Write Your Own Chillers

By Pie Corbett

• Interactive ebook with 'Time to Write' and 'Writing Tips' waiting to be revealed at the press of a button
• Learn how to create your own characters, captivate your readers, set up great scenarios and end with the ultimate twist
• Chapters include Flights of Fantasy, Tricks of the Trade, Putting Pen to Paper and Editing and Publishing.

A good fantasy takes you out of this world and creates a world that is wonderful and real. So why not write your own? This book gives you all you need to entrance your readers and get them searching for clues.

Full of tips, advice and new ways of approaching creative writing, this is a handy guide for every aspiring writer.

Author Information

Pie Corbett, educationalist and author, is well-known for his books on teaching creative writing, as well as many other educational books, schemes and anthologies. Pie writes widely in the educational press, provides training nationally and works as a poet and storyteller in schools.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Sep 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781843652885

Pie Corbett

Pie Corbett has advised the National Literacy Strategy for both the Primary and Key Stage 3 phase. He works across the country, running inset and development projects - and was co-leader of the DfES Innovations project on 'Storymaking', based at the International Learning and Research Centre. Author of over 250 books, he writes poetry, stories and materials for teachers. He has compiled many best-selling anthologies for Macmillan Children’s Books including A First Poetry Book and Assembly Poems.

Book preview

MORE GREAT TITLES FROM

PAVILION CHILDREN'S BOOKS

  

  

To Daisy

CONTENTS

FEEL THE CHILL

Thinking about chillers

WRITERS AT WORK

Starting your own story

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

How to hypnotise your readers

PUTTING PEN TO PAPER

Kick-start your writing

EDITING AND PUBLISHING

Polishing your tale

GLOSSARY

INDEX

FEEL THE CHILL

THINKING ABOUT CHILLERS

The attic door creaked open. Something rustled in the darkness. I stared, but could see nothing beyond the vague shapes of old suitcases and boxes piled high. It smelt damp. Thick dust powdered every surface.

I carefully made my way forwards, balancing on the floor beams. I kept thinking I could put my foot through the plaster and fall straight through into the room below. A cobweb brushed my face and I felt the sudden tickle of a spider crawl across my cheek. I stopped at a pile of old camping equipment. It was a jumble of guy ropes, torn canvas, poles and wooden pegs. Then I saw the hand, quite still and white. At first I thought it was marble. But then it moved.

Exciting stuff, isn’t it? It makes you want to read on. Who is exploring the attic? What are they looking for? Most importantly, whose hand is it? If you like reading spine-chilling stories, then how about writing one too? This book will help you write your own chilling adventure.

WHAT IS A CHILLER?

Many people like nothing more than imagining a dark night in a graveyard with something frightening floating about! Any story like this that makes the air turn cold is a chiller. Chillers are truly frightening tales!

A chiller can be:

a story about ghosts and hauntings;

a tale about monsters;

a weird, unsolved mystery;

a story about a strange, supernatural event.

In the story there might be:

ghosts, ghouls, mutants, mummies, weirdos, monsters, vampires;

a heroine, a hero, loyal friends, an old woman rumoured to be a witch, a brave teacher or professor, a strange tramp, a wise museum curator, the police, an evil inventor;

a run-down block of flats, a science laboratory, an enchanted wood, a ghost town, an old church, a ruined castle, a cave full of bones, a library of strange old books, a deserted road.

WHAT DO I NEED TO WRITE MY OWN CHILLER?

You don’t need much equipment. I started out as a writer using just a notebook and a