Week 7 Task - Illustrate Our Monster Book

I've been looking forwards to this week - it's illustration week! Professional children's illustrator, Katie W. Stewart, has provided not one, but three guides on how to draw black and white illustrations. She's even shown us exactly how to draw a lumipoo momp, tubster of terror, tig and Toby!

In case you didn't hear the news, our monster book is going to be massive - about 20x25cm.

Here are two typical page layouts:

This Week's Task

Using our detailed synopsis and Katie's guides, complete one of the following:
a) pick a scene from the book and create an 8x9 cm illustration to sit in a column
b) pick a scene from the book and create a 16x6 cm illustration to sit at the top of a page
c) pick a poster from the book and draw it 16x21 cm.

The posters in the book are:
    - the locals protesting the Galactic Sauce Company pumping the Condiment District (chapter 3)
    - Queen Maddie Long Legs banning bananas (chapter 11)
    - Queen Maddie Long Legs' law that humans can only bathe in the Condiment District (chapter 11)
    - the government issuing information on how to get rid of a lumipoo momp with a hairdryer (chapter 14)
    - the government changing their minds and saying actually use a hoover to get rid lumipoo momps' (chapter 16)

Please use only grey pencils and black fine liners for your illustrations. No colours.

Here are Katie's brilliant guides to help you with the task:
1. Before you start
2. How to Draw a Monster Part 1 - Drawing the basic shapes
3. How to Draw a Monster Part 2 - Shading

And he's a tip from me:
When drawing is too fiddly

Please sent your work to rosen.trevithick@gmail.com by Friday 7th March. I will forward the best work to Katie. Some of you will get feedback on your drawing from a professional artist - cool, right?

Read A Detailed Plan of Our Monster Book

Exciting news - our detailed monster book plan is here. This will tell you all the plot developments that will happen in our book. Warning - it also tells you how it ends!

Download Our Monster Book - Detailed Plan

Here are some notes about the plan.

What’s a Plan and Why Do We Need One?

This is the plan that we will use to write our book. The book will be at least five times as long as the plan because I will explain how things happen as well as what happens. I will add dialogue and description to help explain situations, add more humour and build suspense.

Writers make detailed plans before they start writing because complicated stories like ours are hard to plot. You often have to go back and change bits.

For example, I got to the end of the plan and realised that I’d forgotten to find a way to get rid of Summer Slimyspikes. This meant that I had to go back and change part of the plot. It’s much easy to change a plan than it is to change a book, because a plan is shorter.

Sometimes, even when you have a plan, you can end up making continuity errors. For example, lumipoo momps can only say ‘momp’ unless they eat things with words on. So if I made a lumipoo momp speak English without first eating something with those words on, that would be a continuity error.

Let me know if you spot any continuity errors in our plan.

The division of chapters might change, because it is impossible to know how long each section will be until you start writing, but this gives a rough design.

The other advantage of the detailed plan is that you will have enough information to get started on your illustrations before the book is finished.

Don’t Worry About Typos

There may be a few typos but that doesn’t matter in a plan. The important thing about a plan is the get all the ideas down.

The only people who see an author’s plan are people helping to write the story, so it doesn’t have to be as tidy and the final book, which could be read by thousands of people.

Points of View

There are two popular types of narrative in books: first person and third person.

First person is where you write as if you are one of the characters (e.g. ‘I am Simon. I went for a walk.’).

Third person is where you talk about the character (e.g. ‘Simon went for a walk.’).

First person is useful when you have one main character who appears throughout the whole book, but we have many main characters and the action switches between them. Simon doesn’t know how Toby gains his powers. Toby isn’t there when Simon rescues Tig. So one character can’t narrate our monster book as there’s nobody who witnesses all the action.

Third person allows us to tell a story from many points of view. (e.g. ‘Chapter 1: Simon thought about Shoogle Lagoon.’, ‘Chapter 2: Professor Tackytesttubetumble was busy thinking about science.’ So we are going to write in the third person.

When you write a complicated story in the third person it’s a good idea to pick one character to focus on in each section.

I’ve jotted down the POV for each section to remind me which character I’m focussing on, but they will all be told in third person.

How to Say ‘Lumipoo Momp’

Tip: Lumipoo is pronounced like ‘luminous poo’ but without the ‘nous’.

Name Changes

I’ve changed Adam and Melissa’s names to Thugodore and Thia because I wanted something that sounds more thuggish.

I’ve changed Turbo the Toddler to Toby the Turbo Toddler. The reason is that I only just found out that there’s a recent film with a main character called Turbo, so I’ve changed ours slightly so that it’s different. 

The Detailed Plan is Almost Here

Today I finished reading through the detailed plan, ironing out a few issues.

Hopefully the plan will be ready for you to read by tomorrow (Wednesday).

I have to warn you - it's 20 pages long! A lengthy read, but it'll be worth it.

A Quick Message to 'Anonymous' from Barford

Many thanks to the pupil from Barford who left a comment on my author blog. I thought I'd reply here because my author blog is not really for kids.

Thank you for your message and kind words about my troll books.

If you're a good thinker but get muddled up when writing things down, have you tried storyboarding with stickmen?

Get a really long piece of paper - either the sort they sell in rolls or you can sellotape four or five sheets together.

Then instead of writing down your ideas, draw stick men acting out a series of moments from your story.

On the left, draw what happens at the beginning of your story.

Then, move to your right along the paper drawing all the things that happen, one after another.

You'll have created a story without ever having to write anything down.

I Need a Name For a Cove

Tigotha is teaching Simon to swim at a cove just west of Quackers Park. It's not on the map (because it's so small).

What should it be called?

Leave answers as a comment or email rosen.trevithick@gmail.com.

I Need a Name for Thia's Pooch

I've decided that Thia will have a fashion dog. A fashion dog is a very small dog, usually of the sort that can be styled (like a poodle), which is generally kept in a handbag.

