Notes for young writers
Tŷ Newydd - Jenny Sullivan
Tŷ Newydd is a magical place, and every time I've been there something wonderful has happened. It was once the home of David Lloyd George, and is now the home of Wales' National Writers' Centre, I've visited it many times as a student over the past twenty years, and I've always left having made new friends and feeling I've learned lots.
Being a tutor there, however, was something I've always wanted to do, so when Sally Baker, the Director, asked me if I'd like to take on a week with the first ever primary school group to be invited to stay there, I jumped at the opportunity. In fact, I almost bit her hand off! And when it transpired that my co-tutor would be my old mate Neil Nuttall, it got better still.
The logistics of getting there, however, were something else: car to Roscoff, boat to Plymouth, hire car to Raglan, overnight with friends, and drive up to Llanystymdwy, near Cricieth, the following day. Was it worth it? I'll say!
To begin with, Neil and I were lucky enough to have, as students, sixteen of the most fantastic young people from Roch Community School (Ysgol y Garn) in Pembrokeshire. They were eager, enthusiastic, and so hard-working ˜ they set to every task we set them, and wrote some fantastic stories and poems ˜ and a play, too, that they wrote as a group and performed for us one lovely evening in the garden. The only unhappy bit of the entire week was saying goodbye to them all on Friday!
I left Ty Newydd on a real 'high' ˜ not even the long journey home daunted me ˜ and I can't wait to be invited again. The Ysgol y Garn children benefited from a bursary given to Ty Newydd by the W H Smith Trust, which paid half their fees, and I understand from Sally Baker that there just might be money available for other primary schools to visit if they care to apply. If the comments from the Roch children in the Visitors' Book at Tŷ Newydd are anything to go by, they enjoyed it as much as Neil and I did ˜ it's an experience not to be missed.
Viv Sayer writes about A Pet Called Persil
'When I left the primary school where I had been teaching, I promised the children in my class that I would write a story especially for them. The main character - Isabel - was in my class, and she really was as nice as she seems to be in the novel. Not all of the events actually happened in the same order - or in the same places - as in the story. But they all happened. There really was a pet called Persil, although he wasn't the master escapologist - that was Hammy!'
My best writing tip?
Don't be afraid to use real people and real happenings in your stories, even if you need to change the names and disguise the background a bit. If you write from your own memories and feelings, it will help to make your work far more believable. Think about your memories like scraps of cloth in a sewing box: you might need to stitch them together differently and you can always embroider them and put in a couple of patches here and there, but believable basic material will make your stories strong and long-lasting.'
