This week Year 6 attended Abi Elphinstone’s virtual author talk at the Hay Festival. During this talk, Abi spoke about her writing and the books she has published. Abi then tackled the following question: How on earth do you turn all the wonderful, imaginative ideas you have into an actual novel?
To help with this, Abi taught us how to use her method of the ‘Six Steps to Story Writing’.
And to collect these ideas … well, all you need is an eggbox!
If you want to have a go, here are the six steps we learnt:
The Portal
How do your characters get from our world into your magical world?
Fictional Land
What does your magical kingdom look like?
Transport
The quirkier the better! How do your characters move around in your land?
Magical Objects
What random magical objects might your character discover on their quest?
Invented Words
Taking inspiration from words in our every day and changing them by using humour or onomatopoeia!
Fantastic Beasts
Invent some magical beasts that will enter your world!
During the talk Year 6 took out their pens and papers and started to create their own steps, later turning these into some very creative maps! Take a look at some of the photos of the worlds they created…
Abi’s Top Tips if you want to become an author!
- Carry a notebook EVERYWHERE you go!
- Look up from your screens, there is a whole world out there for you to discover!
- Never be afraid to fail