What should Thia's dog be called?

Leave answers as a comment or email rosen.trevithick@gmail.com.

Where Does the Word Monster Come From?

Some work from Alex (St Edwards) has made me wonder where the word 'monster' really comes from:

MicrOmaNiac and tubSTER of terror

Yikes!

The Plan is Drafted

I've just finished the first draft of our synopsis. A synopsis is a plan of the plot.

I will tidy it up before posting, but here are some key facts:

1. There are twenty-two chapters.

2. All of the characters in our Ludicrously Long Collection of Crazy Characters have been included.

3. Something terrible happens that makes Simon and Tigotha end their friendship. Will they ever make up?

4. A lumipoo momp runs up an old lady's skirt. Uh oh!

5. At least one goodie gets killed!

6. The way our heroes deal with the final baddie is hilarious.

That's enough teasing for now. Come back in a few days' time to read the entire synopsis. 

Adam and Melissa's names changed to Thugadore and Thia

Just a quick note to let you know that I changed Adam and Melissa's names to Thudadore and Thia.

Why? Because I wanted something that sounded more thuggish for the boy bully, and I wanted a similar name for his twin.

They're still the same characters though. 

Meeting a Young Writer

Today, I was lucky enough to meet one of the writers working on our monster book. Above is Isobel from Manor Lodge School. She asked me the questions that some of you wrote for her to deliver and we discussed important issues such as how to pronounce 'lumipoo momp' (tip: it's a shortened version of 'luminous poo momp').

This morning, I received an email containing work from the rest of the writing club at Manor Lodge, which I'm looking forward to reading tomorrow.

I met Isobel because she came to the Falmouth Hotel, which hosts family events throughout the school holidays, including my twice weekly storytime sessions. Email me for more details.

Dizzy Momps, Floods and an Old Lady's Skirt

Here are some comments on plot ideas that I read this weekend:

Jessica (St Hardulphs), your idea of Simon looking into a momp's blind eye and seeing his parents is very spooky and sets up suspense - well done.

Anna (St Hardulphs), getting stuck in a sewer sounds vile! But very dramatic.

Luke (St Hardulphs), I like the idea of distracting guards with ice cream - that would work on me!

Jessica (St Hardulphs), I like the ice cream flavour rose and sweet pea. It sounds so good that I searched the internet to see if anybody makes it - alas, nobody does.

Lucy (Manor School), your idea of Turbo running around a lumipoo momp until it's dizzy amused me because a dizzy lumipoo momp is a funny mental image.

Prashna (Manor School), the idea of a deadly spiked duck falling in love with Toby made me laugh because it's so absurd.

Louisa (Manor School), I thought the idea of lumipoo momps filling in the lakes to cause floods was inspired.

Claudia (Manor School), a lumipoo momp running up an old lady's skirt is very funny. I wouldn't want a lumipoo momp up my skirt!

Georgia (Queensgate), I found the lumipoo momps replacing the ketchup in ketchup like with their poo bother disgusting and funny, in equal measure.

Emilie (Queensgate), I was amused by Tigotha accidentally gluing a sausage to her face - it wasn't what I was expecting and surprising the reader is a good thing.

Grace (Queensgate), your heroes' plan to eat 27 cans of beans in order to generate enough fart power to transport Tig back to safety is very amusing. I also appreciated the use of '27' - random.

Sadie (St Edward's), I like the idea of Yazoble volcano erupting - very dramatic. I also like the idea that Stink Land Farm is so stinky that it mightl knock you out before you even consider thinking about not smelling it.

Thanks for all your plot ideas. I'm busy trying to incorporate them into one mega story.

The Inheritance

Here are plot ideas from Highfield School:

After the death of Simon’s grandfather, Thia and Thugadore are convinced that Simon has been left an inheritance. They agree it would be a good idea to try and steal it – they could do with the money. Thia is in the market for a new handbag, and you can never have too many crisps. They decide to go to Simon’s house to look for him. They walk through Quackers Park to get to Whiffleton on Swamp.
When they arrive, no one is in. They walk around the garden looking in the windows, but there’s no way to get in without setting the alarm off.

Thugadore says ‘I bet he’s with that Tig, Lets go’.

Thia and Thugadore take the coastal ferry. They put on their diving gear and jump off near Tigotha's cave.

They swim down to Tigotha’s cave and knock on the door.

Tigotha says, ‘Come in’. They go in and Tigotha looks up and says in a scared voice, ‘What do you want?’

Thia says, ‘We’re looking for Simon’.

Tigotha replies, ‘He’s not here, I don’t know where he is.’

Thugadore gets right into Tigotha’s face and says in a quiet, menacing voice ‘I don’t believe you. Thia – look for him’.

The two bullies start turning over furniture, pulling cupboard doors off and opening the fridge to find Simon. They are momentarily distracted by the food in the dridge, so they make themselves a sandwich and have a sit down. Then they carry on turning Tigotha’s cave upside down. Tigotha is very scared, and decides she will eat them.

She opens her mouth wide and starts towards the bullies.

Suddenly, they rip open their leather jackets to show zebra printed t shirts. Tigotha is terrified, and doesn’t know what to do! Suddenly, she has an idea.

‘Look over there – Brussels sprout and chilli flavoured crisps!’ pointing to the back of the cave. The two bullies are distracted and Tigotha makes her escape through a secret trapdoor in the ceiling of the cave. The bullies spend 5 minutes looking for the Brussels sprout and chilli flavoured crisps and forget all about Tigotha. By the time they realise the crisps aren’t there, Tigotha is long gone.

Tigotha heads to Simons house, and sees him on his way home.

She is very out of breath, and manages to warn him ‘the bullies are coming for you!’ Simon says ‘I know just the thing to help us escape, lets go!’

