On April 14th I took my daughter Belinda (nine years old) along to Dave Lowe’s workshop for children, ‘How to be a writer.’ He knows how to entertain and inspire a group of 9 to 12 year old writers (and some older ones too!) Within the first minute there were chuckles throughout the room. We were immediately engaged when he told us some of the funniest questions he’s ever been asked by children, including ‘Why do you look nothing like your photograph?’

Dave Lowe then shared where his story ideas come from. He likes to ask himself the question, ‘What if?’ ‘What if a genius hamster could do your maths homework?’ From that question, came one of Belinda’s favourite books from Dave, My Hamster is a genius.

He then described the first three things writers need to think about before writing a story:
1.Characters
Know every detail about your character, right down to what do they like for breakfast.
2. Plot.
3. Where to start. The first paragraph could:
· Introduce the character
· Introduce the setting
· Start with a conversation
· Have a chat with the reader
· Plunge into action

When writing the story, he advised to show and not tell. For example, ‘Jack was surprised’ could be changed to ‘Jack’s mouth dropped open and his eyes widened’. Also, text is less boring if the sentence length is varied throughout a paragraph.
Dave Lowe then talked about using wow words to add interest to the text. For example, ‘devoured’ rather than ‘eat’.

The children loved it when Dave shared some of his humour secrets. One of them is using the ‘rule of three’. For example, My Dad loves toast…Beans on toast, eggs on toast, toast on toast. Hee hee!
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Belinda thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and thinks it was ‘the best writing workshop I’ve ever been to.’ At the end of the afternoon, we both came away with some writing gems, in addition to one of his new books The Incredible Dadventure. Belinda thinks it’s hilarious and highly recommends it!

Wenda grew up in the beautiful county of Norfolk in England and now resides in Brisbane, with her supportive husband, cheeky daughter and two rescue dogs. Wenda loves to write children’s stories with heart; whether it involves diversity, science or the magical world of the imagination.
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​Eva’s Imagination https://www.newfrontier.com.au/books/evas-imagination
Sheepy-Bear (Share Your Story anthology – It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas) https://www.lillypillypublishing.com/product-page/it-s-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas-an-anthology-share-your-story )
The Tail of Sizzle the Sausage (CKT anthology –Wings, Superheroes and Determination) https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/760744