Writing Outside the Story

By Rosemary Bird-Hawkins

In this feature I’m going to explore the idea of writing outside the story. This is not the same as going off on a tangent, or writing something to be edited that will have its place in the book, rather it is a way of discovering more about your characters and the world you are creating, a way to discover back story and motive. 


In an interview for The Paris Review, Ernest Hemingway once said, ‘I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the part that doesn’t show. If a writer omits something because he does not know it then there is a hole in the story.’ 

I would suggest that knowing your world makes it substantial, gives confidence to your writing which seeps through to your reader. No matter whether you’re writing a fantasy, historical, or contemporary story, the worlds in which your characters live must be convincing – they must function under the rules that you have created (fantasy) or that used to exist (historical), or that exist now (contemporary) – and there must be a sense of wholeness embedded in your writing (that hidden part of the iceberg). 


So, how do you get to know your world, how do you write icebergs? 

1. Get to know your world: 

If you’re creating a whole new world you need to understand the rules that it exists by. Why does it have three moons? Why can people fly? What are the consequences of these rules? This information may not be necessary to the plot, or even fully explained in the story, but because you know the reasons they’ll be there behind the words, it will show in the way everything fits together and make sense. 

If you’re writing a historical piece you’ll need to do some research to understand the world of the past and how to recreate it. Investigate all the small details such as what did people eat? Where and how did they buy their food? What was the popular entertainment at the time? How and when did people get their news? These details will build up the world for you to know inside out. 

The same is true for real-life contemporary writing: learn what you’re writing about, discover the nuances. Google and YouTube are great aids for this; with a little perseverance and a decent internet connection you can get in touch with people who can feed your knowledge. 

2. Less is more: 

Once you know everything it’s tempting to drop it into your story like a boulder and leave it there as a monument to the depth of your world. Be wary of this, one or two carefully placed words often work better than a whole paragraph of description or explanation. Read the opening lines of George Orwell’s 1984 and see how perfectly he sets a tone of otherness and gives us enough information to understand something of the world we are about to enter. 

3. More is also more:

Knowing and seeing things clearly in your own head sometimes means that you forget that others need to be led where you want them to go. They cannot see what you see, you have to show them. It really helps to get a fresh mind to read your work and ensure that you’re using enough touches of description and world building to allow what you know to translate onto the page. 

4. How speaketh thou? 

Be wary of colloquial dialogue and using slang words. Colloquial dialogue is hard to get right and can become a barrier between your reader and your character if not done convincingly. Slang grows old incredibly quickly and can really make a story feel out of touch. Using one or two words consistently can be all you need. It’s a ‘balancing act between keeping the story and the characters accessible, while leaving the language with just enough special vocabulary or dialogue to remind us that we’re in another time [or place].’**

5. Get to know your characters: 

Write short scenes or vignettes of all your characters’ childhoods, or most informative years – even minor characters – fix in your head the events that shaped their lives, and so their motives. Write it from their point of view, you could even try first person, and your background characters will become more than just a useful way to move the plot on or reveal information. If a character isn’t fully formed enough to have a back story or a scene from their past, do they really have a role to play? 

6. Drawing out inspiration: 

Try drawing your characters and pinning them up where you work. You could draw a picture of them at the start of the novel and another of how they’ll look by the end. What changes have they been through? How does this manifest itself physically? I ‘google’ images (normally manga images because I like that style) and then use that as a basis to help me draw mine. 

7. Character collages: 

You could also cut out pictures from magazines or catalogues (obscure magazines are good because you get a range of different people). Create a character collage to represent different aspects of the character – their hobbies and interests, their loves and hates, what drives them. 

8. Character questionnaire: 

Create a questionnaire and fill it out as your character. Include abstract questions that you may not have thought about such as what sort of music does your character like/dislike? What’s their favourite food? What is their most treasured possession? The answers may be more revealing than you think. 







