World Book Day 2023
Yes, I know it’s been a month since World Book Day, but things have been bananas around here (see last blog post - new book, book, book!).
But this year for World Book Day, I had the absolute privilege to present for a selection of students at Hellesdon High School in Norwich, and it was such a great experience that I feel like I need to post about it, no matter how much time has passed.
School visits can be seen as a necessary evil for so many authors - they’re exciting, yes, but you never know what kind of interest you’re going to be met with on the students’ part, and so it can be nerve-wracking walking into a new setting.
I was tasked with putting on a presentation for the Year Seven and Year Eight students, plus a creative writing workshop for a selection of Year Nine students. In both instances, it was important to me to talk to about something I was passionate about, but that the students would also find interesting (for obvious reasons - nobody wants to put an entire room of kids to sleep). It also needed to be something applicable to me as a writer, as I’ve found both in my personal and professional life, if I’m not talking about something that makes me excited, I find it really hard to discuss it with any energy.
My solution? Let’s talk about magic. Obviously.
Okay, not just magic. One of the central principles of my writing is that I like to write about putting the extraordinary into the ordinary - i.e., magical realism. But something I find interesting is how authors - particularly magical realism ones - incorporate their own lives into the magical worlds they create.
So that’s what I did! I spoke about how many prominent authors use their own experiences and interests to create these fantastic worlds and how doing so can make these settings and characters more believable and relatable. In a perfect world, it speaking about this helps give a window into the creative processes of what can otherwise be seen as an intimidatingly huge task to people just starting out in their writing careers, hopefully making it look that little bit more achievable.
Most importantly about the day though - the students I presented to were amazing. So engaged, so thoughtful and respectful. They had great questions (some strange, but humorous ones) and were generally very sweet and welcoming. It was such a joy to meet them.
Next up came a workshop for a small group of Year Nines - again, I went full weird here, asking them to pick out a few specific details from their lives and use them to come up with a story premise. I was met with a little trepidation (totally understandable), and then even more when asking people to present, but we did have a few brave souls willing to share with the group.
And their story ideas were incredible! Oh my gosh, I was so impressed, and so grateful to them for playing along.
All in all, I was so pleased with my visit - not just that the presentations didn’t crash and burn (whew), but that the school was so invested in their English programmes and reading (they had a fabulous library) and that the students were so engaged and kind. A big thank you to Hellesdon High School for having me, and to the students for being so gracious. Visiting them was a truly lovely experience!
If you’d like to speak about booking a school visit with me, I’d love to hear from you! Please feel free to find out more on my events page, or get in touch via my contact form.