Simon goes into the shed and pulls a sheet off a mobility scooter. This is not just any old mobility scooter. It is made from armoured steel painted in camouflage colours and is armed with a variety of weapons; a missile launcher, a taser and a bow and arrow. The scooter is also amphibious.

Tigotha is astonished, ‘What’s this?’ she asks.

Simon tells her that his grandfather had secretly modified the scooter and was using it to go to the swamp at night and hunt and kill lumipoo momps to avenge the deaths of Simon’s parents.

The two friends decide to hide in the forest near the swamp; it’s the last place anyone would look for them.

Why I love it

- An inheritance is great motivation for Thugadore and Thia to interfere with Simon's life.
- It uses Tigotha's weakness - eating bullies.
- Tigotha's Brussels sprout and chilli flavoured crisps trick was clever.
- The mobility scooter idea is brilliant.

My Troll - By Kaya

I was going to read some monster plots this evening but I got distracted reading this superb troll story by Kaya from St Hardulph's. It's so good that I had to share it. I'm sure Kaya won't mind.

Here's Kaya's blurb to whet your appetite:

This story is about a boy called Jackson who tells a friend a secret but when he tells his friend, some things go wrong. His troll gets out of hand. How will they fix it? Find out yourselves! What will happen?

Kaya - if you're reading this, I've written you some feedback and sent it to your teacher to give to you personally.

If anybody else would like to write their own stories over half term, I would love to read them.

My Troll

By Kaya

It was a dark night; it was a horrifying night. The doors creaked the walls banged the pipes made a drip drop noise.

Jackson had a secret but he couldn’t hold it in for much longer. Whilst Jackson was in bed he was wondering about who to tell his secret to.

Suddenly he heard a noise saying, “JACKSON!”

He was horrified he grabbed his duvet and made sure that nothing could catch him or in this case eat him. The shadow came closer it looked like a gooey, white faced monster. He grabbed Mr Twiddles (his teddy) and started to turn red. The shadow approached. He hid, it was too late for Jackson.

The monster said,“JACKSON YOU'RE LATE FOR SCHOOL!”

Jackson looked up it, it was his mum he started giggling Jackson sniggered 

“It’s only mum, Mr Twiddles.”

And the white face was her face mask.

His mum was not impressed.

He remembered about telling the secret and he knew who he was going to tell, his best friend Tilly; even though she is a girl he doesn’t care. Then he shot out of bed and got dressed as fast as he could. When he was ready he ate his food as fast as Usain Bolt. He kissed Mr Twiddles and was off to school. On the way he met the school bully that is well Charlie. He takes diner money calls you fat face and attacks you only if he needs to. So he tried to avoid him and he got away with it. 

At school he found Tilly. He ran to Tilly and whispered, “I’ve got a secret.”

Tilly smirked at Jackson. “What is the secret Jackson?” said Tilly.

“Well,” sniggered Jackson. 

Tilly smirked again and then turned red. “WAIT DON’T TELL ME YOU LOVE ME!” said Tilly 

“UMM NO!” said Jackson.

Jackson whispered the secret to Tilly.

“YOU’VE GOT A TROLL LIVING UNDER YOUR BED!” said Tilly with all her excitement.

“Yes,” whispered Jackson.

“COOL!” shouted Tilly.

“Come to my place after school I’ll show you his hideout.”

“Why do you need a hideout when your troll lives under your bed?”asked Tilly.

“Because sometimes my mum has to tidy my room up even under the bed.”

After school Jackson put old clothes on but Tilly didn’t know why. Jackson got some of his sisters VERY old clothes.

“Why do you need your sisters clothes Jackson?” asked Tilly again.

Jackson smiled at Tilly.

She knew why, they were for her.

Jackson ran to his room quickly scooping up a green ball.

He ran into the garden and did a hand signal to Tilly. Tilly ran to Jackson and looked in his arms. The ball opened. It was a troll, a baby troll. 

“WHAT’S HIS NAME? WHERE DID YOU FIND HIM? TELL ME PLEASE!”shouted Tilly.

It was kind of fat and slimy and its face was as chubby as a hamster with his face stuffed with nuts. But then the troll jumped out of his arms and waddled off. Jackson didn’t notice but Tilly did. Tilly tried to tell Jackson but he wouldn’t stop muttering about his den.

“JACKSON PLEASE, LISTEN!” shouted Tilly.

Jackson realized that Mike (the troll) wasn’t there. 

“OH NO!” shouted Jackson.

They tried to find him in the garden, under the swing, upstairs, down stairs, his room, his sister’s room and the boggy toilet. They couldn’t find him anywhere it was a mystery. 

“No point calling the police they would laugh in our faces,” said Jackson with his worried face on.

Then Tilly and Jackson knew he wasn’t in the house or garden. He had gone outside for an adventure.

“Well how long has it been since he saw his real family Jackson?” asked Tilly, looking worried as well.

Jackson scratched his head. “UMM,” said Jackson

“Where did you find him Jackson?” said Tilly, with some anger.

“Come, I’ll take you to the den. I’ve got a calendar and it says when I found him.”

So they went up to the den and all the information was in shreds and 

“OH NO”

Teeth marks or known as troll marks.

“MIKE!” shouted Tilly and Jackson.

Now they were more eager to find him. 

Tilly looked on the street and Jackson looked for more evidence in the den but there was only troll marks and poo droppings.

“YUCK!” shouted Jackson.

Tilly ran to Jackson straight away. “WHAT, WHAT IS IT, JACKSON!” said Tilly.

“POO!” shouted Jackson. 

Tilly smiled she picked the poo up and scooped it into a bag and ran home with Jackson following her.

Tilly was weird but very smart, her room is a science lab and tests all her stuff. She even had a telescope. 