All of these exercises are obviously time consuming, but they’re also fun and a unique way of getting to know your story. I would suggest that it’s best to play around with these ideas if you’re feeling low on motivation or stuck on how to move the story forward. I think nothing makes writing stronger than the confidence of really knowing and understanding your world and your characters. An example character questionnaire can be downloaded from my blog

**Paver, Michelle Writing historical novels for children from Children’s Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook 2009 (A&C Black Publishers Ltd: 2008) p.129

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Rosemary Bird-Hawkins has an MA in Writing for Children from Winchester University and has been running creative workshops for children for ten years. She has worked for various publishers as well as freelancing as an editor. She currently lives in Dorset with her husband, cat, two rabbits and a house full of books and instruments. Rosie writes fantasy and dystopian fiction for children and hopes one day to be published. Until then she continues to seek out more stories, while encouraging others to explore their writing abilities. For further resources and information about running writing workshops, you can visit her blog.

Writing is Re-writing

By Rosemary Bird-Hawkins

Why re-write?

I often tell my creative writing students that the secret to writing is re-writing. It’s a phrase that I’m sure you’re all familiar with; that writing groups, courses, agents and publishers would agree is important.


Group workshopping is probably the way that most writers receive feedback on their work. You share your work with others and then discuss what is and isn’t working; it’s a good exercise for spotting superfluous description, smoothing out inconsistencies and honing your writing techniques and skills, but it tends to encourage in-depth analysis of pieces of writing – a lone scene, or stand-alone chapter perhaps – which can lead to a disconnect between writing and writing to tell a story. To structure and sustain narrative it’s important to step back and consider what the piece is trying to do, and whether it’s doing it.

Consider what your piece is trying to do, and whether it is doing it.

 
For me, re-writing is when you look at your first draft as a whole, follow the story arc and assess if the story is coherent, well-paced and focused. Stephen King explains that ‘when you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story... when you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.’

When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story. ~ Stephen King

Everyone’s doing it…

The best writers re-write. Roald Dahl’s stories zip along breathlessly, each character vibrant and full of life, each sentence moving us forward. It seems effortless, but of course it wasn’t. Dahl had to rewrite too. Re-write and then re-write some more. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Great Missenden has archives of his work and perhaps the most interesting of his re-writes is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (or Charlie's Chocolate Boy as it was originally called). Dahl went through five drafts spanning four years. In the first drafts there were ten golden tickets to be won and so ten children to dispatch in various ways. The original ending had Charlie being made into a chocolate boy, being placed in a rich house, the chocolate being slowly eaten off him and then Charlie witnessing a burglary.

JK Rowling’s website chronicles the amount of re-writing that she undertook for the Philosopher’s Stone. Originally the book started with the Granger family and Hermione’s father rowing out to a small island after an explosion takes place and discovering Harry amongst the wreckage. Rowling comments ‘I can't remember now why I thought this was a good idea, but I clearly recognised that it wasn't fairly early on, because the Potters were re-located to Godric's Hollow for all subsequent drafts.’

It’s fascinating to know how much background work Rowling undertook, especially for her minor characters. Speaking about Dean Thomas’ character she says ‘I had a lot of background on Dean, though I never found the right place to use it. His story was included in an early draft of 'Chamber of Secrets' but then cut by me, because it felt like an unnecessary digression.’

It’s important to write instinctively and to follow your characters, but at some point you have to take control, and ensure sure it’s going somewhere interesting and meaningful, otherwise it doesn’t matter how beautiful or evocative your writing is, you will take your readers nowhere.

It's important to follow your characters, but at some point you have to take control.

Who’s afraid of the Second Draft?

The first rule of re-writing is not to do it straight away. Once you’ve finished the first draft put it aside and do something completely different. Leave it for as long as you can and allow your mind to forget it. Then you can re-read and start to re-write.

Methods to help a rewriter:

• Create a timeline of your story – start before your story begins and end after your ending. Include all your characters to see where they fit into the story. This will help you follow the story arc and understand the story history.

