We won't be running #WriteCBC in December, but stay tuned for our #CBCWinterStory25 challenge on Instagram – more details coming soon! 🎄☃️🎅 Follow us on Instagram & sign up to our newsletter for further announcements: www.instagram.com/curtisbrownc...

I'm being brave and showing a first draft excerpt from Faerie 4 (the first official one!), although this will likely be part of book 3. It just fits them so well

Today’s the day you can WIN with CBC! I learnt so much from their writing hist fic course, and I’m so excited to read YOUR entries. Good luck everyone 🤞🤞🤞

#WriteCBC task from @jessicabull.bsky.social: Write an exchange in which a character says one thing but communicates something else entirely. Allow your narrator to draw their own conclusions as to what is really being said. Extra points if you make it festive!

When Demi met Kainen 😳 If you're looking for a fun YA fantasy read with magic, mayhem and a lizard called Leo, The Trouble With Fairies is only 99p today - the book that started the entire Faerie universe! www.amazon.co.uk/Trouble-Fair...

Next #ukteenchat will be on Tues 11th November 8-9pm GMT with the fabulous @cliffmcnish.bsky.social here on BlueSky, who will be chatting all about his spooky YA - Lily's Monster. All welcome to come along and join in the chat 🙂 #YA #writerslife #LilysMonster #CliffMcNish

Absolute pleasure, Emma. Do hope you enjoy GHOST, and if you do, please drop by Amazon/Good Reads to let me know ;->

Most of writing, I think, it pure grit and determination. You have to get to the desk, and write, even when things seem hard and slow. Only a few words? Doesn't matter, you made it there. Remember, 'walking is writing.' So as things come to you, record or write them in your phone.

That hour has flown by! Thank you so much for being such a wonderful guest again @finbarhawkins.bsky.social you are more than welcome anytime on #ukteenchat 😊

Ah now, that would be a thing. I have good director pals at Aardman, so we shall see ;->>

...Yes, you have to do it all again. But each draft will be better and faster, and the real story will emerge. Did I mention to NOT GIVE UP? ;->> #ukteenchat

...But, the main biggie, is do not stop writing that book. Get to the end of the first draft, then put it in a drawer for a month, and write other things. Then go back to that draft and read it through and start making notes for the next draft... #ukteenchat

Gosh, I’m a bit rubbish about this, but I think the best one I can give is DON’T EFFIN’ GIVE UP!! And don’t beat yourself up if you’re feeling blocked. Just go walk, talk to the blackbirds ;-> and things will loosen up by the time you’re home... #ukteenchat

I'm giving it a go, like anything it's a time issue, and the other books are under contract, so they come first. But I've been using my workshop to explore younger age group, and they seem to like it, so...

10, Do you have any writing advice or tips you’d like to share? @finbarhawkins.bsky.social #ukteenchat #ghosthawkins

Yeah, it definitely would. I've script written for Aardman for years on many different things, so it's great to go back into script form - completely different from novel writing and collaborative which I love. So keep 'em crossed, we shall see...

...And I’ve started the research and exploratory phase on a sequel to ‘Witch’ - it’s set in Ireland a few years later at the time of the Irish rebellion against English rule and the imminent invasion of Cromwell and his New Model Army. #ukteenchat

...I’m keen to write a younger piece, a kind of high seas adventure, so I’ve got that on the go… #ukteenchat

Ahar! A few things… ;-> I’m in a very early development phase with a producer on the TV adaptation of ‘Witch’. Very interesting and it’s great working with someone else, but all early days atm as we approach the funding stage... #ukteenchat

It always delivers!

9, Can you tell us anything about what you’re currently working on? @finbarhawkins.bsky.social #ukteenchat #ghosthawkins

Agreed with knobs on. The darkest time of the year when we all draw in to tell each other stories. Gwain and the Green Knight and all that.

Plus if it’s going well, there’s a nice pub to walk to with your pages and review your day’s work. No snacks of note - but I do drink an awful lot of tea. I’m trying to cut down my caffeine intake these days, so I tend to switch to herbal teas by mid-morning. I do somewhat swill with peppermint tea!

...Even if you feel it’s ‘not going well’ it is really, because you’re there by the sea with your subconscious to percolate things. And hearing the sea and smelling it, swimming in it (if not too cold) all help clear out the cobwebs... #ukteenchat

I have a study at home - but that’s also where other work gets done, so I always like to head off to Cornwall and have writing retreats, with only the dog for company. All my writing benefits from complete immersion like this... #ukteenchat

Agreed. It's just so fully-formed and perfect. That he wrote it for his children is just everything about it. I love the whole dynamic between the characters too, so wonderful. I *might* go back to Lord of the Rings again, but it is a different kettle of Gollum.

