Story by Leo Liu and Harry Benscher
Joel McKerrow’s recipe for writing is simple: to reflect your own personality and conflicts into your stories. Do this and he believes your writing will pop. It is reflected in the books that he’s written, including Heist and Urban Legend Hunters. These mystery books revolve around McKerrow’s childhood memories such as stealing $5000 worth of chocolates from his year twelve graduation and having mission impossible missions to retrieve a ball from a cranky neighbour. One of his core writing tips was show don’t tell and every character moves from they want to what they need, fighting back and forth between their shadow and their light.
He then asked 25 Year 10 students to put that art of writing into practice.
That led to the students writing about memories from their childhood, reminiscing about times that they had and how those memories influenced their writing. The six minute exercise allowed the students to focus on putting their story into words and it also provided an insight into the way that McKerrow constructs his own works.