Suddenly there was a noise GRRR noise. It sounded like a lion. It echoed through the sky. Then there was a stomping noise.

STOMP, STOMP, STOMP

They shivered.

It came closer and Jackson knew for sure that this time it wasn’t his mum. A big foot stamped on the garden, ruining all the plants and trees. They looked out the window Mike was no longer a baby he was an …

… Adult! He was so fat and tall no way he could hide like other trolls.

“FEW!” said Jackson

Tilly started crying.

“UMM TILLY,” said Jackson.

“My garden it’s ruined,” said Tilly, crying her eyes out.

Jackson patted her on the back and said sorry about 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 times.

Tilly felt a bit better but…

Her dog got squished! She was devastated.

So that made her eager to make a shrinking poison. She told Jackson. He agreed. So well Tilly already had a shrinking poison for her just in case box so they tried to shrink him/Mike but there wasn’t the right amount they needed more so they went on another journey to her granddad’s to get more. Luckily he had two suit cases full; this was bound to work. So when they went back they chucked it onto Mike and it…

WORKED

He was back to his normal size 

But would he grow again…

The End

Some Colourful Work

I decided to upload these two pieces of work from St Edward's School because they're colourful:

Megan has beautifully illustrated a popular storyline: heroes treat lumipoo momps to hoover and hairdryer treatment.

Uh oh - I don't like the look of those lumipoo momps on top of that cupboard, Leah.

I also underlined two ideas that I really liked from Matthew's work:
'He sees a man with a ride-along cleaner thing'. Such a vehicle would be really useful against lumipoo momps.
Matthew also wrote about General Gibbers breaking the supporting beams of a roller coaster being ridden by Simon and Turbo. This creates excellent drama because the consequences could be immediate and very tragic.

Peter, I liked the idea of a lumipoo momp bursting a football, especially if it made a loud bang.

Joe, good point about Tigotha's six legs making her good at football.

And I wrote about Sebastian's random baked potato disaster here.

Laugh Out Loud Plot Ideas

This is definitely the funniest week so far. Reading your plot ideas is making me giggle like a loon. I'm starting a new post especially for some of the plot ideas that make me laugh out loud.

'Lumipoo momps and zebras have eaten all the sauce out of the tomato ketchup lake. The lumipoo momps replace the ketchup with their poo.' - Georgia, Queensgate Primary School

'Tigotha is glueing something to a piece of paper, while eating a burnt sausage. She accidently glues her sausage and sticks it to her face. Simon and Tigotha both try to pull it off but there was no use!' - Emilie, Queensgate Primary School

'The Lumipoo momps will accidently eat a special cake and they start to grow and grow. Then Toby accidently eats their poo and he farts evil rainbows. Then a female Lumipoo momp falls in love with Toby and she takes him into her house and he cant escape. Bravely, Simon comes and rescues him by pretending to be the female Lumipoo's dad and he pretends to tell her off.' - Prashna, Manor School

'A Lumipoo momp will accidently drink a special milkshake that makes him shrink. As quick as a flash, he climbs up an old lady's leg and up her skirt. The momp gets angry because the old lady sits down and traps him so he decides to peck her on the thigh. With a fright, the old lady jumps up making the Lumipoo momp land on the table. The old lady whacks him with her small granny handbag. Simon hears the old lady shriek and races to the rescue by trapping the Lumipoo momp in an air tight jam jar which he puts in the hero laboratory.' - Claudia, Manor School

Keep refreshing this post. I will add more as time goes by.

True Heroes, Balloon Popping, Swamp Trouble and A Queen Who's Way Too Big for Her Boots

Thank you to the children from Bosvigo School for your email and plot ideas.

In response to your email, if I knew the secret to being famous, I would be a lot richer! I will help our book become as famous as I possibly can. I'm sure your superb ideas will help.

Also, there is no task for the holiday but if you keep visiting the website you will be able to keep up with all the news including funny plot ideas from other schools and decisions about the story. I've already made an important announcement about the book's size.

William, I think it's really nice of Simon and Tigotha to rescue Thugadore when he's such a bully. It shows that they really are true heros. I like the idea of Spike silently descending from his tree.

Oscar, I like the idea of a balloon popping. It's a dramatic way to show fun being spoilt. Also, interesting that Thugadore turned up with some lumipoo momps. It made me wonder who a bully that's human would side with - the nice humans or the horrible monsters?

Ben, I really like the idea of a character getting stuck in the Mompy Swamp - that will create excellent drama. I also like that you wrote further drama by having Tigotha fall face first during a rescue attempt. I wonder if Turbo could use his helicopter hair to rise into the sky and pull her out?

Adam, I like the idea that Maddie Long Legs, queen of the lumipoo momps tries to make up ridiculous laws to excuse being mean to humans. It's a great conflict which would give our heros a solid reason to want to get rid of her. It also could give rise to some very funny laws! You used the map well in your booklet, bringing in lots of features.

Thank you for your ideas. I will work as many of them as I can into our monster book.

Baked Potato Disaster!

This work by Sebastian from St Edwards is quite possibly the most random plot I've read so far.

Whilst most children wrote about lumipoo momps trying to eat children, Sebastian wrote about the plight of a plate of baked potatoes. Simon goes over to Turbo's house and they grate some cheese, then Micromaniac burns the potatoes!

Sebastian then uses his knowledge of tubsters' fear of styrofoam, to solve the problem. They fill the microwave with styrofoam from Turbo's xBox packaging, and set the microwave on full. I bet Micromanic didn't like that one bit!

This story did make me chuckle!

The Book Size Has Been Decided

I have to admit, when I gave you four book sizes to choose from, I thought you would probably choose one of the medium sizes. But no, the most popular sizes were the smallest (standard 5" by 8") and massive (8" by 10").

