Inspiring Great Student Writing

By Michael Hartland

I RECENTLY PUBLISHED an 11 chapter story by one of my students who is in Year 9  - it's a mini novel! 

It was inspired by using teaching material from one of my ebooks - "But I'm No Good At Creative Writing" - and also by one of his favourite books!

Anas worked on this for over three months, and we reviewed each chapter as part of each week's tuition.  You can read the opening chapter below, and the full story here.

Chapter 1

Butler crashed into Orion’s  study. “What is it Butler?”

“It’s… it’s.. Mrs Fowl. She's really sick.”

Orion pushed past Butler and sprinted up the grand stairs. When he reached her bedroom, he realized that his mother’s distinct odour was no longer there. Instead, it was replaced with a sick fragrance. Orion slowly entered the bedroom. “Mother! What is it?”

Mrs Fowl groaned softly. She didn’t reply. Orion panicked and was about to rush to his mother’s bedside table and cry on her shoulder when his scientific brain kicked in. He approached her and examined her. “I’ve never seen this before…” 

He decided to call his magical fairy friends to help him. He started speaking into his hand and then stopped. He went and waited by the door. No more than 15 minutes had passed and his best friend Holly and the genius centaur Loryn had arrived. He explained the situation to them in detail and they all approached the bedroom. While Loryn was setting up his machines and tools, Holly followed Orion to the bed. As soon as Holly looked at and smelled Mrs Fowl, it hit her. She whispered to Loryn and he agreed sadly. She approached Orion.

“Orion, I’m afraid that your mother has a fairy disease called the Spelltropy. She has a full organ failure and her brain doesn’t work anymore. The only wayto cure her is to get the brain fluids of a particular type of lemur. Sadly, the lemur has been extinct for almost 10 years.”

Orion started crying. “I know,” he murmured. ”I killed it.”

Find out more about my ebooks to encourage better writing here.