Last Thursday a group of Senior Hub writers got to experience a writing workshop with 27 times published author Swapna Haddow!

Check out these descriptions of our trip:

As we walked in the door there was food, schools and teachers. But then, the writer known as Swapna Haddow walked into the door! after she talked about herself we all played guess the fib because Swapna was the biggest fibber when she was a kid. The true ones were the most unbelievable ones. Also, one of them was that she met Prince Charles! After that round we played another round and the true one was that she learnt to swim in a pit of snakes. We then did a writing game. We wrote something then folded that part and then gave it to someone else who does the same thing. After about 15 minutes all of the mini stories were done. We then shared the stories. 

By Kāhu

We went to the writing workshop at 12:55pm and then we had a snack at the start. The first thing we did was two truths and a fib with Swapna. Then we listened to a little bit of a story. After that we did an activity where we wrote where Lin went and passed it onto each other. At the end we got signatures from Swapna! 

By Zac

At 12:55pm we left school and drove down to the University of Otago building and went inside. Inside there was popcorn, mandarins and some other food. Our first activity with Swapna Haddow was guess the fib! There were things up on the TV and we had to do a writing activity where we did the first section but then gave it to someone else who did the second bit then gave it to someone else and so on. The result was a totally random story! At the end of the session we got to ask Swapna questions. 

By Nate

Last Thursday, 8 people including me went to the conference room and met this woman called Swapna Haddow. We were going to do some fun stuff with her. The first thing we did was guess which story was true. I got a bit right, but most of the time stories were unbelievable but funny. The next thing we did was continuing a part of her book. It was pretty fun. Some people read out their paper and it was funny. 

By Lina

At 12:55pm we all got ready to go to meet Swapna Haddow at the university. We all got into the cars. Johanna, Lina, Cohen and I in Mr Waddell's car and Max, Kahu, Nate and Zac in Mrs Lintotts car. We drove down to the university and got directions to the conference room. We were given name tags. We then ticked off our names on the list and took our seats. Once everyone had taken their seats, Swapna introduced herself. The reason she got into writing fiction was because she liked making up stories. She then read the first few chapters from her "Bad Panda" story. She started to hand out sheets and we had to write and fold and then pass it on. Some people read their stories aloud. Then we took a selfie and went back to school.

By Emily

At 12:55pm we went to the Otago University for the writing workshop. At the University we went into a room full of different people. We got some snacks and sat down at a table. An author of lots of books named Swapna Haddow was there. She told us about her books and tips on how to make our writing interesting. She gave us a sheet and we wrote the next part of a story and folded it over then gave it to someone else. At the end we got ours back and had to read it. Then we went back to school and it was time to go home!

By Cohen