The first creative writing workshops I ever conducted took
place at Mindess Elementary School in Ashland, Massachusetts. The students were
my guinea pigs. The workshop, now called “Let’s Make a Story,” begins with a
brainstorming exercise where we fill a large bubble with oodles of words. Next, we each pick three at random and combine them into a situation. From that situation we
choose a main character, secondaries, a setting, an antagonist, and so on,
until a pretty detailed story plan is complete and ready to be written.
I’ve done this presentation hundreds of times since. Each
time, the recipe is the same, and each time, the magic is new and the idea
fresh.
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| art by Liz Starin |
On a subsequent workshop visit to Mindess on March 15, 2012, the three words I
selected from the board were “emperor,” “ostrich,” and “ghoul.” To prove to the kids about silly they had permission to be, I decided the main
character of this concoction would be a dairy maid named Begonia, who was
searching for her lost cow. Why not? I was so tickled by the idea that I came
home and wrote a story beginning. Other deadlines, however, claimed priority,
and so the idea floated in my Dropbox cloud for years.
Until now. On June 13, 2017, Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan Children’s Books will
release The Emperor’s Ostrich, my
next middle grade title novel. To celebrate, I’ve produced a book trailer. Children’s illustrator Liz Starin provided the artwork, which I love. Making
these trailers is just too much fun, and I will devote a subsequent post to talking
about the process of making it, and the amazing talents that made it shine, but
for now, voilà:
out to schoolkids, because it gives me an opportunity to say, “See? This
workshop stuff we’re doing isn’t just pretend writing. It’s the real deal. This
is where ideas come from. It worked for me. Why not you?”
the mellifluous, the one-and-only Jayne Entwistle. I love her. Listen to an excerpt here!
events as they unfold. Some of these will be in the early fall, to coincide
with back-to-school.
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| Liz Starin’s self-portrait |
his ostrich, and the rest of this motley crew around the countryside of the empire of Camellion, and so glad that that workshop on the Ides of March, 2012, led to such fertile territory. If you’d like me to lead this workshop for yourschool, library, or book club, just give a squawk! It might just point me toward
my next big idea.
The Emperor’s Ostrich releases June 13, 2017. Find a copy at your local Indie Bookstore | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | Powell’s | Amazon.