Standard and massive got the same number of votes, so I decided to take cost into consideration. The printing costs are based on the number of pages not the size of the pages. We know that we can fit more words on a big page than a little page, so the winning size is:

massive.

However, we don't want to many words on one line or it'll be horrible to read. I suggest two columns and a picture on every page. What do you think of these page layouts?

Marketing Our Book

When you publish a book, writing it is only half the battle. Authors spend just as much time marketing their books as they do writing them.

Marketing is anything you do to encourage people to buy the book. It can include newspaper articles, radio interviews, giving away bookmarks, putting up posters and many more activities.

Marketing begins before you publish the book, so that readers look forwards to it.

Today, I issued a press release about our monster book. A press release is a piece of writing that you send to news sources (e.g. magazines, newspapers, radio stations) telling them your news. Sometimes the news sources decide to feature an author's news, and sometimes they don't. So I have no idea whether or not we'll be in the news.

However, here is our press release and some news from the past, to give you a flavour of how marketing works.

Read our press release.
Listen to a radio interview about The Troll Trap.

Below is a newspaper article about The Troll Trap.

Chapter 1 Made Me Cry

I just drafted some more notes for chapter 1 and it made me cry three times! Our book is going to have a very moving beginning.

That's all I logged on to say.

Week 6 Task - Vote for Our Monster Book's Size and Shape

After half term, children's illustrator Katie will help us draw pictures for our book. However, before we can start illustrating, we need to decide on the height and width of our paperback.

Choosing the size and shape of our book is a very complicated but important decision.

A paperback book has three dimensions: height, width and thickness. The height and width refers to the page size and the thickness depends on the number of pages. We can't control the thickness exactly until we know how long our story is going to be. However, the bigger the pages, the smaller the thickness, because big pages have more words on them than small pages.

I know you usually work with centimeters and millimeters at school, but the people printing our book will be in America, where they work in inches. So, I've put the measurements in inches and millimeters.

To give you an idea of size, The Troll Trap is 5 inches wide by 8 inches tall (127 x 203 mm) . The First Trollogy is 6 by 9 inches (152 x 229 mm)

Perhaps you could try picking some of your favourite books from your school library and measuring them?

These are the options our printers will let us have:
Standard - 5” x 8” (127 x 203 mm)
Quite big - 6” x 9” (152 x 229 mm)
Bigger again - 7” x 10” (178 x 254 mm)
Massive - 8” x 10” (203 x 254 mm)

Things to Consider When Choosing a Shape

What feels best?

Rather a lot's going to happen in our book. We already have over a dozen characters, each with their own backstory. I can tell you now that our story will take up at least 150 standard sized pages, probably more. This means it's a book that will take many long reading sessions to finish so needs to be comfortable to hold.

What do similar books look like?

Look at the books in your school library that have over 150 pages. What size are they? Do books for different age groups come in different sizes?

What looks best?

Big books look impressive from the outside.They have big covers, which help them stand out on a shelf. A big cover would allow us to squeeze a lot of information onto the front and back.

However, bigger pages mean more words per page. Have you ever turned a page and seen 1,000 words starting back? It's off-putting and it's very easy to lose your place.

What size pictures do we want?

Larger pages allow bigger pictures, which means the pictures can be more detailed. However, our monster book will be published as an eBook as well as a paperback. eReaders are about six inches (150 mm) tall, so our pictures will have to be simple enough for a six inch screen, no matter how big our paperback pages are.

How expensive do we want our book to be?

Thinner books are cheaper to print than thick ones. However, even a 300 page book would probably cost less than £6 to print and have posted to your school, so the books will be affordable no matter which size you choose. They'll just be slightly more of a bargain if they're thin.

Lots to think about, isn't there? This is just the sort of tough decision that authors and publishers have to make every day. Thank you for your help.

Vote for a size here.

A note about colour ...

Our book will be printed in black and white with a colour cover. This is because colour books are very expensive to print. Printing 300 colour pages would make each book cost £26!

Conflict - Simon and Tigotha Fall Out #2

Humaira from Bridge school is the second person to consider a fall out between Simon and Tigotha.

Simon and Tigotha falling out is a good example of conflict that will move our readers, because they know how important the friendship is to Simon. I wrote more on this here.

Don't forget that Simon doesn't have a family.

I like the fact that Humaira writes about Simon putting their differences aside when Tigotha needs help, restoring their friendship.

If Simon rescued Tigotha when they were friends, it would be sweet. But because Simon rescues Tigotha when they're not friends, the ending is extra satisfying. The introduction of conflict made the plot thread especially powerful. Good work Humaira.

Conflict - Lumipoo Momps at Simon's School

I've just read this storyboard by Mustafa from Bridge School.

Simon and Tigotha try to tell their classmates to run, but the classmates don't take them seriously, resulting in great peril.

The little girl kissing the lumipoo momp is interesting. Most lumipoo momps are too spiky for anybody to want to kiss them. However, they don't get their spikes until they're three. So maybe the one that looks like a cute duck is a baby lumipoo? This would be a useful plot device because it would allow us the explore one of the lumipoo momp's main weaknesses - that kisses make them fall asleep instantly.

I like the fact that Mustafa has used what we already know about momps (that they can be sucked up a hover) to create a realistic plot thread. We will almost certainly have lumipoo momps getting sucked up vacuum cleaners in our monster book.

Conflict - Lumipoo Momps Across the Street

The latest storyboard to reach my inbox was this one by Aneeqa from Bridge School.

I really like the idea of a secret hidey hole behind a painting.

I also like the relationship between Simon and Tigotha. Simon is trying to project Tigotha, but in the end, she saves the day.

I wonder who made the phone call warning them about lumipoo momps across the street. At first I thought it might by Turbo the Toddler, but he can't speak. 

Conflict - Lumipoo Puddles Make People Vanish

 I've just read this conflict and resolution by Ahmad from Bridge School.

