Skip navigation Home Accessibility information
Hide this page (shortcut Esc key) - This will take you to the google website
Page Utilities
Change wallpaper
Help
Accessibility
Back to Creative Writing

Topic
 Emma Thomson Answers your Q's

  • Charlie-Host

    07 September 2012 at 12:02

    Emma Thomson Answers your Q's

     

    Love writing? Want some hints and tips? Or maybe you’d love to be an author or illustrator one day!

    Emma Thomson is the author and illustrator of over 150 books including the famous Felicity wishes and Princess Pearl.

    This is your chance to post a question and see what Emma has to say. Get your questions for Emma into this thread by midnight on Sunday 30 September when this thread will then be locked.
    All your questions will then be sent to Emma and answers will be posted on this thread a couple of weeks after that.

    Emma is also judging a creative writing competition here on the message boards. Enter by posting on the Creative Writing Competition thread or read more about Emma Thomson here on the ChildLine site.

    Have fun guys

    Charlie-Host
  • gumnaaam

    07 September 2012 at 19:53

     

    HI Emma, Deep respects for you who can imagine and write beautiful things to light up others day. But can you suggest some inspirational techniques or advices for people like me, who find so hard to get on with life and can just write depressing poems. I find it extremely difficult to break the shell of my little imagination and get into the beauty world which seems almost unbelievable. I am a poet myself only of depressing sad poems which I dont feel that proud of. So can you please just suggest how could I try to get some creative things to my pen. Or what do you do to try brush away the gloom and focus on your writing. As you're an art person you may try to draw but I dont. So I would really appreciate the help! Thankyou..
  • skylarks123

    07 September 2012 at 21:45

     

    Dear Emma,

    I love writing and I would really like to write more recreationally but I'm not quite sure how to start.  I've tried using those "exercises" that ask you to write from strange perspectives or by only using lists of words but it always ends up so clichéd!  How do you get inspired for a story / poem?  How do you start writing when faced with a blank sheet of paper?  And how do you make your prose unclichéd without turning it into "purple prose"?  My writing is at the state of ultra-violet: I need help!

    Thank you so much!

    Skylarks123 (14 year old girl)
  • ArcadeKid

    07 September 2012 at 23:54

     

    Hi Emma, 

    Im not sure how to word this but basically I'm wondering about illustration. If you are illustrating a book and it includes some of the characters in the book will you draw them the way you see them in your imagination or will you draw up a few different ideas. And do other people work with you when illustrating telling you different ways they'd like it to look?
  • Mammas-gal-4eva

    08 September 2012 at 00:10

     

    Hi Emma.

    I'm 15 (very relevant in a moment) and I love to write books soooooooo much! I love writing books aimed at my kind of age group and all my friends and relatives who read those books love them. But somewhere near the middle of the books, I seem to hit some kind of writers block, where I know what I want to happen, but either the standard of my writing slips or I don't know how to get my ideas down onto paper, or both. So I have loads of of books with great beginnings, ok middles and most of the time, no endings.

    I was wondering if you have any suggestions on how to sort this out, as everyone including me, is waiting for a finished book to read.

    I also write books for my younger cousins, featuring lots of pictures, and I want to write more, but I lack inspiration. Could you help me please?

    Thanks! xxxxx
  • Scorpio1711

    12 September 2012 at 21:54

     

    How long have you been a writer for? Did you love reading and wiritng stories when you were younger? when you were asked for the first time what do you want to be when you grow up did you automatically think, I want to be a writer?

    Laura.

     
  • Alex200

    14 September 2012 at 20:23

     

    Hi Emma.

    Can you tell me what you think of this song I wrote. This song is based on bulling because I am getting bullied at the moment but I wont waist your time tilling you about the bulling. I wrote this song in half an hour. 

    She was a little too loud she stood out from the crowd. You told her she didn't fit in and now she’s on the ground crying while you’re laughing. 

    How would you feel if that was you? You made her cry and she's one the ground. Are you happy now?

    You said she didn't fit in. How would you feel if you were her? 

    She likes Science and you don't you laughed at her because you like sport and she doesn't. You broke her down and she’s on the ground.

    Are you happy now? That you brought her down. And she's thinking there’s something wrong with her but there isn't.

    I heard that you got brought down. Is that why you brought them down. That's not an excuse no.

    Why would you bring her down when you know how it feels? 

    Are you happy now that she's on the ground and she's thinking she doesn't fit in. And at  are saying is hurting her. 

    Are you happy now.... are you happy now?

    I have a few questions to ask you.

