David Mcrobbie: 13 books

In the second Roads To Writing, we explore the important business of getting ideas for our stories. As David McRobbie, points out you need an idea to start your story and a whole succession of them to keep it going. The first part talks about the beginning of ideas and where they come from. The second...

David McRobbie is an Australian writer for children and young adults who has written and published more than forty books, ten radio plays and three television series, all of which employ dialogue. He’s been at the writing game for fifty-six years and now wants to put some of his techniques on record....

This is an essay, a personal view, on the craft of writing mystery fiction, or whodunits. It looks at finding plot ideas, creating the detective character and suspects. The essay goes on to explore the tricky business of laying clues within a story, together with some cunning tricks to disguise them.

Some say your teenage years are like falling up stairs — sometimes painful, but you'll eventually get there. Here then are two separate stories about boys who are in the middle of their hurtful journeys. The first boy, Matthew, aims to win the girl of his dreams, but the dreams keep interfering...

Mandragora is the story of four old curses that destroyed a 19th century sailing ship, the Dunarling, and most of her passengers and crew. A hundred years later four teenagers uncover the objects that carried the curses — and the evil starts again, but this time in the small coastal town that bears...

This essay deals with conflict in creative writing. It explains what it is and how it can be incorporated into stories. There is a chapter dealing with the definition of conflict, another has a directory of conflicts then follows many examples of conflict being used to bring stories to life.

Rob Braden is an ordinary schoolboy in a typical high school. Then Livy crashes her way into his peaceful life. Livy is the She of the story. Livy starts to annoy Rob, first in a small way, but then things become serious.She challenges Rob to a dare, which he reluctantly undertakes. Then they both...

The English writer, Samuel Johnson once declared: ‘Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where to find information on it.’ This resource for teachers contains forty challenges which invite students to name things within a given category. An example is to collect the...

The third Roads to Writing essay deals with Exposition, which is an essential part of all storytelling. It is the who, when, why, how and where of what went before. Exposition is background that makes sense of the foreground in your story. In this essay there is discussion on how exposition works...

Shaun is no ordinary teenage boy, in fact he’s not a boy at all. Shaun is a robot, otherwise known as Robo-dude, a domestic helper around the house. He has been bought by mother and daughter, Sandra and Chloe Wilson to bring some order into their busy lives. After a few teething problems, Shaun...

The practice of ‘initiation’, hazing or bullying is frequently in the news. It is not an experience reserved for working class victims as reports of incidents in university halls of residence will show. The so-called ‘tradition’ pervades the highest levels of business, the medical profession...

It is 1937 and the London to Glasgow train crashes one wintry Scottish night. Shortly after that tragic event two ghosts appear — a girl and boy who had been living passengers on the train. The ghosts somehow find their way into a nearby orphanage where only 12-year-old Beatrice McMullin can see...

Teenager Bill Fields and his father move into a new but old house, which is one of four identical dwellings in Prior’s Pocket. For Bill, the place takes some getting used to; it’s old and spooky, especially in the daytime when he comes home to an empty house.One day, he finds the place has an...