Writing tips ... the practice of turning a child into a monster

Recently I ran a fun, yet challenging activity at my local writer's group. The activity required us to change one thing about our character (from whatever we were currently working on), and then rewrite one scene accordingly.

This activity was based off an assignment in Module 1 of the Writing Picture Book course that I recently finished through the Australian Writers' Centre. For the course, I wrote out 200 words of Banjo and Ruby Red by Libby Gleeson. I then changed Ruby Red and the rest of the chickens into goats. This certainly made a difference with the words that were used. Goats look, behave and make different sounds compared to chooks. This activity showed me how, in a picture book, one simple change can reverberate throughout the story. It can change the rhythm and the overall feel of the text. 

The point of the exercise that I ran at our writer's group was to remind us that we need to plan our characters, and have a deep understanding of our characters and setting. We also need to know how our characters would act in different circumstances.

Some changes that you could make for this exercise are:

• Make someone nice into someone mean and nasty
• Change an introvert to an extrovert
• Change night to day, day to night
• Change a child into an animal
• Change a child into a monster

I encourage you to try this out as it is a fun exercise. Feel free to post your story here, or just share how you found the exercise.

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