    1. How did you become a great author?

    2. What are some key things you look for in a book?

    3. Who is your favourite author?

    4. what age were you when you started writing?

    5. Who is your favourite character you have ever made up?

    6.What is your favourite book? (when your where a kid and now). 

    7. Last question who inspired you to write. 

    I love your books and you are a big inspiration to me.

    Alex

     
  • zippy001

    15 September 2012 at 19:06

     

    Hi Emma my name is also Emma lol :P

    because im alittle older then some users on here (im 17)

    I usely write older stories find writing childrens stories quite hard. I find i keep repeting there names alot as you might see from my short story i posted on the compatisionand find that i need to slack back on detail when it comes to writing stories for younger ones any idears?

    thanx 

    XEmmaX
  • black-cute-kitty

    17 September 2012 at 20:17

     

    do you enjoy being an author?

     

                       

  • sparkleybutterfly

    19 September 2012 at 16:12

     

    Dear Emma,

    I really want to be an author when i grow older, or an illustrator. Do you have any tips on what to focus on when your writing, or where you get your idea's from?

    thanks
  • musiclover1999

    21 September 2012 at 22:01

     

    Hi Emma, I do writing for a hobby but I'd love to get one of my stories published, to see if people liked it. A girl in my english class has a book published and so I'm a little jealous.

    It would be great if you could give me some writing tips for my stories, I want something original but really interesting and myterious.

    Thanks.
  • joss100

    23 September 2012 at 21:38

     

    Hey Emma I'm going to enter the creative weighting competition and just had a thought do you remember what the first story you ever let the public read was I love weighting and reading but so far I haven't created any best sellers wish me luck in the competition jade
  • bobby4trfgvrgrb

    24 September 2012 at 13:57

     
    Charlie-Host - 07 September 2012 at 12:02

     

    Love writing? Want some hints and tips? Or maybe you’d love to be an author or illustrator one day!

    Emma Thomson is the author and illustrator of over 150 books including the famous Felicity wishes and Princess Pearl.

    This is your chance to post a question and see what Emma has to say. Get your questions for Emma into this thread by midnight on Sunday 30 September when this thread will then be locked.
    All your questions will then be sent to Emma and answers will be posted on this thread a couple of weeks after that.

    Emma is also judging a creative writing competition here on the message boards. Enter by posting on the Creative Writing Competition thread or read more about Emma Thomson here on the ChildLine site.

    Have fun guys

    Charlie-Host

     

    i am concerned about this compotition what if you cant write
  • DarkPurple77

    26 September 2012 at 15:07

     

    Dear Emma, I loved the first Nanny McPhee, but the second one just didn't do it for me. Why do you think this is? I found it funny when you say "I did knock"? BIG FAN!
  • BrilliantDalek

    26 September 2012 at 19:26

     

    Wow! Emma this is very exciting! Its really good of you to do this as well. My question is did you ever write as a way of escapism, not necessarily from something bad but just to lose yourself in something? As a young person I mean. 

     

    I like to write but sometimes I don't do it for ages, then I read loads instead. Its great for people to come and give us young people here inspiration. So thank you. 

Message Board Categories

View all message boards

New to ChildLine? 

ChildLine community

Meet the rest of the community on the Introductions message board.

Helpful info


House rules


Top ten tips


Frequently asked questions

Accessibility

We want to make sure everyone can access the information provided on this site

We've put together a few tips and help for you. Please send us a message if you can't find what you're looking for. Or you have a suggestion of something we could include.

Using the keyboard instead of the mouse
As well as using the tab key to navigate through the screen, the ChildLine website has special access keys:

Alt+S = skip navigation
Alt+1 = home
Alt+0 = accessibility information.

Is the text size too large or too small?
You can change your text settings through your browser options:

In Internet Explorer, go to View > Text size and select your desired text size setting (eg, larger, smaller).

In Firefox, go to View > Text size and increase/decrease using Ctrl and + or -

If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, you can hold down Ctrl and scroll back or forth to increase or decrease the font size in both IE and Firefox.

Changing your computer screen settings
To change the size of the image shown on your screen on a PC running Windows 95 and upwards, go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display > Settings and change the desktop area by using the sliding bar.

On an Apple Mac, you can use the Monitor & Sound Control Panel to change the resolution.

Having difficulty with your keyboard or mouse?
You can fine-tune your mouse and keyboard settings under Start > Settings > Control Panel > Accessibility in Windows 95/98/NT/2000 and XP.

Skipping navigation for talking browsers and screen readers
For speech browsers, you can press Alt and S followed by Enter to skip navigation on our pages.

The site is W3C level AA compliant.

 

Help