Ahmad has created thoroughly chilling conflict - every time somebody steps in a puddle, they just disappear! Apart from Simon and Tigotha, everybody gets eaten.

This is a very powerful conflict and will make our readers feel horrified. They will keep reading until the feeling of horror stops. Well done Ahmad, you created a great hook.

I like the idea of people from Simon's school coming out of the puddle as Simon evaporates the, with his hair dryer.

Conflict - Lumipoo Momp Wants to Kill Simon

Adam from Bridge School send me this example of conflict and a resolution.

A lumipoo momp plans to attack but while it's turned into a puddle, Simon evaporates it with his hair dryer.

This is very realistic (for Fangleland) and Adam has done a good job of using the information he already knows about lumipoo momps, to save the day.

We will definitely have heroes evaporating lumipoo puddles in our monster book. Well done Adam.

Week 6 Tip - Don't Write in All Caps

All caps is where you write something in capital letters, such as 'SPIKY STINKY-TRUMPY-BEAK ACCIDENTALLY DROPPED A WATER BOMB ON GENERAL GIBBERS' HEAD.'

Please do not write in all capitals. A mixture of lower and upper case letters is important because it helps readers understand the text.

It's much easier to read: 'Spiky Stinky-Trumpy-Beak accidentally dropped a water bomb on General Gibbers' head.' than the example above.

Look at the two sentences below:
'I accidentally sat on the threatening spike.'
'I accidentally sat on the threatening Spike.'

The first one contains 'spike' in lower case, so it means an actual spike. The second one contains 'Spike' with a capital letter and we know that capital letters are used for name of people, so it must be referring to the character Spike. If you wrote the whole sentence in capitals, the reader would have no way of telling whether you were writing about an actual spike, or Spike the coolest lumipoo in town.

I have to say, I wouldn't like to sit on either!

Conflict - Tig at the Door

I've just read an interesting example of conflict by Karina from Manor Lodge School.

Chapter 2

Summary: Simon, Tigotha, Granny Tig
When: day after Sunday last week
Where: Simon’s bedroom
Details: Simon nurses Tigotha back to health and makes Tigotha a bed in the lounge next to the fire. Her bed is made of old socks and Simon lays Tigotha in the bed and as Tigotha falls asleep, Simon sees a small problem. There is a tig at the door, and how exactly is he going to be allowed to keep a baby tig? Uggg!

Chapter 3

Where: still in Simon’s bedroom
Details: He answers the door, and sure as pie, there is still a tig at the door. He thought about what you do when you have a tig at your door, but he didn’t remember having heard what to do before. He took a deep breath and opened the door...

The bed in the lounge next to the fire is a nice touch, because it shows how much Simon cares about Tigotha. I think she would like a bed made from old socks.

I have also been wondering how Simon would be able to keep Tigotha when she already has a family of her own. Aside from eating bullies, tigs seem like reasonable people who would get on well with a nice boy like Simon. I look forward to seeing how you resolve this.

Baby Girl Tubster and Lumipoo Momp Illustrations

Here are some illustrations from Manor Lodge School. 

Baby girl tubster by Aiyana.

Terrifying and sweet all at once - lethal.

A lumpipoo momp by Mia and Anoushri.

It looks so harmless swimming amongst the grass. Looks harmless...

Conflict - Simon and Tigotha Fall Out

I've just been reading some conflict ideas by Aiyana, Reese, Shayna and Isobel from Manor Lodge School.

Chapter 2 - Tigotha is forced into a bad situation
Tigotha is forced to do something bad by the bullies, and since she finds it difficult to know the difference between right and wrong she ends up being involved in child snatching for the Tubsters of Terror.
Simon sees the Tig and thinks that she has only been faking her friendship and really she has been working for the Tubsters of Terror.
Chapter 3 - Simon attempts to rescue the children from the Tubsters
Simon believes that the Tig is no longer his friend and does not trust her. He knows he must rescue the children from the Tubsters, but who will help him?

This is very interesting because I've also been considering a conflict that undermines Simon's strong friendship with Tigotha. Because of Simon's sad backstory, our readers will be really upset to hear that he's lost the only important person in his life. If our readers feel upset they will keep reading in the hope that the problem gets resolved.

What you've done is created a hook.

Well done for building on Tigotha's difficulty telling right from wrong. You've developed her character.

Child snatching is terrible thing to do. I think perhaps even a tig would know that it was wrong. However, I'm interested to see where this plot goes. I look forwards to reading the resolution next week.

Questions from Morton Trentside Primary School

Year 2 at Morton Trentside Primary have sent me some questions about being an author. Here are my responses:

How long have you been an author?

The first story I remember writing was called The Land of Blue and I was six. After that, I wrote stories as often as I could. I first published a book three years ago. I don't think you have to publish a book to be an author, you just have to write stories. So I've been an author for 28 years and a paid author for 3.

How many books have you written?

Published children's books: three main ones (The Troll Trap, Mr Splendiferous and Trolls on Ice) and one short story (Gourmet Girl Burger).

I've written a few unpublished stories and some published stories for adults, too.

How long does it take you to write one book?

It depends on how long the book is and how much research I need to do before I can start writing. The Troll Trap, which is 179 pages took two months to write, including editing.

How many stories do you write in one year?

It varies. Last year I wrote two troll books and some short stories.

Why do you want to make a monster book?

I visited schools and noticed how excited children get about monsters and how many good ideas children have when they're excited. I knew we'd have lots of fun writing a monster book together, and I rather like fun.

How did you become an author?

I worked hard at school and read lots of books. After my light was turned off at bedtime, I would lie in bed making up stories in my head. When I got older I started writing stories down using our computer. Eventually I started showing other people my stories using the internet and then finally, I was ready to sell some.

Why did you want to be an author?

