Peer inside the mind of an author and help pupils understand how to write an awkward meeting with this character writing KS2 WAGOLL resource pack. It’s based on Emma Carroll’s novel The Houdini Inheritance.
This resource contains:
- Extract from The Houdini Inheritance by Emma Carroll
- ‘How writers can create an awkward meeting’ poster
- ‘Exploring writers’ techniques’ worksheet
- ‘Exploring writers’ techniques’ working wall display
- Potential awkward meeting images
- Planning sheet
Your class will work towards planning and writing their own awkward meeting in which a ‘celebrity’ of some kind visits a very normal, perhaps humble, setting, using a first-person narrator to describe everything and give personal reflections.
Their challenge will be to suggest the bizarreness through contrasts and actions. They may even attempt to suggest backstory through a tiny flashback, and hint at later plot-points with mysterious objects.
Character writing KS2 tips
As most writers will tell you, there’s no drama without conflict, so sometimes we need characters to feel awkward with each other for them to then work through their differences.
Unlikely characters
Make sure your characters don’t connect straight away. This might be because they’ve previously had an argument or don’t like each other, or maybe they’re simply people who don’t have anything in common.
Setting the scene
Have the meeting take place somewhere physically uncomfortable, so it’s obvious your characters aren’t relaxed.
It might be in a stuffy train carriage, for example, or on the street in the pouring rain. An awkward setting will add to the tension.
Choose your words
The right verbs and adjectives can really enhance the mood of a scene. When you’re trying to create tension, go for a few well-chosen words rather than lengthy descriptions.
Pace is important – you want your reader to be on edge.
Verbal communication
Speech is a great way to show tension. In real life people often don’t say exactly what they mean, especially when they’re uncomfortable, so try to include interruptions, long pauses, and people saying too much or not enough.
Non-verbal cues
Over 93 per cent of human communication is non-verbal, so it’s a vital way to indicate how your characters are feeling.
Tell us about their body language, facial expressions and tone of voice. Describe the way they fidget when they’re on edge
What is The Houdini Inheritance about?
Best friends Glory and Dennis are thrown headlong into a world of danger and mystery when they find themselves in possession of world-famous performer Harry Houdini’s travelling trunk.
Nowadays, in real life, ‘Trunk No8’ resides in a museum in New York, put there by Houdini’s brother, to whom it was bequeathed when the magician died suddenly in 1926.
The final months of Houdini’s life were plagued by his paranoia that a rival, or one of his many enemies, would steal the props and top-secret notes the trunk contained.
In the first scene Glory and Harry Houdini meet. Things don’t go well. The handcuffs jam. Houdini is left humiliated on stage. Glory wants to die on the spot.
Her only remedy is to take him back to her house, where the keys to the cuffs are kept. There, Glory faces not only Houdini’s fury but that of her elder sister, Effie, who’s barely forgiven her for bringing a puppy home the previous day.
This scene develops into the inciting incident, the moment when Glory’s ordinary life changes for ever. By the time Houdini finishes his cup of tea and leaves her kitchen, she’s already stepped into his world.
Browse more WAGOLL packs from real authors.
