Year 7 embraces story telling with Stu Duval.

Action! Reaction! More Action! Stu Duval visited Balmacewen to share with us his works and wisdom of writing. He is an amazing self publishing author who has written 16 books and plans to write more.

Each class got two workshops with him; one where he told us about the art of oral storytelling and turning letters and numbers into cartoons. He told us the story about how Dynamite bay got it's name and drew an amazing picture about the story with chalk pastels.

The second session was all about how to write a good story. Some of his tips included:

• Don't start your story with a weather report

• Add a time constraint to make your story intense

• Music can inspire you to write different types of stories

• In the middle of your story use T.O.E.; Trouble, Out of trouble and Even more trouble.

On the whole, my experience with Stu Duval was an extraordinary learning experience and I will be sure to put what I have learned from him to good use.

By Hetty

Stu Duval, an author, cartoonist, storyteller (and a really funny person), visited Balmacewen intermediate for two days. In the first day he taught us how he taught himself to draw as a child, drawing cartoons using letters and numbers. He told us that we can write a good stories from places we knew well, so he told us a story about Piha beach, the main character called Angus and Isabelle the person he fell in love with and Guzar and Buzar, her two brothers who he related to his two uncles, John and James. He drew a picture for us of Piha beach

On the second day, he taught us how to write a good book. He played music so we could imagine where we were. He asked us to be more specific about how it looks like when our eyes like where we were. For example said a cave. He said there are so many caves, what type of cave is it?, are there dead bodies?, or water dripping? He told us what all stories must have and how to hook the reader in. He also told us how to get a book published and that it doesn’t matter what age you are, you can still write a book. It has been a very enjoying experience for everyone.

Yasmeen

Stu Duval is an author who came Balmacewen Intermediate School. He is also a cartoonist and a storyteller ( and is amazing at art ). The first day we went to see him he taught us about how you can use letters and numbers to create cartoon characters. He also said if your parents always bug you every day by saying what did you learn at school today you can tell them we learned an s a dot a prickle and a line and if they ask what that means tell them it’s you.

Stu Duval wanted to write a story about his Piha because he lives there and he wanted to write a story about lion rock because he used to climb it even though he wasn't allowed. Then he told us a story about how Dynamite Bay got its name. When he was telling the story about Dynamite Bay

he drew a picture of Piha. Above is the picture he drew:

The second time he came he taught us how to write a proper story and tips to writing one.

Some of the tips were:

Don’t start your story with a weather report

Start your story with a big ARM ( action reaction more action )

What does your character want

Why does your character want it

Where can they go to do it

Who is stopping them from doing it

In the middle of your story add TOE ( trouble out of trouble even more trouble)

Just remember at the end of your story to RESCUE your character.

Stu Duval has been an awesome experience at Balmacewen Intermediate and can’t wait for him to come back next time

BY MICHAEL RIETVELD