• Get to know your characters – answering questions as your character which range from the basic (age, appearance) to the more unusual (favourite music, strongest memory) can allow you to find out whether they are fully rounded. If they’re not, should they be there?

• Break down your book into its chapters and chart the flow of action throughout it. Note at which points the tension slackens, or the story begins to meander.

• Distil your story into one sentence – (e.g. boy wizard fights for freedom, family, trying to survive and stay together during a time of war). Keep this sentence in your head as you read and re-write; it is the essence of your story.

• As you re-read make a note of any questions that arise and highlight the text where you think of them. Are these questions meant to be being asked or do they indicate gaps/inconsistencies/confusion in plot or character? Are all questions answered by the end?

• Do all your characters have a part to play? Imagine your characters in a hot air balloon; the balloon is losing height, it’s going to crash and the only way to avert disaster is to throw out unnecessary weight. All the sand bags have gone overboard. Make an argument as to why each character is necessary for the story to work. The one with the weakest argument is thrown out.

Free yourself

The decision to write on a fresh page rather than working on what you already have can be daunting, but also liberating – you are freeing yourself from the weight of all those words. Refocusing on the story and the characters will make the next draft stronger.

I’m starting a fourth draft of my novel StorySeeker and at times I worry that I am writing in circles. But I only have to take a look over the work that I’ve done to see how much I have learnt and how much I continue to learn by rewriting. I’m learning about the craft of writing, about my own motivations and processes and I’m learning to make every sentence and every character count.

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Rosemary Bird-Hawkins has an MA in Writing for Children from Winchester University and has been running creative workshops for children for ten years. She has worked for various publishers as well as freelancing as an editor. She currently lives in Dorset with her husband, cat, two rabbits and a house full of books and instruments. Rosie writes fantasy and dystopian fiction for children and hopes one day to be published. Until then she continues to seek out more stories, while encouraging others to explore their writing abilities. For further resources and information about running writing workshops, you can visit her blog.

Undiscovered Stories

by Rosemary Bird-Hawkins

Humans are a story telling species. We fill our lives with stories and it is perhaps the writer’s gift to be able to discover where they are hidden and let them out to the light. As writers our memories may be the most important tool at our disposal. Not memories of times or places, not memories of fact, but memories of feelings, of senses, of atmosphere; whatever can help release these sensations can be invaluable to starting stories.

Discovered Stories

 'Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.'

Roald Dahl

Writers are often asked where their inspiration comes from and it’s hard to answer because who really knows? Ideas can be triggered by one obvious thing, or they build over time drip fed by the stimuli and distractions of the world we live in and the lives we lead.

Philip Pullman’s dæmons were inspired by paintings: Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine; Holbein’s A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling; and Tiepolo’s A Young Woman with a Macaw. His trilogy is not about any of those paintings, but they triggered something in him, they found a way to permeate into his imagination and then morph into an idea that wove into a story.



Numerous children’s stories spiral out from a central image, a creative touchstone that leads readers into the story world. An adventure begins in the back of a wardrobe, or a painting hanging on a wall; wish on a fifty pence piece and your wishes come true, turn a key in a cupboard and bring a plastic Indian to life. Defeat a hungry god with a leaf symbolising all the ‘days that could have been’. Draw characters out of their books and into your world. Your inspiration pieces might well become the focus of your story, or a motif for a character.

There are stories all around us...

We just have to look. Stories can be sparked from the simplest of things; a painting, a stone, a toy left behind...

Lady in the Shallows by Phil Bird

A lady steps across the shallows of a sea. She is outlandish, extraordinary. She holds her hands to her face. Is she crying? Who is she? Where is she going? What has happened to her?

A broken necklace is found on a mountain path. Its beads are black as night and silver as dawn. The clasp is broken as though it has been pulled apart, wrenched from someone’s neck. What is its story? Why does it lie there? Was it broken off in anger, in grief, was it stolen, or torn off to be left as a clue? Who wore it? Where are they now? Do they know it is missing?


