Gabrielle Kent talks to Dr Rachel Knightley about the magic of the stories we inherit as well as those we create. Afull-time children’s author who began her career as a graphic artist for video games and lecturer in games development. Gabrielle’s work includes Alfie Bloom – a series about a boy who inherits a castle and a whole load of magical problems, Knights and Bikes – a series based on the video game of the same name, and the Rani Reports series, featuring a girl who wants to be an investigative journalist and her adventures with her rambunctious Mauritian nani. As a lifelong Discworld fan, she was overjoyed to recently collaborate with Rhianna Pratchett and Paul Kidby on Tiffany Aching’s Guide to being a Witch. She has just signed five books across two different series with a major publisher and is counting down the seconds until she can talk about them. She lives in the North East of England with her husband, daughter and agoraphobic cat.
For a writing workout based on Gabrielle’s interview with Rachel, scroll down or visit WritersGym.com to download every Writing Workout in the series.
Find out more about Gabrielle at https://gabriellekent.com
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Writing Workout based on Gabrielle’s interview
Warm-up: Recycling first drafts
“If you tear it up, you can never do anything with it.” Gabrielle Kent
Instead of deleting ideas, making a ‘recycling’ folder. Maybe on your computer, maybe physical pieces of paper, maybe both. Treat everything that goes in it as a writing prompt for something new.
Exercise 1: Future Editor
“Terry Pratchett always said writer’s block doesn’t exist and I realized after a while what he meant by that. There were times where I’d get stuck and things weren’t happening. I didn’t really have the inspiration, I’d just go away and I’d take ages before I went back to something. And then I realized what you do, you just don’t stop writing. You trust yourself as a future editor.”
Future you, who’s finished your current work in progress, comes to visit you.
They tell you the book is finished, and it’s gone exactly where you wanted it to go when it was finished.
Now all you have to do is have the fun, and enjoy the journey.
Return to your work-in-progress.
Cool-down Exercise: Rachel’s Perfectionism/Procrastination Coin
Draw a circle on a piece of paper.
Write PERFECTIONISM in the middle.
Turn it over. Write PROCRASTINATION in the middle.
Keep it where you can see it, and spin it, when you’re tempted to stop trusting Future You by trying to make it perfect, or by stopping moving it forward.