I was invited to Grange Primary School for World Book Day as a local author. The children were in Year 3 through to Year 6 and wanted to know all about what it is like being an author and writing stories.
As it was World Book Day I decided to share with the children about the different books that have shaped my career as an author from early inspiration through to tools of the trade. Most importantly, I made sure to tell them about the books I had written. Then, I went on to discuss all the different roles that are involved in bringing a book to life.
I created a presentation in Canva so that I’d have a visual prompt to keep me on track whilst delivering my talk. It really helped at the start when I was nervous. By the end, the children really helped steer the talk in the direction they wanted with their insightful questions.
They had done a creative exercises to draw a picture of what they thought an author might look like. None of the children had drawn themselves, so I pointed out to them that any of them could be an author one day and all they need to do is start writing. Then keep writing and not worry if their first stories aren’t great because like everything, we get better with practice.
The children had lots of questions to ask. It was a lot of fun, and we talked about some of their story ideas and discovered that stories can be about anything and that they don’t all have to like the same stories because we are all different.
My favourite question was when one child asked me what is a story I’ve always wanted to write but haven’t written yet. It was a question with endless answers, but I chose one of my ideas to share with them. Then some of the children started brainstorming with me more ideas for my story. It was awesome to see where their minds went and left me energised to want to write more.
The event was a success, and I came away feeling incredibly welcomed by the children and inspired by their energy and excitement for stories. I wrote an article for Felixstowe Magazine which you can read here:
https://www.thefelixstoweapp.com/blog/i/87441209/article-3741
