Des Hunt visits Forrest Hill School

We were very impressed to have Des Hunt at our school. It was so cool that he showed us his history as a writer and how he had become a famous book writer.  He said part of trying to have a book published were rejection letters.  Dr Seuss and J K Rowlings received rejection letters for their work just like he did for his first book.  Don't give up. Think about the audience you are writing for and keep making your writing better.

Des Hunt was a science teacher.  He uses science through all his books. He did science experiments for us. They were really cool.  Science is awesome!

To show us how to write a story that keeps the reader interested right through to the end, he started with 2 broom sticks.  He had connected these 2 broomsticks side by side together and had a magnet at one end. Des called the broomstick the book.  He started with a big round magnet and gave it a little push along the broomstick track.  It rolled a little way down and then stopped. The reader couldn't get into this story. Something was missing.

So he added a hook at the beginning and gave the ball another push and it rolled further and grabbed onto a magnet he had placed a little way down the track.  The reader was hooked! The reader now wants to keep reading this story!  Introduce the characters and the setting in the first part of the story in a way the reader just has to know more. 

From here the reader wants to see the action happening so make the story build up through the problem then to a climax near the end. And that is what makes a great story! 

Our favourite part was at the end where he had a huge build up to the main event.  He told us about his machine he had invented that was radioactive. He put on all his safety equipment and warmed up the machine. It glowed and flashed and when he added heat it started to blow up a balloon. The balloon got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger - this is all the suspense and excitement building up to what was going to happen.  He added water and heat and loudness them BAM! The balloon was so big it finally burst with a huge pop!  This was the climax to his story!  

Steel Wool 

Writing a Book  - Attraction and Revulsion

Nuclear Fusion Science