TP-Issue14.5

1 K E E P P R AC T I S I N G "I managed to get a job doing illustration, but in the background I was always practising my writing, trying to make it better. I sent story after story to publishers and they kept turning them down. Looking back at it now, they weren’t very good, but every time I was getting better as I listened to their advice." 2 L I S T E N TO A D V I C E "It can be quite hard when a teacher tells you that something isn’t working. It’s the same as when an editor tells me my story isn't working.When you’ve put your heart and soul into something that can be quite a shock, but it usually leads to a good place if you actually take away the advice and the positives." 3 O N E S I M P L E I D E A "You may end up with stories that are hundreds of pages long and full of characters, but most stories come from one small idea. It all grows from there." 4 S H O W , D O N ’ T T E L L "There’s nothing more boring than writing,‘This happened then this happened then this happened.’Try to be really expressive and show how a character is feeling without telling the readers. Readers will understand what you are trying to say if you are accurately showing how a character feels." L I S T E N TO S A M ’ S A N S W E RS I N F U L L B Y D O W N L O A D I N G T H E P O D CAS T www.teachwire.net | 27 RESOURCES R O B I N S T E V E N S , author of murder mystery series Murder Most Unladylike, focused on planning, editing and redrafting. Use our teaching sequence to help children plan a great plot for their own murder mystery, including picking a setting, devising a detective, planting suspects and solving the crime at the end. Visit plazoom.com/robinpodcast S A M C O P E L A N D , author of Charlie Morphs into a Mammoth, spoke about creating believable three-dimensional characters. Download our teaching sequence and give pupils the chance to create a hero, a villain and plan their own story, while learning to ‘show, not tell’ what a character is like. Visit plazoom.com/sampodcast How to download the resources To accompany the podcast, teaching experts at Plazoom have created free resources that you can use to develop your pupils’ writing. The teaching pack includes lesson plans, a Powerpoint, teacher notes and activity sheets. In this teaching sequence, children will have the chance to create a new fantasy world and then write a story set there. DOWNLOAD THEM AT PLAZOOM.COM/ SAMPODCAST Puffin Schools is curated by the children's publisher Puffin. You'll find video resources, book lists and ideas to bring stories to life at puffinschools.co.uk Author photo © Charlotte Knee CATCH UP ON PREVIOUS EPISODES FOUR THINGS KIDS WILL LEARN FROM THE PODCAST