ESSENTIAL. Twinned with the BBC adaptation boxset. And then the 1986 ITV version of 'The Woman In Black.

8, Do you have any writing rituals or a specific place you like to write, or maybe go to writing snacks? @finbarhawkins.bsky.social #ukteenchat #ghosthawkins

BUT there is no BEST way given the whole panthers vs plotters. I've got all the 'how to write' books and read all the angles, but really just start and see what works for you. Btw talking of Ursula (sorry!) she has an excellent book on story craft called 'Steering the Craft' - get it!

...Plot comes from character ultimately, so I’m not a slave to plotting, but I do respect it, and I know that there has to be a kind of logic to things - yet at the same time it’s great to go off the beaten path and explore. #ukteenchat

... I always tend to have certain scenes in my head that I know are going to come up, so it’s more about how I get there... #ukteenchat

Ah the eternal question! I’m naturally a pantser, because I’m drawn primarily to characters and their emotions, what they’re feeling in a certain situation. But what I tend to do, is go as far as I can, and then stop and regroup and start to plot things out... #ukteenchat

Totally. It's a simple tip, but the best - and the most enjoyable. I re-read Ursula Le Guin's 'A Wizard of Earthsea' every year - and Northern Lights at Xmas time (plus lots of MR James) and I never fail to see new things, as well as just go back to my favourite worlds.

7, Would you say you are a plotter or pantser? @finbarhawkins.bsky.social #ukteenchat #ghosthawkins

Tips-wise: Keep a notebook and use it regularly, because there will be all sorts of connections there that suddenly become apparent... #ukteenchat

...As an aside - I'm currently re-reading The Hobbit (lovely hardback found on Vinted) and it's an absolute masterclass in both writing for children and world-building. Plus it's really funny. I read it when I was about 10, so it's great to come back to it. Also ALL HAIL URSULA LE GUIN!

Why thank you! I think reading other writers with rich worlds is the best advice I can give on this. Seek them out, ask other writers and readers who they like. Reading them will stir your subconscious and the stories that you have swimming about down there... #ukteenchat

6, All of your stories have such wonderfully rich world building, do you have any tips for other writers with this? @finbarhawkins.bsky.social #ukteenchat #ghosthawkins

Well that's also what I fundamentally believe about writing and why we do it. It's our subconscious connecting with the subconscious of the reader.

I like to think so. And there's a great big place out there to connect with. So first connect properly at home and we might get there!

...I was on a canal trip passing beneath the woods of the Bathford area, when the woman who owned the boat started to tell her ghost story about what happened to her brother-in-law there (I include this story in the ‘Author’s Note’). So the woods was a very prominent inspiration. #ukteenchat

Hmm… it can be any of those to be honest. With ‘Witch’ it was character for sure, with ‘Stone’, it was more plot I think - a young man navigating grief from losing a parent, how they would cope; and with ‘Ghost’ I think it was probably setting... #ukteenchat

Absolutely, never stop learning. And then putting all that into our writing ;->>

Yes, I'm a firm believer in such things, for sure. We don't really know how the universe works, but like all living things, I think it's about consciousness and connection.

...There are all sorts of rabbit holes we could go down about synchronicity and manifestation, but I did like how the blackbird was also being its symbolic namesake - leading me to different ideas, showing me different routes. They are truly magickal creatures I believe. #ukteenchat

5, What usually comes to you first, the plot, setting or character? @finbarhawkins.bsky.social #ukteenchat #ghosthawkins

...The blackbird is an interesting one as I really don’t know which came first - my being visited by them every time I went out walking, while I was writing ‘Ghost’ or how a blackbird just flitted into one of the first scenes I wrote - Marie discovering the tower of Browne’s Folly in the woods...

... liked the reverberations that go on through time with animals - how powerful they remain across time, how continually fascinated we are by them... #ukteenchat

Ha, nice gif! I’m all for animals and symbols! I think I will also feature animals in my writing - it just happens naturally. Wolves, I’m a bit obsessed with tbh - and when I discovered that the Wiltshire Wolf Sanctuary is very close to us, I knew that I needed to include it... #ukteenchat