Half-day author visits for middle schools
An engaging school-wide assembly followed by one or two interactive writing workshops. Students leave with a Young Author's Certificate!
Fiction Factory Workshops is a single visit with two parts. First, a large assembly gets middle schoolers excited about where stories begin. Second, small-group workshops help students begin to write their own stories.
This deliberate structure connects broad inspiration with deep engagement. The assembly excites the entire school, while the follow-up workshop allows a group of students to immediately act on that inspiration.
The programme is written for middle school students. The assembly works for a full middle school audience, and the workshops draw smaller groups from within it. If your school covers a wider band of ages, say so on the request form and the session is pitched to the room you actually have.
Room layout, equipment, session timings, how the workshop groups are chosen and arrival time are all agreed in writing once a date is settled. Nothing about the day is left for the morning itself.
Each format has its own page, because a principal and a librarian tend to want different answers about them.
Part one
A high-energy session for the whole school, built around Secrets from the Sky and the idea that started it. Students hear where a story comes from before anyone asks them to write one.
Every story starts with one idea. What will yours be?
Part two
Up to ten students per workshop, so nobody sits at the back. Hands-on writing activities, and time to read work out loud to the group.
Afterwards
A Young Author Certificate, the piece they wrote, and a better answer to the question of whether their ideas are worth writing down.
Both are a half-day visit. The difference is how many students get into a workshop.
Any combination of assembly and student workshops can be arranged.
Send the dates you are considering and the grades you want in the room. No payment is taken on this website.
