We were very excited to host Sylvia Gunnery, an author from Nova Scotia who has written 17 and ¾ books. Sylvia has won the Prime Minister’s Award in 1998. Her first book was “I’m Locker 145, Who are you?” written in 1984. Her latest book, Emily for Real, has just been released. Sylvia introduces her character Theo whose attributes were based on one of her ex high school students.
Sylvia’s latest series deals with Basketball: Personal Best and Out of Bounds with more in the series to come. Sylvia was a basketball player both in high school and university. While introducing her novel, Sylvia spoke of Spud Web who became inspiration for her character in Personal Best.
Sylvia did a writing workshop with the Grade 6s and began the writing process with these questions:
JUST WRITE!
Step 1
Think of a character by answering these questions.
Are you male or female?
What is your age, height, weight, hair style, colour and length?
What colour eyes does your character have? If you have a name for your character, write it now. (check out the phone book for ideas)
What kind of clothing style/colour/trends does your character wear?
Where does your character live? (city, town, country, lake, etc.)
What building does your character live in? (log cabin, apartment, etc.)-Describe it.
Who does your character live with? (sisters, roomates, pets, etc.)
What would make your character stand out in a crowd?
Now draw a messy line and continue with:
Step 2
What is the problem that your character encounters.
Another messy line to switch our thinking for:
Step 3
Now think of some What ifs- (What if this happens through the story)
Another messy line……
Step 4
Now draw an ark and place your what ifs on the ark with an x.
Step 5
Now imagine your character is given something in his/her hand that means something to them. What is it? Where does it come from? Why is it special? Write about it. Do a word count and see how many words you can write in 10 minutes.
Last messy line…….
Step 6
Using Revision Plus /Editing cards, go through your work and check out each job to edit your work: Correctness, Voice, Organization, Decide and Ideas.
Keep working on your story, and share it with your classmates! (One day you might even mail it to a publisher and Mrs. Renzullo may be inviting you for an author visit!)
HASTINGS SCHOOL LIBRARY 