Writing Magazine April 2020

http://www.writers-online.co.uk APRIL 2020^29

w r it ing

N

ational Pet

Day is coming

up in April. If

you are a pet

owner, it’s a reminder to check

your pet’s health care is up to date, with

vaccinations and so on, to clear out any toys

that are no longer safe, update collar tags if you

have changed your address and make sure your

home is pet friendly. For anyone who doesn’t

have a pet, it’s a good time to think about

other people – family, friends or neighbours

• who may need help looking after their pets
  due to travel plans, old age or illness.
  For free-range writers, National Pet Day
  provides a great theme to explore in different
  genres with this month’s writing workouts. The
  only rule is stick to the timings. Short, timed
  pieces mean you have to get stuck straight in,
  before your inner critic has a chance to interfere.

Memoir

Start with a list of pets, your own or other

people’s, from any period in your life. For me,

that would include my grandmother’s elderly

scottish terrier, Scottie, then Patch, the puppy

my father brought home in his coat pocket,

my best friend’s dog, my children’s house

rabbits and Sabre, the unfriendly rottweiler

that once lived next door.

Choose one. What did it look like? What

noises did it make? What did it smell like?

What did it feel like to touch or hold? Use

all your senses and make some notes. Add

some thoughts about its personality, and

how you related to it emotionally.

Next, jot down some anecdotes from this

animal’s life – any funny, touching, exciting or

worrying moments that come to mind. Choose

one and tell the story. Take fifteen minutes.

Memoir tip: Using all your senses is a

key to more fully remembering the past.

Fiction

Pets can feel like family members, or really

important friends. This story will be about

someone who either gains a pet or loses one,

which can both be life-changing events. In

my book Finding Fizz, a little girl who is

being bullied at school finds an orphaned

puppy, and having someone even smaller

and more vulnerable than she is helps her

feel stronger and the teasing less important.

In my young adult novel Drift, the death of

the dog is the first crack in the protagonist’s

sense of family as a safe and loving place.

In your story, who gains or loses a pet?

Write a character sketch – name and age,

physical description, likes and dislikes,

situation. Make some notes about the pet as

well – what kind of animal it is, its name,

age and temperament.

What is your main character’s life like

before they gain or lose their pet? That’s

the beginning. How do they find or lose it?

That’s the action. In what way is their life

different afterwards? That’s the ending.

Write the story. Take twenty minutes.

Non-fiction

Write a picture book text for young children

about how to look after a pet. Most picture

books are about thirty pages long, with a

sentence or two of writing on each page, and

part of the task is to make an artwork note

where information can be conveyed in the

illustration rather than spelt out in the text.

The easiest subject to choose is a pet you

have looked after yourself – for me, that might

be rabbits, rats or hens. Then you won’t need

to do any research. What sort of

housing does this animal need?

What food? And health care? How

can you look after its emotional needs?

Take ten minutes for a quick first draft,

to get the content. Then take another ten

to check the language, making sure it’s

pitched at a level that young children can

understand, with no long sentences. You can

include some words that may be unfamiliar,

such as ‘hutch’ or ‘dog basket’ if the picture

shows the reader what they mean.

Tip: Writing for different readerships such

as very young children is good practice for

making you really think about your reader,

what they will understand and be interested

to know.

Poetry

In this poem, the narrator is either a pet

owner talking about their pet or a pet talking

about its owner.

Get some background first by imagining

both the person and the pet, their names,

ages and personalities; their physical

attributes and how they feel about living

with each other. Write some notes.

Which one feels more interesting to you,

the owner or the animal? That will be your

narrator. Especially if you are choosing the

animal, you might consider making your

poem rhyme for comic effect but keep it

free verse if that feels more natural. Take 15

minutes. Remember to give your poem a title.

Poetry tip: Because poems feel

personal, we often assume they represent

the poet’s own experiences, thoughts and

feelings. Writing poems from a fictional

point of view helps loosen up the way we

engage as readers.

FREE

RANGE

Animal

spirit

Animal

spirit

ip:

B

Think about connections

with the animals that

live with us in

Jenny Alexander’s

pet-themed creative

writing exercises