Claire Fayers's Blog, page 3

Write Where You Are Episode 3

Welcome back to Write Where You Are. Today we’re dreaming up stories in the bedroom, with the help of P.G. Bell, author of the Train to Impossible Places.

I hope you’re enjoying the series. If you do any of the writing challenges, don’t forget you can send me the results and I’ll display them on my website. Contact me here.

Here is the downloadable challenge sheet for episode 3 with lots more ideas for stories.

Write Where You Are Challenge Sheet 3

Thanks once again to all the guest authors, Jackie Evans for artwork and Literature Wales for supporting this project.

See you tomorrow for episode 4!

 

Write Where You Are Episode 2

I learned a lot whilst filming this video series. Such as, it’s not easy delivering lines whilst lying in the bath. And it’s all very well to say ‘let’s film an episode in the bathroom’, but when your bathroom is barely big enough to turn around in, where do you put the camera? But we got there in the end, and at least we didn’t have any unexpected visits from the cats.

Yes, today we are looking for story ideas in the bathroom. There’s also a special guest visit from Sibéal Pounder, authors of the Witch Wars and Bad Mermaids series, who’ll be talking about the inspiration for her books and setting you a writing challenge.

Here is the downloadable challenge sheet for episode 2 with lots more ideas for stories.

Write Where You Are Challenge Sheet 2

If you do any of the challenges and you’d like to share your work, please do send it to me. You can find my email address on the contacts page.

Thanks once again to all the guest authors, Jackie Evans for artwork and Literature Wales for supporting this project.

 

 

 

 

Write Where You Are Episode 1

Why make a video series? It’s not the most obvious thing to do when you’re someone who dislikes having their photo taken. But when Covid-19 started and the country went into lockdown, like many others, I wanted to do something to help. So I made a few writing challenge videos, primarily for my Patron of Reading school, I put together story prompt postcards and creative writing activities. My ever-lovely husband found a video editing package and starting teaching himself to use it. Also, as festivals and awards ceremonies moved online, I found I was filming a lot of interviews and readings and I wondered if I could get better at it.

Then Literature Wales put out a call for authors to submit ideas for online projects and I immediately thought of something that could get people writing even if they were stuck indoors. I came up with Write Where You Are, a series of videos and activity sheets, finding story ideas around the house. I sent in a proposal to Literature Wales and was thrilled when I got funding.

Becoming ambitious, I commissioned artwork from Jackie Evans for the opening titles, and roped in some other authors to do guest slots in the videos.  With the help of my husband I learned the ropes on the video-editing and we all became very excited as the series took shape.

Here is episode 1. I’m on my own, today, in the kitchen, although there is a surprise guest appearance from another member of the household.

And here is the downloadable challenge sheet for episode 1 with lots more ideas for stories:

Write Where You Are Challenge Sheet 1

If you do any of the challenges and you’d like to share your work, please do send it to me. You can find my email address on the contacts page

 

 

 

 

Write Where You Are Trailer

Stuck at home? Running out of things to do? Coming June 8th – a 5 day series of creative writing challenges, finding story ideas around the house.

With thanks to Literature Wales for their support.

The Tir na n-Og and books in Wales

Want to know more about the Tir Na n-Og award? Of course you do!

The award was set up by the Welsh Books Council in 1976, for an English-language book with a Welsh setting.

Why is this important? Well, I read voraciously growing up, and I can’t remember reading a single book set in Wales. Unless you count the single Famous Five story where the gang are sent to Wales and stay on a farm with people who say ‘Look you’ at the end of each sentence (which, at the time, I was convinced must be a misprint because I’d never heard of the phrase.)

People like me didn’t have stories: that’s the lesson I learned. And that is why it’s so exciting to be on this shortlist. Not to mention that there have been some fantastic winners over the years. (The first person to win the award was Susan Cooper for The Grey King – part of The Dark is Rising series, which is one of my favourite fantasy series ever.)

Here’s this year’s shortlist. It is fearsomely good, full of dragons, rumours of dragons, and magic. If you haven’t read all these books yet, I recommend them.

The winner will be announced on the Radio Wales Arts Show, 6.30pm 3rd July.

In the meantime, here are some videos made by the lovely people at the Welsh Books Council, in which you can see all the shortlisted authors talking about their books and their inspiration.

https://www.amam.cymru/carudarllen

I’ll be talking more about growing up in Wales on the Pontypridd online book festival this Saturday, 30th May. It’s free to watch so do drop in if you can.

 

Competition Round-Up

Hello all! I hope you’re keeping well. It’s been an exciting time for competitions so I thought I’d post a round-up of what’s been happening.

The East Sussex Children’s Book Award has extended its voting time until 12th June and there are also writing and drawing challenges with prizes for you to win.  Please pop onto the website and vote for Storm Hound!