Could the two connect? Is there a story here?

Story Starters

In my last feature, I told you a little about the creative writing courses that I run for children. I mentioned the need for collecting ideas and inspiration and I think these are a great way for any writer to re-energise their writing and discover new stories.

Postcards

I have a stash of postcards that I keep around me because they offer so many possible stories; I couldn’t write them all, but I love the idea that they are there, waiting to be told. Try it yourself:

• Collect together any interesting cards, pictures, posters and lay them all out.
• Take a few moments to look at them and then pick up one that you feel most drawn to.
• Place the card in the middle of blank sheet of paper and write down all the words/phrases which the postcard makes you think about, these could be factual or abstract.
• Think of the image on the postcard as a moment in a story, a snapshot of a scene. Begin to write, describing the scene by trying to convey some of those elements that call out to you.
• Now write what happens next, OR what had happened just before it.

Story objects

Lay out interesting objects (fans, boxes, jewellery, random odds and ends that you’ve stockpiled over the years).

• Take a few moments to pick things up, try things on, smell things, listen.
• Choose the object that you are most drawn to.
• Find somewhere to write and, as before, write down key words/phrases that drew you to the object, and then write a description of the object trying to get this sense across.
• Now answer the following questions:

                What is the object, or what could it be?
                Someone else used to own it – who?
                Why don’t they have it anymore?
                Where has it come from?
                Why would it be important in a story?

• Write a scene which has your item being used in it.

The ideas which are conjured up can often be surprising!

Virtual inspiration

There’s no need to limit yourself to the physical. Sites such as Pinterest are a great way to browse for inspiration and create your own virtual pin board full of potential story starters. Images, ideas, photos, quotes, art, can all be shared; rippling out through an online collection of creative influence. See what connections you can make and what stories you could tell.

So to leave you with some prompts, take a look at the images throughout this feature, and choose which item you are most drawn to. See if you can discover a story lurking within it.

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Rosemary Bird-Hawkins has an MA in Writing for Children from Winchester University and has been running creative workshops for children for ten years. She has worked for various publishers as well as freelancing as an editor. Rosie writes fantasy and dystopian fiction for children and hopes one day to be published. Until then she continues to seek out more stories, while encouraging others to explore their writing abilities. For more information on story prompts or her children's workshops, you can visit her blog.

Making a Living from Writing: Workshops

 Making money from writing isn’t just a case of getting published. You need to get creative and put your skills to a variety of uses. Running writing workshops for children is one way to supplement your income. 

Rosemary Bird-Hawkins tells us about her workshops and offers some very practical tips for anyone thinking of doing their own.

Over to Rosemary...

I’ve been running creative writing courses for over ten years. I have tutored weekend workshops for able and talented children, run sessions in schools, art galleries, youth centres, libraries, museums, festivals, and for Brownies and Rainbows. I’ve worked with groups of only four children to groups of one hundred and sixty. I am not a teacher -  I am a guide, a tutor, a mentor. I work primarily with children aged seven to eleven, but have also run sessions for older children and adults based on the same principles.

What are writing workshops for children?

Writing workshops give children the opportunity to experiment with, and explore, writing under the guidance and support of an experienced wordsmith.

Content and structure of a workshop depends on the ability and number of children involved. In a classroom you’ll face a wide range of abilities and your main aim will be to enthuse and inspire. For groups of able children already engaged with writing it’s about guiding them through the process – encouraging them to refine, edit, experiment and discuss their work.

I APPLY FOUR CORE ELEMENTS TO ANY WORKSHOP I RUN:

• Inspire
introduce a ‘focus/theme’ (slideshow, sounds, storytelling, group poems, reading aloud).

• Stimulate
writing exercises, discussion, feedback, guided tasks/outings.

• Motivate
putting the writing into practice, seeing words/language visually and turning into something solid and tactile.

• Resolution
plotting, refining, reworking, and sharing.

