Theresa Breslin
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Writing routine
Theresa talks about a typical writing day. She tells us that she often leaves things incomplete at the end of a session to allow time for her subconscious to get to work and for her to think about developments. This may be particularly relevant to pupils when planning and writing over more than one session.
She also points out that time spent writing is not always directly linked to length; the depiction of a setting or a character may take a long time and produce relatively few words, whereas action scenes can sometimes be faster to write. Emphasis can be placed here on quality vs quantity, and on how focused pieces on characterisation may be short but well thought out and constructed.
Inspiration and research
Again, in describing how she copes with the blank page and generates ideas, Theresa echoes strategies used by pupils such as note-taking and sketching. Her inspiration often comes from everyday observations and experiences, and from listening to the language that young people use. Pupils may see from this that examples of dialogue or an overheard conversation can spark ideas for writing.
Dialogue that accurately reflects the characters she portrays is of great importance to Theresa, and she tells us that she often asks young people to read scenes from her manuscripts before they are published to ensure that the speech rings true. This may be a strategy that pupils wish to adopt: in realising that dialogue is meant to be read aloud, they can trial pieces with their peers and use formative feedback to improve.
When carrying out research for a new book, Theresa will visit places that appear in her stories. For example, when writing ‘ Divided City’ she went to a football match for the first time to enable her to use first-hand experience to capture the excitement and tension of a Premier League game. Pupils may write best about settings that they have recently experienced or that they experience on a regular basis. A visit to a place of relevance and interest may be a useful way of getting pupils to generate ideas and bring settings to life through their writing.
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Character is action
Here pupils can learn that even seasoned writers like Theresa recognise that creating characters that the reader will identify with or care about can be tricky. Theresa advises that we use the senses to reveal characters, and she suggests that young people can practise this by imagining being with someone they know well, and describing the experience using all their senses.
She explains that physical appearance is not the main factor in helping the reader to understand a character. We learn that action and dialogue reveal far more illuminating aspects of character than, for example, the clothes they are wearing. This will help young writers to see beyond appearance and to focus on what a character says and does.
The plot or action is closely linked to character in showing how the character reacts to a situation.
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Settings or environment can also speak volumes, and aid the writer in suggesting to rather than explicitly informing the reader what sort of character they have before them. Characters are often introduced to us at the start of stories, and placed in the midst of action.
Writers sometimes have to rearrange scenes they have written, and in 'Divided City' Theresa rearranged her opening scene to place one of the main characters straight in the thick of a harrowing event as opposed to starting with a description of the character. This is an example of ‘danger before description’ being used as a device to hook the reader.