On Wednesday 30th October 2024, 80 students from grade 2-6 had the privilege of attending an author visit incursion by Louise Park in our school library. This was sponsored by the Storyfest development fund, which was an initiative supported by Councillor Pauline Young.
Louise Park is a famous author with over 400 titles to her name. Not only does she write under her name but also under 3 pseudonyms including H.I Larry, Mac Park and Poppy Rose. Some books series you may be familiar with include Zac Power, D Bot Squad, Boy v Beast, Harriet Clare, Bella Dancerella and Star Girl to name just a few. Her visit coincided with her new book launch for the book entitled, Prank Wars Game On.
Her presentation was engaging, informative and entertaining. She shared her inspirations and process behind her different books. With her most recent book being based around the theme of pranks she shared personal stories of pranks and asked the students to share their experiences too. The room often erupted into laughter at some of these wild stories. She also held an interactive element of the session whereby some students were selected to come to the front and have their voice electronically modified with an app to tie in with the voice swap prank that occurs in the narrative of her new book. We all thoroughly enjoyed listening to the adapted versions of the voices of Chaddy, Spencer, Alice, Carson, Diamond and Corey. In addition, she also invited some students to have their turn of coming out the front and partaking in the traditional old school prank of sitting on a whoopie cushion. Again, the students could not contain their laughter because who doesn't love a good fart joke. Thanks to Jax, Avery, Saga, Kirra, Bonnie and Ky for being such great sports during this toot in the boot demonstration.
The students utilised their opportunity to ask Louise questions to their utmost potential with the most interesting open-ended questions that allowed Louise to give such wonderful depth in her responses and such poignant answers demonstrating her wide range of experience and wisdom in the writing field.
We would like to share some of these pearls of wisdom with you that you can pass on to all your aspiring authors:
How does she come up with ideas when writing fictional stories especially fantasy?
She asks herself this question - What will happen if? She writes about something familiar and then does something whacky with it, for example, change the familiar setting of a school and put in space, which is what she did in the StarGirl series. She explained how you know what school is like but you get to ask yourself what will happen if I put it in space? This allows you to make up whatever you like, for example, how would you travel there. Our students started brainstorming including a rocket, a UFO, a portal, boosters and she explained that usually the first 5 things that you come up with is what everyone would expect but if you keep going you then come up with something really unique and interesting and that is exactly what Spencer came up with next with a Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory elevator. Amazing!
She also said that you can take something you are interested in and do some research at the library or on the internet to find out some really incredible and unbelievable facts about the topic. She did this in her D Bot Squad series about dinosaurs, which we all know dinosaurs are extinct but she brought them back to life in our current time. She wanted to know some real facts about the T-rex to be able to apply to her narrative. Her research revealed that the length of a T-rex leg is the same size as a bus and got the students to visualise that up past the ceiling. She then explained how she learnt that if you were in the 7th floor of an apartment building a T-rex could just reach in and eat you. Again, with the loveable potty humour, she found out that one of the T-rex poos was big enough to bury our whole group of students and would be 2 car stacks high. She said this information was so great to apply in her books to make them entertaining and fascinating.
What is her actual writing process?
First, she comes ups with ideas, which the process for that was just explained. Then she always writes in pencil. The reasoning for this was that in MRI imaging it has proven that the areas of your brain for creativity and memory light up when using a pencil and stay light up for 30 minutes after holding the pencil whereas when using a computer those areas do not light up at all! Big tip to get off the computers and put pencil to paper to unleash the creativity in our kids. She said she actually draws all the pictures for the setting or the world she is creating. The next step is to work out the crisis and then how to solve it. Only after she has done all that in pencil does she get on the computer and type up her story in Word. She said she does lots of edits but not just for proofreading errors but for determining what is not necessary and she could take out. She also makes sure that she has mentioned senses on every single page so something you can see, hear, taste, smell or touch as a fundamental ingredient for the story. She also checks that the timing is working well and that the dialogue makes sense especially for who the character is and their age. Only after all those types of edits does she go back and fix full stopes and spelling mistakes.
Who inspires her?
She replied with you do, pointing at the children. She is inspired by the children she writes for. She said she has written between 400-500 books just for them because she knows that if they learn to read and write they can apply it in every field of their education and life and it would make such a difference to their long-term success.
What is her favourite prank?
She explained that the one done to her by her son with a fake snake in her bed was very memorable but she enjoyed the one that Carson shared about filling a balloon with flour and popping it over somebody's head because it was funny and a little bit naughty.
Which book was most difficult to write?
