Patron Of Reading: Fortismere School Years 9 & 10

It was an absolute pleasure to return to Fortismere School last month, when I'm currently Patron Of Reading.  You can read about my previous visits to Years 7 & 8 in these blogs; but this time I decided with the brilliant school librarian Gill Ward to do some creative writing workshops with students from Years 9 & 10.

First of all, I asked the students to think about the sort of story they would like to read themselves.  I asked them to think of a character, a setting and an action for their story; and then asked them to write a write a first draft very quickly.

Then we talked about how a writer can get distance on their story, and come back to read it again as if they hadn't written it themselves.  This helps when editing it into a second draft, and this process eventually leads to a piece of writing that is as good as it can possibly be – always my aim when I'm writing a story!

They worked really brilliantly at these different stages of the process, and I was blown away by the stories they read out at the end!  I think these students have huge potential as writers, and so I'm delighted to share some of their work here.

If anyone from Fortismere would like any advice on writing, here's a link to all my blog posts about it.  Or you can just leave me a comment below, and I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have!