Day 7

Today is our final session with Sandy. A time which has come around quite quickly for all those involved.

Today Sandy began by sharing one of her manuscripts with the children. They were amazed at how long it was. Sandy explained she initially writes down her story as quickly as possible. For this manuscript she wrote for about 3 hours a day for three weeks, tumbling the ideas out. Then she put it away for about 3 to 4 weeks in a drawer to have time away from it. During this time she got on with other things including more writing. When she returned to it a few weeks later she decided which bits she liked and which bits she didn't. After that she reads the manuscript right through and then puts it on to the computer, prints out a copy and then writes all over it making lots of changes as she reads it through.She prints another copy and makes more changes. She repeats this process until she is happy with it. She then likes to read it aloud (when no one is home) to see how it sounds. Once she is completely happy she sends the final manuscript to the publisher. Sandy stressed to the children the importance of rewriting as your work gets better and better every time you rewrite it.

The children then worked on editing their work. Sandy had been through the copies they had given her at the previous session and worked through her suggestions with each child. We were concerned that some children would struggle to complete their work today but by the end of the session all but one had their story fairly well completed. We will have a final tidy up over the next week and then we will email them to Sandy who will provide any final feedback.
The final stage will be to publish their work, something they are quite excited about.
Sandy presented each child with a copy of her book Eureka which she personally signed for them. They were all thrilled to bits.
Tomorrow Sandy is coming back to talk to all the children in the school about being an author as part of our fortnights focus on books.

I would like to thank the Book Council for giving our school this fantastic opportunity of working with a local author. They have gained a lot of new ideas and have a greater appreciation for the work an author does and especially how it is not a quick process and all work can be greatly improved with time and patience. As a teacher I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and have some new ideas to try with my own class especially in the writing of a first draft and in taking time over a piece of work.Anyone offered this opportunity should take it.