last month (Yeah, I know, a writer's life is just one party after another). When Caroline told me that Dark Ride was about a girl who meets a strange boy living in an abandoned fairground, I knew I wanted to read it. Seaside towns, especially out of season when the piers and fairgrounds are deserted and desolate, always feels like they are full of stories, and this one sounded great. 

Miriam Halahmy with chocolate!

Once again the bookshop aisles were packed with people. I managed to catch up with a few friends, including fellow 'Edgar', Miriam Halahmy, and was able to present her with the chocolate I owed her for the interview she did here last month. However, collect too many writers together in a room lined with books, and strange things start to happen. When I found myself standing with Candy Gourlay, Nick Cross and Sue Hyams, excitedly developing an idea for a picture book about a sheep serial killer, I knew it was time to leave – but not before getting my book signed. The line was long and unruly, but it meant I got to meet the queue-jumping Anthony McGowan, and discuss tea and ukuleles while we waited.

Nick Cross and Candy Gourlay, before the serial killer moment

Caroline, still smiling at the end of the queue!

I read the first four chapters of Dark Ride on the train home and was so engrossed I almost missed my stop – the sign of a good book I think. But don't take my word for it. Check out the trailer and read an excerpt here. 


Dark Ride is available now, published by Piccadilly Press.

Writing a Novel (Part Two): A Place to Write

Welcome to the second part of my series looking at the process of writing a novel. Part One: What to Write? can be read here.

One of the great things about writing is that it doesn’t require a lot of equipment – something to write with and something to write on, and you’re sorted. If you're really stuck, you can breathe on a window and write with your finger! Obviously if you’re going to attempt to be published, eventually you will need to get your words typed-up, but there’s a lot of writing required before getting to that stage.

A common excuse for not writing, along with not having the time (which I’ll look at in a later post) is not having a quiet space. I know that some writers need absolute silence and solitude in order to work. Bill Hussey locks his door, and sometimes even uses ear-plugs; by contrast Frank Cottrell Boyce has talked of finding the clamour of a house full of children inspiring.

Miriam Halahmy wrote much of Hidden in cafés

Most of us are somewhere in-between, and try to write when and where we can. Miriam Halahmy and Candy Gourlay are just two writers I know who are part of a long line of café scribes, following in Ernest Hemingway’s espresso stained footsteps. Some of us write in libraries or on trains – I’m drafting this longhand in my notebook while walking, during my lunch break. Sometimes, in order to write anything at all, we have to adapt and learn to get the words down where we can.

Having said that, I think it is useful to find a more permanent space to write. This doesn’t have to be a beautifully designed bespoke writer’s study, though that would be nice. Stephen King wrote his early novels with a typewriter balanced across his knees in his laundry nook, Roald Dahl famously in his shed, and I read somewhere that Michael Morpurgo writes in bed. What’s important is finding a space you will associate with writing, so that as soon as you enter, your brain recognises it and thinks, ‘Ah, so this is what we’re doing now!’

My corner of the attic

I've written in libraries, on a laptop balanced on a drawing board in the bedroom, but about two years ago I cleared a space for a makeshift desk in the corner of our attic. It’s cold in winter and besieged by wasps in summer, but I love it. And when I climb the ladder each evening, by the time I sit down and switch on my computer, my brain already knows what’s required. It doesn’t always comply, but that’s another post altogether …