Candy: How to Scare 12 Year Olds - A Writer's Guide

Last week, we took the amazing Cathy MacPhail on The Scottish Friendly Children's Book Tour and we went to Exeter with the help of Cyprus Well. This Friday, Candy from Scottish Book Trust stops by the blog to talk about being on tour with Cathy.

It’s not every day you’re asked to torture your fellow classmates with creepiest, scariest and most horrible things that could happen to them in a 13^th floor lift, but that is exactly what children across the county were asked – and me along with them- to do every day we spent touring with Cathy MacPhail and Cyprus Well in Exeter and Devon last week.

Talking to her impressively captivated audiences each day, Cathy had pupils deciding whether or not they would rescue a teacher and what terrifying experiences they could inflict on each other in enclosed spaces, in a series of exercises designed to show children how easy creative writing, and thinking, can be.

It was a lesson to us all (by which I mean every teacher and other adult in the room) that children are exceedingly surprising, innovative, and somewhat bloodthirsty, in their pursuit of creative expression.  The key is to give them a starting point, and let them run with it.

In this example: You’re in a lift alone, and you see your reflection in the stainless steel walls. Suddenly the doors lock and the lights begin to flicker. What are the five creepiest things that could happen next?

Each school we visited showcased a huge number of (slightly overexcited) forms of entrapment or demise, among them some real chillers:

• A faceless reflection in a suddenly plummeting lift
• Ghostly shadows playing out your own life and death as a film on the wall
• A bloodied knife that keeps re-appearing in different positions and places
• Your own mirror image presenting a dripping severed head, yours, on a plate to you. *

In every case the children grew more confident and articulate as they were given the freedom to brainstorm and express their ideas – my favourite moment was when a boy who has been singled out to me by the other adults as a ‘disruptive influence’ stuck his hand up and had a go.  His enrapt attention and personal pride in coming up with his own story was a fitting example of Cathy’s wrap-up statement that “Your brain is like Google. All you have to do is ask it a question and then let it come up with some answers.”

Time and time again she showed the children that creativity and thinking are as natural as breathing. It followed comfortably for them, then, after having listened to several tantalizing extracts from her books, that reading and writing was a fun way to begin practicing. 

All this had the sum total of convincing me of three things:

1. Creativity is a skill that can be learned.

2. Reading and writing help develop it.

3. 12 year old children should not be gotten on the wrong side of.

And with that, I’m off to brainstorm ways to format some new web pages, using my own Google of a brain.

*Disclaimer: Cathy specified that no severed heads may drop from the ceiling, but had said nothing about one being presented on a plate.

Watch Cathy reading from Another Me below.

To find out more about Cathy, please visit her website.

You can also follow Cathy on Facebook and Twitter.

You can now read Cathy's blog that she wrote for Scottish Book Trust's website too.

You can follow Cyprus Well on Facebook and Twitter as well as visiting their website to keep up-to-date with them.

Early Years Residency: Alison Murray, Glasgow-based author and illustrator, is Scottish Book Trust's first Early Years Writer in Residence.
Over the next nine months, Alison will work with a Home-Start group in Renfrewshire, in an area of socio-economic deprivation, to support parents’ reading and writing skills and embed a love of book sharing with young children within the community.
Read all about the residency in Alison's blog.

Other news:

Congratulations goes to Linda Strachan for winning the 2010 Catalyst Award with Spider. You can find out more about the award and see everyone on the shortlist by visiting the awards website.

You can find out more about Linda Strachan by visiting her website too.

The Scottish Storytelling Centre has a range of fantastic events for the next coming month. There really is something for everyone this month, so please do have a look at the website and enjoy what's on offer.

Don't forget that today is the last day to register for the Young Writers Conference in Edinburgh on the 13th of November 2010. Don't panic if you've yet to send in your application as you can call us on 0131 524 0160today to let us know that you're coming along. If you have any questions, please do call!

We are very happy to say that there are a number of authors who we have taken on tour and done events with over the past year who are on the Galaxy National Book Awards shortlist. Julia Donaldson, Patrick Ness and Michael Morpurgo are just a few names on the the WH Smith Children's Book of the Year category. Well done to everyone!

Since it's Halloween this weekend, we have a spooky competition for you take part in. You can win a signed book from Tommy Donbavand's Scream Street series by answering the following question.

Who is the writer of the Scream Street series?

To enter, just send your answer, along with your name and address, to teen@scottishbooktrust.com with the subject line "Scream Street Competition". We have 8 copies to giveaway and the competition closes on Monday the 1st of November 2010 at 5pm.  

This competiton is now closed but please do keep an eye out for other weekend competitions and our book of the month feature.

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to get all the latest news from Scottish Book Trust. Have a lovely weekend!