RESIDENTIAL WEEKENDS

Outdoor education centres often host weekend courses for children identified as ‘very able and talented’.

Residential courses are my most stable and consistent form of workshop income. I use craft, art, dressing up and field trips because I believe these activities encourage free-thinking and allow brains to engage on one thing while ticking along thinking about something else.

One of my most popular courses is For the Love of Books; children create their own books by making paper, stitching pages, marbling end papers, and then filling them with ideas and stories. The book they make is integral to their ideas inside it. The design of the cover, their choices of colour, illustrations, all reflect back on the writing. Nothing is done without a reason – it’s starting with nothing and making something using words as a beginning.

GOING INTO SCHOOLS

Teachers are often keen to invite local authors and writers into schools to run writing sessions with classes, host assemblies, or set up a project.

The best way to capture the attention of a class is to be confident from the beginning and start unexpectedly. Dressing up is always a winner – especially if you bring in items for the children to dress up too.


FOR A SHORT, SHARP SESSION IN A SCHOOL 

• Storytelling of a dramatic moment from your story to engage attention.

• Hold attention by getting active– group poems, stories, and performance.

• Focus on the main task by discussing extracts, setting writing exercises.

• Guide them into beginnings – give struggling children a story prompt (e.g. postcard, character questionnaire etc).

• Talk with as many pupils as you can – read their work, ask them about what they’ve written, where it’s going.

• Encourage everyone to share their writing by reading aloud to each other.

ART GALLERIES, MUSEUMS, FESTIVALS, YOUTH CENTRES

Sessions can be half hourly/hourly sessions, drop in ‘rolling’ sessions, or half day/full day sessions. The emphasis is less on sustained writing and more on having fun and playing with writing.


ROLLING SESSIONS 
For rolling sessions you want a simple but engaging idea that can either be done in ten minutes, or, if you have a very keen child, can develop into something more, for example:

• Making bookmarks and decorating with onomatopoeic words/alliterated sentences.

• Making basic books (folded A4 card stapled to folded paper) – children draw on it, paint it, sticker it and start writing in it.

• Flags and wings of words made out of card/fabric and using collage to decorate with words/poems etc.

What’s the pay like?

Many venues such as art galleries and festivals will have a fee in mind – make sure you know how little you’re willing to work for! In my experience residential courses pay £400 - £600 per weekend, schools £120 - £150 for half a day and up to £300 for a full day (dependent on number of children involved). As a general rule of thumb, charging around £40 an hour is about usual – but be prepared to negotiate and check out what other local creatives are charging for their time.

What are the benefits?

• Meeting your audience and talking to them about stories and writing.
• Involving yourself in the writing exercises to not only inspire children with your writing, but also receive direct feedback from them.
• A good workshop will leave you buzzing with ideas.

Anything to be particularly aware of?

• Preparation always takes longer than you think. Try out potential activities beforehand. You don’t want to set 30 children off on an activity and then discover it’s not going to work.
• Always over-plan and be flexible. Have back-up ideas in case something isn’t working.
• Residential and art gallery workshops rely on numbers to run – if you don’t get bookings, you’ll get cancelled.
• You’ll need Public Liability Insurance to cover you for workshops in art galleries, libraries, festivals etc.
• As great fun as it is, don’t underestimate how much energy it will require! Running writing workshops is a rewarding way to earn money as a writer. Each new project will feed you with ideas; you’ll find yourself earning not just a financial income, but a creative one too.

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Rosemary Bird-Hawkins has an MA in Writing for Children from Winchester University and has been running creative workshops for children for ten years. She has worked for various publishers as well as freelancing as an editor. She currently lives in Dorset with her husband, cat, two rabbits and a house full of books and instruments. Rosie writes fantasy and dystopian fiction for children and hopes one day to be published. Until then she continues to seek out more stories, while encouraging others to explore their writing abilities. For further resources and information about running writing workshops, you can visit her blog.