My favourite stories are ones where very ordinary people do very extraordinary things. So, these are the kind of stories I set out to write; real life, but with the promise of adventure.

I recently graduated with an MA in Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University. At the end of the course I was highly commended in the PFD Prize for most promising writer for young people and was offered representation by the agent who awarded the prize. Soon afterwards, Bloomsbury signed my debut novel. Which was incredibly exciting! Published in January 2009, How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant is an adventure story for girls and boys aged 8-12. It has been shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2009.

Before becoming a writer, I taught at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. I designed and delivered workshops to children and young people on anything from Roman food to Victorian clothing. These workshops were always very energetic and interactive, with lots of audience participation, which is something I love to encourage.

I am writing my second novel at the moment, which is a mystery story. I am also writing a short story for younger children about a very bored witch and her new, 7-year old neighbour, Kayla.

I live in Bristol with my husband, Simon, and, one day - when we live in a bigger flat - we’ll be joined by a dog.

Workshops

My workshops are tailored to the age of the audience and the number of children attending. Group sizes between 20-80 are ideal. My work targets a readership of ages 7-12, so I love to meet children in this age group.

I like to run workshops which look at the structure of stories. The aim is for us to construct an exciting story together. I ask the questions: what does a good story need? and what exactly is a beginning, a middle and an end?

I begin with the finale. This is my absolute favourite part to write and is, in fact, where I usually begin the stories I write. Together, we recall our own favourite finales, or we create our own. We then choose a finale for our story. Usually, the nature of the finale will provide us with our setting.

Then, we look at heroes and villains. We create our characters. Older children may also be interested in the idea of ante-heroes and sympathetic villains. I divide the group in two, one group to create and to plot the hero, the other to do likewise for the villain. With a setting and characters our story has a beginning.

By bouncing problems, solutions and counter-problems back between the heroes and villains, we begin to create a plot. Older children may also be able to add more complex levels of conflict. This is the middle of our story.

I guide the workshop towards our chosen finale – this mimics my own writing process. The final element of our story will be the resolution. We will decide together what happens to our hero and villain after the finale – will our story be a comedy or a tragedy? This is the end of our story.

This session lasts approx. 40mins, plus a 15min opportunity to ask me questions about my work.

I do not set writing exercises during workshops, but I can give the teacher worksheets which provide stimulus for follow-on work in the classroom.

Feedback

Staff and pupils at The Royal High School were very lucky to have Elen visit our school and she certainly brightened up a cold winter morning by introducing her book, ‘How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant’!  Elen worked with children in Years 5 and 6 (70 in total!) to run an excellent session about how she approaches story writing and even worked with the group to plan their own adventure. 

Elen responded superbly to the children and was a natural presenter who pitched the session at exactly the right level, had a great tone and excellent management of the session.  The staff and pupils thoroughly enjoyed it and had the chance to ask lots of questions about what it’s really like to be an author.

Some quotes from pupils….

‘Elen is great at presenting what she does and making being a writer sound very enjoyable!’ (Imogen, Year 5)

‘Elen made the session really fun because we brainstormed lots of ideas together!’ (Aimee, Year 5)

‘Elen spent lots of time writing her autograph and I felt very special- she was really nice!’ (Rosie, Year 5)

‘Elen lifted our spirits up after lots of hard work in the morning!’ (Beatrice, Year 5)

‘Elen made English sound even more fun than usual!’ (Alex, Year 6)

‘When Elen talked to us she made us all feel like authors because we planned our own story.’ (Alice, Year 6)

‘Elen read her story really well and I felt like I was there!’ (Alex, Year 5)

‘When we imagined our story altogether, it helped us to paint pictures in our minds.’ (Imogen, Year 6)