Christmas Writing with Kids

Phew - the world is such a difficult place right now. How lovely then to be able to share some of our young writers' seasonal descriptive writing and escape into fantasy. This extract is by Faye, Year 6. We were working on sentence starters - using a preposition, and replacing 'I see' starters. Faye's original 'fox' sentence began 'I see a fox slipping on the ice...' Together we decided that 'A fox slips...' is much stronger. Well done, Faye.

Flying in Snow writing by Faye

The snow blanket covers the wonderful rooftops below.

I spy twinkling light from the windows of awake children hoping to sneak a glimpse of the beloved Father Christmas.

I spot trees in the darkness of night.

A fox slips on the ice and plummets towards the prickled, frost covered bushes. And it is gone.

Below me, the icy sea looks like a puddle because we’re up so high.

As we dash through the clouds, an angel soars through the windy winter skies.

Christmas is coming...

We wanted to say a huge 'well done!' to one of our regular workshoppers, Sarah, who wrote 50,000 words in November! That's 50,000! Sarah, you are brilliant!

December is now upon us... and you'll soon be too busy with the turkey to think about much else. But look out for us in the New Year, when we'll be publishing details of our January workshop and we'll have some exciting announcements to make about new Thoughttree Writing Courses!

Just need to get a tiny something else off our chests... every time the phone rings this internet connection fails! Anyone else have this problem? Grrrrr!

On Kids and Other Stuff

A splendid snippet coming up from one of our young writers, Faye, who is a regular in a York primary school Creative Writing group with a Thoughttree tutor. Faye is Year 6 and needed a boost - we have been working on dynamic verbs, adjectives and keeping the 'self' out of descriptive writing, starting a sentence with a noun instead of the usual 'I can see...' that young writers sometimes produce. We love her short sentence to start, and her use of present tense:

'The sky dims. Suddenly there is an outburst of rain. The cliff looms above. The bold cliff guards a lonely church against the harsh winds.'

Well done, Faye. If you're in the East Riding of Yorkshire and would like a Thoughttree tutor working with your students why not get in touch? We're qualified and experienced teachers, after all...

And just in passing... look out for our Fiction Writing courses, coming in the New Year - and coming to York! Details on the website soon as we can!

On Matters of Talk...

Our second workshop focusing on dialogue was a hit with all who came - and it was a sizeable group that squeezed itself into the upstairs room at @Judsons_ Pocklington. Script writing was on the menu and we looked at ways to use silence in talk - fascinating. Ever tried writing dialogue where your character doesn't actually speak? We did!

Try this for size: married couple, getting ready to go out for the evening. He's tying his tie; she's putting on make-up.

'Mother's had false teeth put in,' he says.
She shrugs; reaches for the mirror.
'I mean. To have them all out at once! You should see her without them IN, Sal. Her cheeks! Bags like empty sacking, they are.' He sighs. 'Age. What it does to you.'
She shrugs again, but applies a second, thicker layer of foundation.

Speaks volumes!

Dramatic Dialogue!

Another fantastic thoughttree workshop coming up... look out for us at @Judsons_ on November 10th 6.30pm - 8.30pm. We'll be delving into the sticky matter of writing decent dialogue - full details on our website www.thoughttree.co.uk but hurry - places are limited!

Happy Birthday to us!

Thoughttree is one year old! We're celebrating, as we've now delivered 12 of our writing workshops to take us through our first year. What larks we've had!

With thanks in particular to our hosts at #Cave Castle; York Writers at #Brigantes,York; #Judsons at Pocklington; #Drewtons Farm Shop; #Fudge at Hull.

Want us to come and workshop at your place? Get in touch and let us know!

Plenty more to come... but for now, it's a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY and may there be many more workshops!

With grateful thanks again - to Fudge, in Hull

We had a great morning in Hull's #Fudge - the second of our recent 'tightening tension' workshops - where we explored revelations - such as the moment the hound appears in Conan Doyle's famous Baskervilles tale, and the exquisitely handled moment of entrapment in Susan Hill's #The Man in the Picture. Workshoppers wrote some great atmospheric descriptive pieces in response to our 'Park in the Dark' writing task.

After coffee and cake (naturally!) we delved into issues with dialogue - how to say a lot without saying a lot - and chewed over an illuminating extract from John Williams' novel, Stoner.

Our group of writers enjoyed the experience - thanks once more to Fudge. And talking of chewing... gotta say: the cakes were just luvverly!