The James Reckitt, Hull Children’s Book Award has gone online, and while I’m sad that I won’t get the chance to visit Hull this year, I had fun making a Storm Hound video featuring a lot of my friends’ dogs. You can watch it here:

 

The Voyage to Magical North is now ‘as seen on TV’.  If you haven’t seen the Great British Menu on BBC, it’s well worth having a look. It’s a friendly contest between professional chefs, competing for the right to serve their dish in a special end of season banquet. This year the theme is children’s literature. You’ll see a lot of dishes based on Enid Blyton and Beatrix Potter, but if you watch the Wales heats and the fish final, you’ll see not one, but two dishes based on the adventures of the Onion. (The chef, Hywel Griffith decided to change the dish between the regional heats and the final). Also look out for a wonderful picnic starter based on the Welsh Children’s Laureate, Eloise Williams’s first book, Elen’s Island.

Here’s my book, captured on my agent’s TV
Recipes of a Gourmet Pirate
Monsters from Magical North

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all for now! But I’ll be back very soon to announce the launch of an exciting new video series. Watch this space!

 

Story Challenge 4 – The Middle of the Story

In today’s story challenge, I’m talking about how to plan your story from beginning to end, thinking of the story as a series of big ‘Oh no!’ moments.

Story Challenge Week 3 – Characters

Week three of my story challenge is all about characters, and here are some of my top tips for creating your own fictional characters.

Names

I get names from all over the place.

Real names
Names of stars, planets, trees, fruit etc
Street names, city names
Nonsense words, words spelled backward

Make a list of names and add to it when you come across any names that you like.

Personality

Inventing a character is a bit like meeting a person for the first time. Think of the questions you might ask someone.

How old are you?
Where do you live?
Do you have brothers and sisters?
What’s your favourite colour, what are your favourite hobbies?
What do you hate most in the world? (You might not ask someone this when you meet them, but it’s a useful question to ask your character.

Problem

Think of your favourite books and you’ll see that the main character almost always has a problem they’re trying to solve.

In my Accidental Pirates, Brine Seaborne is trying to find out who she is. In Mirror Magic, Ava and Howell need to find out what’s happening to the magic in the town of Unwyse. In Storm Hound, Storm has fallen out of the sky and needs to get home to the Wild Hunt.

Make a list of some of the problems your character could have. It could be something big or something quite small. The important thing is they care about solving the problem.

Here are some ideas.

Your character has lost something.
Your character has broken something.
Your character is a knight who has to kill a dragon.
Your character is a princess trapped in a tower.

Once you have created a character and a problem you’ve got the beginning of your story. Next week I’ll talk about writing the middle part of the story.

 

Ten Things I Love About Abergavenny

I should have been taking part in the Abergavenny Writing Festival today. Sadly, because of the coronavirus, it’s been cancelled, which is great shame. I love the area so much I decided to set Storm Hound there.

Instead, here are ten things I love about Abergavenny.

1. The mountains. The town in set on a flat area of land in the middle of the Black Mountains. Stand in the town and pretty much any way you look, you’ll be looking at a mountain. I have it on good authority that the Blorenge Mountain has three foothills, which if you squint a bit, look like the paw of a giant dog, or maybe a stormhound.

2. The market. The green market tower is another thing you can see from pretty much anywhere. Inside you’ll find a great selection of food and other bits and pieces.

3. The castle. I’ve always loved castles. Abergavenny Castle has a long history and last time I visited it had some amazing sculptures in the grounds.

 

 

 

 

4. The sheep. There’s something inherently amusing about sheep, I feel. The way they stand about staring at people as if they know something we don’t.

5. The shops. I’ve been lucky to have two book launches in Waterstones. I’m a little too fond of the Marches cheese shop and I tend to panic buy some over every cheese whenever I get the chance to visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. The food festival. There seems to be a food theme happening in this list, but the September Food Festival really is worth a visit.

7. The cafes. Yes, there really is a food theme going on now, but there are lots of little restaurants and cafes which are great to hide away with a laptop and do some writing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. The SCBWI group. The local branch of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators has been going for a few years. There’s a monthly meeting and sometimes I’ll make the trip up from Cardiff just to catch up with these lovely friendly people.

9. The people. I’ve visited quite a few of the primary schools for author visits, and I have some tremendous writer friends in the town. It really is a great, creative community.

10. The Abergavenny Writing Festival. Of course. Hope to see you next year!

Story Challenge Week 2 – Settings

In today’s video I’m talking about fictional settings and how stories can start right where you are.

Tips for describing settings:

Use all your senses – what can you see, hear, smell, taste, touch?
Imagine you’re an alien from another world and you’re seeing a human house for the first time. What would you notice? Do you know what all the strange human furniture is for?
You don’t have to describe everything – pick out two or three important details.
The same place can look very different at different times of day or with different weather. Try writing two descriptions and see how different you can make them.

For more story ideas, take a look under the extras section of this website.

Would you like a personalised e-postcard with a story challenge? Leave a comment here or email me with you child’s name and whether they’d prefer pirates, magic mirrors or animal stories.