Out of the habit!

Blogs have been few and far between in the last month or so - I seem to have gotten very much out of the habit. It does appear that, when my creative energy is sapped by illness, busyness, or other creative projects, writing kinda takes the back seat.

Although, strangely, the writing is what's making things busy so that I'm not writing or blogging!

Let me explain...

This week, I am holding a creative writing day at a primary school. I'll be using a plan I've used before, so there's just the photocopying to do and we're away on that one.

The week after that, I begin a six-day creative writing session with a primary school in Leicester, working across all year groups. And these groups are big - up to 90 pupils in a single year! I've had my work cut out to plan three different sessions to account for the differences in ages, because what I'd use for year 1 and 2 to encourage storytelling is very different to how I'd approach it for Year 6. It's taken a fair bit of time...

Then, the day after I finish with this school, I'm off to Stamford for an author visit, meeting the book club who enjoyed StarMark so much, then talking to (and hopefully inspiring) the whole of Year 7 about being a writer. I've a short presentation to piece together and details about book prices, because the school are kindly letting me take copies in to sell on the day. (Hooray! I already have two boxes of copies of StarMark in the spare room, ready. And I have Granny Rainbow in the shed, too.)

Oh - and just last week, I was asked about encouraging some Year 11's from a local secondary school with their creative writing, as they're taking their GCSE's this summer and need a bit of help. No pressure there, then! It will be interesting to do this one, as although Squidgeling T is currently in Year 11, he very rarely asks for advice on his English so I don't have much of an idea of the kind of creative writing questions that crop up in the exams. I shall look forward to this one.

Looking at that list, I'll have some cracking blogs to write in the near future! I'll certainly let you know how I get on.

Ta-ta for now though - catch you later in the week.

A previous visit to Holywell School...