Being an author is one of the best jobs in the world. You can work at home whilst eating cake. You can make magical things happen in your brain and then, through writing, you can put those magical things in other people's brains so that they can enjoy them too.

What is it like to write so many words?

It feels great because I love writing. The more you practice writing, the easier it is to write something very long.

What type of books do you write?

Mostly funny story books.

Can you write a book in one day?

Only a very short one!

Which book is the most popular that you have written?

My most popular children's book is The Troll Trap because it is the first in a series.

How many books have you made?

I make all my own books. Some people have publishers who take their words and make them into books, but I like doing it myself. I make the covers (with help from my illustrator), choose the book size, hire an editor etc, just like we will for our monster book.

How do you work?

I get up and have breakfast. Then I go to the beach to wake myself up. If there are no big waves, I have a swim. Then I come home and have a word with Loodrip Stinkleboss, the troll who lives in my toilet. Next, I fill up my teapot. I sit down at my computer and write using my shiny blue laptop, until biscuit time.

How many books have you read?

Hundreds.

Who has mainly illustrated your books?

Katie W. Stewart illustrates my books. She lives in Australia but was born in Britain. She's a children's writer as well as an illustrator and writes fantasy books with dragons in them. I like Katie, she's funny and talented.

Which book is your favourite that you have written?

The First Trollogy is my favourite, because it contains three troll books all in one.

Thanks to Morton Trentside for their questions.

The Sea Was a Monster Today

I went for a stroll this morning and found that the sea was a monster!

Week 5 Tips - How to Make Sure I Can Read Your Work

Teachers,

I'm having great difficult reading pencil work that's been scanned. Here are some proposed solutions:

1. Adjust the settings on your scanner.
You might like to try turning down the brightness and perhaps adding a little contrast. Alternatively, try scanning at a higher resolution.

2. Get your class to work in pen
If possible, get your class to either work in black pen (fountain or gel but not biro) or writing over their pencil work in pen.

3. Type up work
Publisher and Word versions of the storyboard booklets are available for those with ICT access.

I appreciate that the monster project is a big time commitment and don't wish to generate more work for you, but I am really struggling to read pencil work.

Thanks
Rosen

Maddie Long Legs Stole Bosvigo School's Work!

I explained that a lumipoo momp tried to steal some of the school work from St Edwards and Manor Lodge, but I've just found out that Maddie Long Legs, the lumipoo momp queen, stole weeks of work by a group of children who go to Bosvigo School in Truro. Fortunately, Simon and Tigotha managed to recover the work from her nest and send it to me.

Below are some sketches from the monster species task in week 1.

And here are some highlights from the scene setting task:

'There is a big cave under the sea, near a volcano, on a rocky island. It is always very warm and dry because all of the lava flowing out of the nearby volcano.' - Oscar

Oscar, you'll be please to know that there will be a volcano in our book. It's called Volcano Yazoble and it's near the coast, where there are caves. You can see it on our map in the south east.

'His favourite game is 'it', which he plays with his neighbours the crabs.' - Oscar.

This is a very amusing image, although I'm not sure that I'd like to be chased by a crab in real life.

'The lumipoo momp's favourite game is 'it'.' - William

Oh goodness me! I think I'd rather be chased by one of Oscar's crabs than a deadly duck!

'My monster live on Mars so that he won't get caught by human beings." - William

Living on Mars is an extremely good way of avoiding humans!

'My monster lives under the wet stage at Bosvigo School.' - Elliot.

Crikey! Does the care taker know?

'The Cheese World looks like a leftover, wet burrito kept in the fridge for 100 years.' - Ben

Ugh! This is a brilliant simile because it made me cry 'Yuck' out loud. You really captured how disgusting the cheese world is.

'Every house feels like a grizzly bear's eyeball from the river.' - Ben

Another brilliant and foul simile. Well done for paying attention to the sense of touch.

'The world sounds like 1009 horse shoes falling on ten tons of metal.'

This is a good simile. I like how specific it is - 1009 made me giggle. Ben could make it even better by adding words like 'clang', 'scrape' or 'clatter' (onomatopoeia).

'The cheese world is the smelliest planet in the universe...apart from Fish World!' - Ben

Now I'm intrigued about Fish World! It's very clever to both round off a piece of writing and leave the reader wanting more.

'I am very excited to start writing the monster book with Rosen' - Elliot

I am very excited to have Bosvigo School on board. I look forward to reading your ideas.

A Lumipoo Momp Ate Our Homework

Unfortunately, a lumipoo momp snatched some of your work from last week in its beak, and flew off to Glacier Island with them. Fortunately, Turbo the Toddler has managed to recover some of them. Although it's a little late to put the missing ideas in our book, here are some comments on the waylaid work.

Evie from St Edwards came up with an alliteration place name, 'Murdering Monster Mountain'.

Anna from Manor Lodge School drew this beautiful map.

Shayna from Manor Lodge School called her land 'Boggy Island'. So hopefully she'll approve of the Mompy Swamp.

Week 5 Task - Ask Rosen

Is there anything you'd like to know about being an author? Would you like to ask questions about our monster book? Do you need any intelligence on trolls?

This week I will be answering your questions about writing, monsters and life as an author.

Please send your questions to rosen.trevithick@gmail.com

You can ask anything you like, but I reserve the right to answer with 'momp momp' if I feel like it.

Week 5 Tips - Creating Conflict

What do you think of when you hear the word conflict?

For many people, 'conflict' means some sort of fight. However, in writing, conflict actually means any obstacle that gets in the way of your characters achieving their goals.

