Lois Letchford uses the opening of How to Train Your Dragon to show how authors create conflict. She breaks down Hiccup's unlikely leadership, the tribe's skepticism, and the all-caps emphasis Cressida Rowling uses to hook readers, then asks writers to rewrite scenes with similar emotional stakes.
Chapters
Hello, I am Lois Letchford, author of the book Reverse the Memoir and literacy problem solver. And this week is particularly, particularly focusing on writing. And the title is Read Like a Writer and write like a reader. How do we do that? And how do we encourage our children to read and write and look at writing through the eyes of a reader? Or look at reading through the eyes of a writer and what we can learn from that. Because conflict creates books. And now conflict doesn't mean fighting. But it's how the author sets it up, sets up the story. Conflict. What is it? Look at— and then we're looking at the book through the eyes of the author and saying, what has the author done? And we're going to look at what it is, why it's important, why and how the authors do this sort of conflict. 'Cause we want our young writers to be just like the brilliant people of the authors that are writing the books. Using the book How to Train Your Dragon. And yesterday, last recording, I talked about the author's note at the beginning of the book and how she set up a conflict there. And now we're looking at chapter 1. And in chapter 1, We've, we're set up with where they are and what's happening, and then we've got the conflict. So what is the conflict? I want you to read through chapter 1 again or listen to it and decide what is the conflict that's coming up on page 1. And the first conflict is 10 boys, including Hiccup, were hoping to become full members of the tribe by passing their dragon initiation test. That's the first thing, isn't it? That's a conflict. That's setting a goal for the characters in the book. Their goal is to go from where they are to passing the dragon initiation test. That's That's our problem. That's the problem that's coming up. And then we've got, like, Gobba the Belch saying, pay attention, and it's written in all caps. So that's what I've done. It's written all in all caps. The group are going to do something, and then the leader is saying, pay attention. Now the next thing we have are members of the tribe. This and he get pay it. Gobber the Belch goes on and says, this is your first military operation, so we've got something to do. And then he says, and Hiccup will be commanding your team. So we've put a leader in charge. There's another conflict. Dog's Breath says, oh no. Not Hiccup. So we're learning that Hiccup is not a brilliant leader, or people in his group don't think he's a good leader. He's useless. So we've got not only got what Hiccup is, but then he is useless. Then we have this repetition of the Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the hope and the heir to the tribe of the hairy hooligans, wiped his nose miserably on his sleeve. You can imagine it, so do it. And he sank a little deeper in the snow. What's the author done by adding, he sank a little deeper in the snow? Why has she put those words there? Because it's telling us that even Hiccup is not confident, that he is feeling hopeless. So we've got the conflict, and when we show this to our students, we're asking them, whose side are you on? Are we feeling for Hiccup, or we are on the side of Dog's Breath? 2 sides. Where do you sit? Where are you as a reader? The reader. We're getting children to think not only about reading the book, but why the author has put those words there. She's engaged the reader. Now we've got this, this two-sided conflict. We've got Hiccup, who appears to be hopeless, and he thinks himself that he is. Well, we were told right at the beginning, that he's not a hero, and hero worship or hero becoming has not been easy for him. But we're also, or the author is also asking the question, what response do we want from the reader? Are we feeling with poor Hiccup, or are we with Dogsbread? So when we are writing, that's the question we should be asking. What response do we want from the reader? An emotional response? A laughter? Tears? What is it that we want from our reader? Whose side are you on? Think about that as you set up the conflict, because all the time in reading, we want the readers engaged. And how do you engage the reader? It is through the conflict. And how do we get better at writing? As Stephen King says, you keep reading, but keep reading through the eyes of— read like a writer, write like a reader. Listen to the book How to Train Your Dragon and go back to the book and Listen again. Ask the questions: where is the conflict? What's the author done to set up the conflict and keep me engaged as a reader? And another exercise is simply to take this page and rewrite it in your words, setting up a similar Conflict. You read a lot and you write a lot, and that's how you become a better reader and writer. Thank you. I'm Lois Letchford. Join me again. Hit like and hit subscribe and keep listening.
