William Gallagher - Writing
William
Gallagher
AIM High Writing
Summary
Age range Year 4 to Year 13
Books Yes
DBS Checked Yes
Booking
Contact
+44 (0)1535 656015
aimhigh@caboodlebooks.co.uk
William Gallagher is the author of Doctor Who radio dramas plus books for the British Film Institute and Radio Times. He’s a journalist who’s been a columnist on BBC News Online and whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and The Independent.
About William
William is an international correspondent for US technology websites.
As well as writing drama for previous Doctors Colin Baker and Peter Davison, William has written and shot videos for Radio Times with David Tennant and produced films about Torchwood and Strictly Come Dancing. His first short film as a writer, Present Tense, is in production from September 2015 and he’s written for ITV’s Crossroads plus the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
William’s AIM High Writing Days
Before the day officially begins, William will take the students from the host school to one side and give them a job: they are to be news journalists writing about the day and interviewing students from the other schools.
Session 1: One-Liner Exercise
Please hide this from the students! The first session is a trick that gets everyone playing a game that ends up with a script being created! The script is then performed, developed and consideration is given to writing in groups versus writing individually.
William has lots of exciting Doctor Who tales to tell whilst working towards the aims of the day!
Session 2: Energetic Interviewing
Everyone will be on their feet and walking around the room whilst interviewing a partner. Students are told it’s the way journalists have to interview celebrities on the red carpet - but it’s also another trick! William provides ten questions for students to ask each other, he then gets them to add a few more. If there is time, William will select some students to introduce their partner as if on a TV show.
The real point of the exercise is that one of the questions gets the students to make up a gigantic, whopping lie – and then the next question asks for a small truth. Depending on what develops, William will use one or the other as the start of a prose story.
Session 3: Creating a Character in the Round
The main focus of this session is getting the whole group to create one character together, and then to create their own characters to go with it. Students can then use these additional characters for new stories or scripts and develop what has been written so far.
Session 4: News Writing
Reveal that the host school students have been working on a news story all day and encourage those students to detail what they’ve learned. Usually it will be about what the other kids have enjoyed the most. William will then ask the host students to teach the others how to interview and what to ask. The rest of this section is spent developing and writing news articles about the day.
A Selection of William’s Books
William’s Amazon Author page link: http://amzn.to/1qXyqRZ
Bookings
To book William Gallagher please contact
aimhighcaboodlebooks.co.uk
William also offers visits to schools and other settings, click here for more information.