You can't be creative if you're not having fun, right?
Writing is a creative activity, like art and music, and you just can't do it if you're not enjoying yourself.
Children leave my writer's talks and workshops busting to go back to class to write. The activities I've put together teach everything from basic structures to sparkling touches - and all while the kids think they are just having a good time.
At my writer's talks children discover that I do just what they do. I find inspiration from the things around me - the stars at night, an interesting person I've met, our beautiful country and it's indigenous people, a roadhouse on the Nullarbor, even a little penguin that was washed up on the beach after a storm and once a jar of anchovy stuffed olives past their expiry date!
I show them that I plan my stories the same way they are taught to plan their own stories and when I'm drafting I cross things out just as much, (actually more because that's a good thing.) I tell them that I don't really care about my spelling when I'm drafting and I'm not very neat, (I've thrown away my rubber,) but there's one thing I might do a little differently - I never stop until I've got it just right.
All my talks have a small workshop element but if you want a full 90 minute workshop, (or two if you book me for a full day,) that's fine too! The workshop activities I've put together teach everything from basic structures to sparkling touches and I've come up with one writing task that I think is the best learning activity I've ever devised. It teaches everything I've learned in the last few decades in just twenty minutes!
Either way, whether you chose a writer's talk of the full workshop, students always leave busting to write.