Today I’m talking to a couple of school groups at Lord Asquith School in Asquith. Right now, I’m with the Grade 8s, 9s and 11s. We’re going to – as a group – come up with a couple of suggestions for things that got them writing:

Think about an event you were at and write about it

Something someone said to you….what does it make you think of

Think of different emotions – how you feel happy, something that makes you mad, something that made you cry

Things you’ve heard in the news – like the Haiti earthquake, the Olympics – you could imagine you were there and write about it

Write a poem about Remembrance Day…

Get writing.

Often when I’m writing, I try and find words that are clear and that express what I’m trying to say elegantly.  I don’t always succeed and sometimes, years later, I realise there was a better word, I just didn’t think of it at the right time.  Does that happen to you?  You think of the right word or the right thing to say, but it’s way too late to say it?

I want you to imagine you’re in the middle of an argument with someone important to you.  Write down all the things you say, and all the things the other person says.  Use lines of dialogue with very little description or action around them – think of this more like a play than a story.  Then go through the dialogue you’ve written and take three of the things YOU’VE SAID.  Can you change them?  Can you make those words even better?  Can you reword it so you say what you want to say?  This is the moment to take the opportunity to SAY IT RIGHT!

They say all writing is rewriting.  I’ve been thinking about that recently and so this exercise seemed like a good one for today.  Get rewriting.  Say it how you wish you could.

Is there someone who you are secretly in love with?  Someone who you could never tell about your feelings?  Someone who you think about even though you know nothing will or nothing could ever happen between you?

Write a letter to that person.  Write everything that you’ll never say.  Don’t hold back  a word.

Because you’re never going to give this letter to the person you love.

And then put that letter in a file on your computer called FOR MY EYES ONLY.

That’s what you have to do every time you write – write as if no-one’s ever going to read it.  Be honest and true.  Sometimes the pieces you write will go into FOR MY EYES ONLY.  And sometimes they’ll go out into the world to be read.  You’ll feel vulnerable and exposed.  It’s always going to feel like that as a writer.  And that’s okay.

Happy Valentine’s Day.