Multi-book award nominated children’s author Catherine Bruton shared some top writing tips with year 7 pupils on Friday 4th March. She let them in on her seven secrets of writing a good book, including using real life experiences and the news for story ideas.
Catherine is the writer of seven books so far, which cover such diverse topics as talent shows, the 2011 London Riots and gymnastics. Her novel ‘We Can Be Heroes’, about a young boy who lost his father in the 9/11 bombings, is currently being made into a movie. HDHS students were treated to a sneak preview.
Catherine’s visit included a Creative Writing Workshop with 20 pupils enthusiastic about writing. They learnt how polish a story and to improve their descriptions of story characters and places to make them interesting to potential readers. She also told them to persevere when writing if they weren’t successful at first.
Andrew Dace, school library manager said, ‘Catherine’s work with the children was fantastic. They seemed to really enjoy the workshop and came up with some excellent ideas in their writing. Catherine was extremely impressed with their commitment and original descriptions. Overall the day went very well; our pupils responded positively to Catherine and enjoyed her presentation’.