St John the Evangelist School Year 8 Writing Group Day 1

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2010

St John the Evangelist Year 8 Writing Group

Day One: Thursday 21 October 2010

Not wanting to get caught in traffic, I had left Mission Bay quite early and was looking for a coffee shop even before most of the shops in Otara were open. If I was a little apprehensive about working with a group of shy Samoan girls, I should not have been; I received a wonderfully warm welcome from them and their teacher Pips Reddy at St John the EvangelistSchool, close to where the famous Otara market takes place and the Manukau Institute of Technology.

St John’s is a small Catholic integrated school, boys and girls until Year 6, when most of the boys move on to De La Salle College and the girls stay for two more years before going, mostly, to McAuley College. Decile 1, a DuffySchool, roll about 260, 97% Samoan, the rest Tongan, Maori and other Islanders; no palangi. I like to find out these things before I go into a school, to get a sense of the school’s culture, its special flavour.

It was quite a challenge: the group of 16 students to talk from 9.00 a.m. until 1.10 p.m. (with a 40 minute break) about stories and the anthology we are going to produce. For the first 90 minutes we introduced ourselves. Ms Reddy, from a third generation Indian family in South Africa, shared how she came to New Zealand, as did many of the girls subsequently, whether it had been their parents or grandparents who had made the courageous journey to begin a new life in New Zealand.

Most came from fairly large families, four and more; many named Maths as their favourite subject but I’m certain that wasn’t just to make Ms Reddy, who taught them Maths, feel appreciated! There was a wondrous variety of ambitions: flight attendant, architect, lawyer, doctor, carpenter, professional sportswoman, teacher, actress, accountant, chef, restaurant owner, photographer. Great to hear.

After break, when I was welcomed in the staffroom for a very fine brunch, we really got down to business.

We made a list on the whiteboard to remind us of the points that a professional writer or editor considers when creating an anthology: a great title, a colour cover, a back cover with a blurb, possibly some illustrations inside. The book will be A4, spiral bound. Stories will be up to 2000 words long, on mystery or adventure themes; their important order in the anthology will be discussed later. Drafts will be presented in double spacing, 12pt font, text not indented, but the book will be printed out in single spacing with usual indents, contents pages etc.

We also talked about the target market, who will be interested in a copy: the authors and families, school library, school principal, church Father, NZ Book Council.

We then brainstormed what helps make a short story memorable: generally one idea only, a problem, good setting and characters, some good dialogue and most of all, that ‘something has to change.’ Then we moved onto a brief discussion of Point of View, whether first or third person, and the classical arc of a good plot. We finished (and by this time the girls were definitely calling on their reserves of concentration to stay focussed) with sharing some thoughts about where ideas come from. All round, we agreed, in your families, in everyday life, things you hear about or experience yourself.

During the morning we had discussed how our 6 sessions might pan out:

• Day 1: introduction and discussion of short story theory
• Day 2: students to come with their synopses for one or more stories; ‘what my story is about.’
• Day 3: 1^st draft; discussion about cover art,
• Day 4: 2^nd draft; rough designs for cover, number of copies to be produced
• Day 5/6: final draft for editing; agreement re order and re cover, towards final print-out.

I was impressed with the moving prayer that began and ended each session, and delighted with the girls’ willingness to participate and especially, to listen. So I’m really looking forward the fulfilling our shared vision of their anthology with a lively and attractive publication.

Tessa Duder

21 October 2010