For example:
If I wanted to make myself some cereal, and there was no milk, the goal would be breakfast and the lack of milk would be conflict.
If I wanted to go for a swim, but the sea was too rough, the goal would be swimming and the conflict would be the waves.
If I was happy with my life and a lumpioo momp moved into my garden, the goal would be continuing to lead a happy life, and the conflict would be the deadly duck outside my window.
If I was about to clone myself when I found out that cloning was against the law, the goal would be creating a Rosen clone and the conflict would be the law.

Conflict doesn't necessarily have to be between two characters. Look at the examples above:
Running out of milk = me versus my memory (i.e. me versus self)
Too big waves = me versus nature
Lumipoo momp in the garden = me versus monster
Laws against cloning = me versus society

Dramatic Conflict

Some conflicts are more dramatic than others. It all depends on the potential consequences. A lumipoo momp in my garden would make a much more powerful story than finding that I'd run out of milk because a lumipoo momp could result in death, whereas the consequence of running out of milk is just having to change my breakfast plans.

If you create conflict with consequences that might concern your reader, the reader will keep reading to find out what happens next.

To create powerful conflict, think 'What could happen if this conflict isn't resolved?' If it's something alarming, then you're on the right track.

Humorous Conflict

Another purpose of conflict can be to the create humour. Sometimes trying to solve a problem sets the characters on a path of funny events. For example, accidentally super-gluing my nose to a sausage wouldn't be particularly dramatic, but it would set up all sorts of amusing chapters, like having to go to the supermarket with a sausage stuck to my nose and having to go to see my doctor to get is detached.

Week 5 & 6 Task - Plot Your Story Thread

The best plots have many simple stories all linking together. We call these story threads. I would like you to create one story thread for our monster book please.

You don’t have to plot the whole story or involve every character. Just pick a small number of characters from the character booklet, then plot one problem that they have, and how it gets resolved.

I've created some booklets to help you plot your story thread.
Advanced Storyboard Booklet (Six Chapters)
Quick Storyboard Booklet (Three Chapters)

How to Fill in Your Storyboard Booklet
1. Read the introduction that I've already written using our work so far.
2. Write a summary for every remaining chapter.
3. Go back and fill in the details and sketches.

You must summarise each chapter before filling in the details because not every problem has a solution. If you write about a problem and then find that there's no way to solve it, you'll have to scrap your problem and start again. Therefore, it's best not to write a problem's details until you're sure you know how it going to be fixed.

Please stick to the characters and settings that we've already chosen. The resources below will remind you who's who and what our setting is like.

Resources to help
Full list of all our characters.
Quick list with just seven characters.
Setting notes and map.
How to create conflict.
How to make sure I can read your work.

Coming Soon
How to create dramatic conflict.

Our Setting - Fangleland on the Planet Zorbit

Thank you for all your setting ideas. I have merged as many as I could, to create Fangleland. Below are some notes and a map. What do you think?

It’s the distant future. Fangleland is a small country on the Planet Zorbit, a chunk of Portugal that got booted into outer space in 2013 after a careless space giant tried to play golf with the Earth, and chipped Europe. It’s a tiny planet on the edge of space. It is so small that aliens often fly straight past it and only spot it if they actually get into the ‘orbit of Zorbit’.

Everybody speaks English in Fangleland because many centuries ago, a British tourist appointed himself king and passed a law banning Portuguese. Although it’s the future, people’s lives are very similar to our lives, because Zorbit is too small for the people to have developed future technologies. Lumipoo momps, however, have evolved into vicious beasts and Fangleland is overrun with them.

Fangleland is composed of two landmasses, Spookyknoll Island and Yazoble Island. It has a third island, Glacier Island, which is a giant iceberg.

The climate on Planet Zorbit is dramatic, reaching from the chilly Rocky Mountains in the north, down to the raging Volcano Yazoble in the south (which contains bubbling, purple lumipoo poo, instead of magma.)

Bongdon

Most Fanglish people (20,000) live in the capital city of Bongdon, which is divided into two halves, separated by Shoogle Lagoon. The lagoon is home to many lumipoo momps, including the General Gibbers. The treacherous River Shoogle connects the Mompy Swamp to Shoogle Lagoon and is the momps’ main highway. Bongdon has sky scrapers with heads that talk to the clouds sitting in the sky. Turbo the Toddler lives in North Bongdon. It’s also the home of the science lab the first tubster of terror is created.

Yazoble Island

There are only 1000 inhabitants on Yazoble Island. Some live in wigwams in Yazwam. Others live in Tippy Toppy Town, where all the house are upside down. This is because the people believe that upside down houses will float on lava, like boats, if Volcano Yazoble erupts. They may or may not be wrong.

Glacier Island

A tribe of 57 people live on Glacier Island in igloos. There is also a frozen fortress, where the glacier tribe defend against lumipoo momps.

Whiff Towers

Whiff Towers is an abandoned and run down castle. At least, everyone thinks it’s abandoned.

To get there you have to find your way through a dark forest, where it always rains. The forest comes to an end, and suddenly you find yourself in the Mompy Swamp. The swamp is full of quick mud and deadly lumipoo momps.

Two talking gate posts at the castle entrance get to decide whether or not you can enter. If they welcome you, a drawbridge across the swamp slowly lowers with a clanking chain.

Whiffleton on Swamp

Whiffleton can be found to the west of Bongdon. It’s a small, wooden village on the edge of Mompy Swamp. It’s where Simon Sandymop lives. Local children like to play football in Quackers Park, an area of natural beauty characterised by fields of ruby-centred flowers with sparkly white petals. It is where Simon first meets Tigotha. Tigotha lives in a cave on the west coast of Spookyknoll Island.

The Condiment District

On the south of Spookyknoll Island, are a series of lakes containing sauces, such as ketchup, mustard and BBQ sauce. The locals go there to refill their bottles. Many locals make a day of it, walking along the coastal path and then back to Bongdon Beach for a barbecue.

Zebra roam wild in the condiment district, which is why you usually see zebra with mustard on their hooves.