As an author I like going into schools and talking about writing. If you’d like me to come to do a talk at your school send an email to skaldstavern@gmail.com and put ‘SCHOOL VISIT’ followed by the name of your school in the subject line. I’m on the Scottish Book Trust database and my profile can be found here.

I currently have two workshops that I do. The first one covers:

• How to come up with plots
• How to describe your surroundings by using your five senses
• Character building

This is suitable for both primary and secondary school pupils as I can scale up the complexity of what I’m teaching to match the class. It’s fun, it’s engaging and it teaches a lot about writing.

The second workshop is online. I call into the classroom, share my screen and put up a picture. Then I write a short story based on the picture, explaining my process as I go along. The students are encouraged to also write their own stories at the same time, which can be finished at a later point if necessary. I also answer questions the students have as they come up. It’s a very laid back but productive session, based on The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross.