On Thursday the 17^th of November, an author called Alexander Gordon Smith who wrote such books as ‘Escape From Furnace’ visited the school. During first period, he did a large assembly telling us hilarious stories, such as when his brother who is eleven locked him in a dungeon cell. My personal favourite is the story about when he used a shotgun to do some research for his book. He didn’t want to shoot anything living, so he shot a cowpat. Now if you don’t know what happens when you shoot a cowpat… well… the cowpat erupts. Now I’m not going to delve into too much detail, but let’s just say that after a while, someone in the story got covered in cowpat! He also told us about the fact that you don’t have to worry about being a terrible writer, everyone can write – just have a go.

During second and third period he did a workshop with a selected few (me being one of them) and got us to invent a character for a book. He asked us questions such as ‘what’s your characters favourite possession?’ and ‘how old are they?’ Afterwards he asked us to make the first paragraph (or first chapter in my case) of a book, but it had to have our character in it. Some people (if not all) were deadly serious and made crazy story plots such as ‘on a roller coaster two peoples heads collide and they turn into zombies’ and ‘china dolls take over the world’. Did I mention Alexander Gordon Smith was a horror writer?

We had a great time and were given a lot ideas on how to go about creating a great horror plot. Jordan, Year 8

Author Alexander Gordon Smith visited our school last Thursday and he told us about his job of writing books. He told us that he likes to get inside his character’s head and see what they see, to help him write. Some of his examples were crazier than others. For example, in one of his experiments, Gordon (as he liked to be called) and his little brother decided to make some rocket shoes. They had a friend who liked to shoot and they borrowed some of his gun powder for the shoes and they tested it on an action man. They were so glad that they didn’t experiment on each other, because when they got it back, they found it had lost his feet!
Later on in the day he carried out a workshop. It was about creative writing and we had to create a character. We had to think of their age, their favourite food and drink, where they lived, where they would want to die, what their parents are like, what they do secretly (like picking their nose!), the best and worst thing in their life, what their dream job would be, their most prized possessions and more.

We then had to write the first paragraph of the story we were thinking ideas up for and then we read them out. Most of our ideas were really good. Gordon then told us to ask the question ‘What if…?’, meaning that we had to think of something really crazy that could happen under different circumstances, or think, if I had carried on, what would have happened? Damien, Year 8

Alexander Gordon Smith was really funny and I really enjoyed creating a character using his helpful tips.  If I was to be an author, I would write horror stories following in the footsteps of Gordon. He was very down to earth. Ben, Year 8

The author visit was really good because I got to see a writer of really good spooky stories. Also just to add to the excitement, I got to take part in his workshop and learned how to write a proper story. We asked him questions about his job and how good it is to be an author. The rest of my group wrote stories as well and we all really enjoyed it. Max, Year 8

On Friday the 14^th, Damien and myself went to the Primary phase to help with a visit from our ‘Author in Residence’ Helen Moss. Helen is writer of the Adventure Island and Secret of the Tombs series, as well as other books.

The first the class we went to was White Doves, where the pupils told Helen about their favourite books such as The Gruffalo. Helen spoke to them about her mystery adventure books and their characters Emily, Scott, Jack and Drift the dog. Emily is the main mystery solver in the books. Afterwards they looked inside ‘Emily’s Investigation Kit’, which contained items that a 12 year old could use that would help in an investigation. Pupils took in turn to pick an item and try and guess how it could be used to solve a mystery. For example, Troy picked a notebook and thought it could be used to take notes. Then Phoenix selected plasticine which the class said was to make casts of peoples shoes. Zachery selected a wig and the student of the day got to wear it as a disguise.

Next it was the turn of Tawny Owls who also had the chance to explore Emily’s investigation Kit. Louisa picked out some shampoo. One or two thought it could be used to stop a villain by pouring it on their head so that it made them itch and so slow them down, but it was also thought that it could also be used to make them slip!

After break, Oystercatchers had a workshop with Helen based on her story “The Mystery of the Drowning Man’. First of all we discussed the ingredients of a good Mystery story e.g. danger, surprise, problems, gadgets, clues and most important observation & deduction. Then Helen read to us from her book. We played a game in teams where we had to use observation and deduction to identify an unconscious person from 13 unlucky people that had gone missing, by asking questions to which Helen could only give a yes or no answer.

The final workshop of the day was with Golden Eagles. They all had to pretend to be evil when thinking of story! They looked at the structures of stories and had to think of a character, setting, objective and problem which they wrote on a piece of paper and put into a salad mixer which mixed them altogether. They then made two stories by picking one of each of the components. The one which I preferred goes: “There was once a man called Jeffery who lived in Princess World and wanted to do magic, but he got trapped in a cave with a massive animated hamburger!

I really enjoyed meeting the author Helen Moss and working with lots of pupils from the Primary phase.

On Thursday 21^st April, author Helen Moss came to our school to do some creative writing workshops with us. She talked about how to build up a story from a single place. She read us a part of one of her books called “The Mystery of the Midnight Ghost”.  She explained that when she writes a story, she knows exactly here it is set. She goes to that place to research it first and brings back a souvenir, which she puts on her desk to give her inspiration for her books when she is writing.

By Simon 7B

Helen Moss was really friendly and warm to all the students and she helped everyone’s ideas blossom. She started the workshop off by talking about her mystery series called ‘Adventure Island’ and how she started getting the ideas. She explained how she likes to choose a setting with a good history like Egypt.

A technique she told us to use when writing stories is to close your eyes and imagine the setting – a setting where your character is searching and hiding, waiting for the culprit. The culprit of a mystery story is the person who committed the crime. The main characters of your story are doing the police work – trying to catch the culprit when they are not supposed to.

Helen Moss is a fantastic author who has great ideas. She says she got her inspiration for writing mystery stories from things like ‘Scooby Doo’ and ‘The Famous Five’. The workshop was a great experience and many people have learnt different techniques for their writing.

By Owen, 7W

The Helen Moss session was really enjoyable; it helped us to explore different ideas and aspects of creative writing, which will help us with future pieces of work. My favourite part was creating a character; Helen had some unique ways for making them. One included using personality traits of our pets! I enjoyed talking about creative literature and putting my own ideas across. Overall the session was educational, enjoyable and very funny at times.

By Abby, 9C

I really enjoyed the visit by Helen Moss. We had to create a main character for a book, as a class. We gave the character several strengths and weaknesses. This was good fun and really helpful for any creative writing I shall do in the future. Finally it came to the naming of the character – many people said it sounded like me, so we gave her the last name of Catchpole. This was a bit of a coincidence as it turns out that the name of one of the characters in Helen’s new book ‘Mystery and Mayhem” is called Catchpole. We couldn’t decide on a first name, it was between Grace and Elizabeth, so Helen came up with a theory. Our characters name is really Grace, but she doesn’t like it so she calls her self Elizabeth!

By Tom 9C

In our workshop we discussed what made a good or a bad character, and how to show what they’re like. The whole group participated in choosing the name, it was a very fun activity. Helen spoke about her writing and how she finds the perfect mystery to work out. I think coming away from the workshop, she inspired many people to start writing, or at the very least thinking about character points.”

By Ellie 9W