Fleur Beale visits the Richmond library.

On Wednesday the 9th, a group of student librarians from Motueka South School went to visit Fleur Beale in the Richmond library. There were 7 librarians from our school who went. They were me (Skyla), Rebecca, Sophie, Josie, Brendon and Herepo. Thanks to Fi, we were able to get there and back.
When we got to the library, we stood outside for a minute while Fi took a photo of us.
We went into the library and most of the schools were there. I thought we were late!
A librarian from the library lead us into the area where all the children's chapter books were.
Our school took over the big brown cushions and read a few magazines. We made ourselves comfortable, not knowing that we were not meeting Fleur in there.
After awhile we were led into the meeting room where Fleur was standing by a huge whiteboard. On the board were all the names of the schools. They were Ngatimoti, Upper Moutere, Lower Moutere, Riwaka, Tasman Bay Christian school, Motueka South and one other one that I can't remember.
Fleur asked us if we were all here but one school wasn't so we had to start without them.
She asked us if there was anything we wanted to go over. One school wanted to know about how to keep the start of the story realistic. Another wanted to know how to keep the middle interesting. Our school asked if there were techniques that you could use that would make writing easier.
Fleur first talked about a hill in the middle and that if that hill in the middle has a good curve, then it will be interesting the rest of the way. But if the hill is all sloppy, well, then it won't be very interesting.
After about 15 minutes of just talking we moved on to techniques.
Fleur said she had met an author once that wrote all the paragraphs in different colours. Fleur said,"I've tried and tried to use that technique but it just doesn't work for me".
The discusion ended and Fleur asked us to write a story with the first sentence, 'The lift shuddered and the lights went out'. Fleur came round to check on everyone. When she got to me she said,"Great dialogue," and when she got to Rebecca, she said,"Have a gold star".
Rebecca was delighted.
Finally it was time to go. On our way out, the librarian handed us each a 'JAM' magazine and a book mark.
We hopped in Fi's van and started off towards Motueka.
We all really enjoiyed our time at the library and hope to see Fleur Beale in the future.

By Skyla.