She said that Last Man Out was her most difficult book to write for multiple reasons. The book is about the ANZACs in Gallipoli and focuses in on a story about her grandfather who was serving in the war. She set the scene for us and the circumstances explaining that there were 40,000 soldiers at this post and they were going to execute a plan to get the majority of the soldiers out but that 2,000 had to stay behind and distract the enemy and pretend that all 40,000 were still there while the others snuck out. When they called for volunteers to stay behind and be that 2,000 who would most likely not survive, all of the 40,000 troops put their hand up in the true ANZAC mateship spirit of never leaving a man behind. Eventually the Majors were given the job of picking the fittest and steadiest to stay. They set up self-shooting rifles and moved around pretending to be 40,000 troops, even playing cricket like things were running like normal. The numbers went down to 24 left and then just two. Her grandfather was actually the engineer given the responsibility to be the last man out and to have a suicide mission of detonating the explosives at the very end if required. He amazingly escaped to safety without having to set off the explosives. She had never met her grandfather so she found it difficult reading through his letters and journals and making sure she was doing his story justice and honouring him in the way she wanted to. She said that he had been such a humble man that he didn't like any recognition about how brave he had been. So she said it was difficult because it was such an important story historically but also personally. It was also difficult to write because she was doing so during Covid and her usual approach of going and doing research was made difficult as there was no access to the war museum etc at that time. What came as a huge surprise when doing her research though was the discovery that her grandfather had previously had a wife and children before the war that nobody in her family knew about. It had been a well-kept secret probably caused by the circumstances of the time that his previous wife thought that he had died in the war and re-partnered and then on return there was no place for her grandfather in that family so he re-partnered but didn't remarry because divorce was not an easy or common practice back in those days but went on to have Louise's father. It was quite the scandalous discovery.
What is her favourite book?
She explained that picking a favourite book is a bit like a parent picking a favourite child. You just can't do it because you think they are all special for different reasons. She said usually her favourite book is her most recently written book. She did explain that Last Man Out was very special to her because of the personal connections she had with it being her grandfather's true lived story.
What is her favourite Boy v Beast Book?
She said again she didn't have a favourite book but more likes to remember favourite moments like when the dogbot named BC charges on the mat and things go drastically wrong and then there is a massive storm of fluff everywhere because she thought that was such a funny image.
How long does it take to write a book?
She said it can vary depending on the book. She said that for Zac Power books because she has written so many that it only takes her a couple of weeks as she has a set formula for them. For her new book, Prank Wars – Game On it took about two months and for Grace's Escape it took about six months.
How many pages should a chapter have to ensure it isn't too long?
She looked in Prank Wars and noted it was usually around twenty pages so that was a good guide.
Is it true an author spends all their time writing?
Louise spends one-third of her time writing, one-third of her time visiting schools and one-third of her time doing promotional activities like radio shows. She said that usually she will be writing three books at a time. She will work on one book for about three days and then have a break. She said it is important to have a break because you need to get away from it and get perspective. She explained that your first draft is never very good and definitely not the version that ends up in the shop. She said for the Grace's Escape she probably did about 15 drafts before it got to the published version.
What is her favourite show and has it impacted her writing?
She said that her favourite shows that have impacted her writing were probably Get Smart and The Jetsons (many of the students didn't know these shows but I am sure some of us adults remember them fondly). She explained that she loved all the spy elements from Get Smart and has applied those types of ideas and gadgets in her Zac Power series and the Jetsons for all the space age technology, which she has also been inspired her in her fantasy books. She explained that Roald Dahl was probably the author that had the most impact on her writing because she just loves his writing and the magic and creativity he weaves into his stories. She explained that the story Matilda was originally so different. That Matilda was supposed to be a naughty girl and there was no Miss Trenchbull but the publishers didn't like it and originally he wouldn't change it for over a year. Eventually, he adapted it to what it is today. Showing that even famous authors have to rework things.
When did you first start writing?
She said that she remembers writing her first full story in year 2 and that she has been a writer ever since. She encouraged the children that they too were already writers and that you can never be too young to start.
On conclusion of the session Daisy gave a special thank you to Louise for sharing her inspiration for writing, her experiences and her process and I overheard such bubbling excitement and feedback from the students sharing amongst themselves how they thoroughly enjoyed the session. A number of our students were fortunate to purchase a signed copy of Louise's new book and a special act of kindness did not go unnoticed when Ivy asked Louise to do the inscription to her brother Isaac who she thought would appreciate it. I am sure those who purchased a book have been enthusiastically reading since and I have heard it is being held as a prized possession by a number of students who have even been reading it at break time as they can't put it down. There is a stand in the library with a number of Louise's earlier books that students can borrow if they wish.
What was the absolute epitome of feedback was from the author herself saying that our students were the most fabulous, beautiful group of students she had come across. She complimented them not only in terms of their behaviour, manners and kindness but also in terms of their engagement, enthusiasm, questions and creativity. She said she completely lost track of time and wished that she could have stayed longer and said that with our particular group of students she could have stayed all day but unfortunately, she had another commitment organised. What wonderful ambassadors for our school these students were and another special moment we can be proud of in our Caningeraba and wider community when we are recognised in such a positive way.
Well done to our students and thank you to Louise Park and Storyfest for such a wonderful experience. I think everyone walked away motivated and inspired and believing anything is possible. Maybe just keep an extra eye out for any pranks just to be on the safe side because we heard some creative ones during our session!
