Talks on Writing

I also do Talks on Getting Started in Writing Commercially for 5th and 6th class primary school pupils.

My talks are designed to encourage and inspire those who are interested in developing their writing skills commercially. Think of me as a Young Writers’ Start-up Kit. I cover such topics as initial ideas, research, planning, the process of writing and editing, rewriting, layout and presentation right up to the finished product you send to an editor. I also discuss where to find markets for their work. I do this by giving the children a practical project to get them started writing commercially, which I walk them through step by step in my talk. My talks take about an hour or so, depending on the number of questions asked. Questions are encouraged and welcomed throughout.

During the talk I try to encourage the young people in my audience to actually start writing by showing them examples of other young people in or around their own age who have already had their work published and been paid for it. I hope to give them the courage to try and the determination to go out there and to do it for themselves, not just talk about it. I explain to them that they can’t sell what they haven’t written.

I also deal with the some of the pitfalls young writers may encounter, not just the age problem, as a lot of young people think they are too young to write commercially, but also with writers’ block and rejection. Here I talk about planning their work out first on a page of paper before starting to write. This way they have what could be loosely termed as a Writers’ Road Map to follow when they start writing. This acts as an aid against writer’s block. As regards rejection I tell them that hand in hand with going to school is homework and hand in hand with being a writer is rejection. I explain to them that this is the plain reality of both occupations and you just have to live with it and keep trying. I ask them what would they do when playing football if they were five goals down at half-time, walk off the pitch and quit or keep trying until the full-time whistle blows.

Most importantly, I show them how to plan out their work and encourage them to try and to keep trying. I tell them about other young people who had to start somewhere to achieve their dreams way back then like J.K. Rowlings, The Beatles, our own Dublin boys U2 and of course Jedward.

I also show the children the first cheque I ever received for writing. It was dated December 19th 1983. That was the first time I ever felt like a real writer as I had just been paid for my work.

I tell my listeners that I make my living out of using my imagination. With my imagination I make children laugh, either by my spoken word or my written word. I explain how good this makes me feel, to see the little eyes laughing up at me during my stories, or to have somebody tell me how much they liked one of my books.

I invite the children who are interested in writing to come on a trip with me in their imagination and I show them during the course of my talk how to make up and build their own stories and books.

 

I tell them how wonderful it is to walk into a bookshop and see your book or books on the shelf and to have somebody buy one and ask you to sign it for them. Or how nice it is to be in a magazine shop and see magazines or newspapers carrying articles you wrote.

I try to answer their questions as they arise throughout the course of the talk. Questions are welcomed and encouraged. Finally I explain that if you try you actually risk succeeding, but if you don’t try you risk nothing.

I don’t get the children to write anything for me either before or during my talk, as to do so would be to imply that I was going to read it and offer an opinion on their work. Apart from the time constraints of reading a lot of young peoples writings, which would seriously detract form the actual time available to talk to them, it would still only be my opinion on the suitability and content of their work. I explain to the children that when J.K. Rowling was starting out that her first book The Philosopher’s Stone was rejected by the editors of two different publishing houses. In their opinion her book was not good enough to publish. The opinion of the editor in Bloomsbury publishing was somewhat different. The rest is history. Even experienced salaried professionals can get it wrong.

The moral of the story is I cannot tell the children what to write. It has to be something they feel they want to say. I show them the practical mechanics of how to do so and what to do with their work once it is written.

Special Note: A follow up visit can be arranged later if required by the school. This may occur four to six weeks after the initial Talk on Writing. Here the children who are interested in writing, not all are, and have produced a body of work could have their questions and practical concerns addressed in light of their experience in producing their work. This session would be driven by the children to address any difficulties encountered by them in their writings. It would not be a critique of their work by me or a reading out loud by them to their peers. Words are weapons and they can wound sometimes and young people starting out on a writing career do not need to have their youthful enthusiasm undermined by spiteful or careless comments.

Whereas the initial Talk on Writing was an informational and thought provoking session, this session is a confidence building session for the children in their own skills.

Contact details for Talks on Writing;

See CONTACT ME hyperlink.
Email: liamfarrellstoryteller@gmail.com
Poetry Ireland Website: www.poetryireland.ie/education/wis database/liamfarrell