How I Became a Ghost Storyteller
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We writers are no different than other human beings whose greatest teacher is, more often than not, experience. In fact, experience is the best friend of most every writer, particularly if you subscribe to the notion of writing what you know. It’s a universal truth that writing what you know indeed makes your writing more authentic, more real, and more engaging to your readers.
The doctrine of writing what you know can take many forms, and can lead you down many unanticipated paths. Take me, for instance: I never would have guessed that being named director of a kids summer camp back in 1985 would have resulted in my publication of a series of three mystery novels (and counting) involving ghosts and witches, plus four softly spooky children’s books for emerging readers. And yet, here we are!
In this blog post, I’ll take you through my journey as a children’s book author and detail three key writing lessons I learned along the way.
Seek out inspiration in unexpected places
Though the plot of Popchuck’s Ghost — the first in my Popchuck Chronicles series — concerns a group of friends who discover mine tunnels under their camp and a resident ghost who haunts campers, I myself am not a ghost. Nor was I one of the kids at the camp.
But then I started to ask myself: what if I had been there? As the director of Camp Bickell, I already knew that the story of the ghost of Arnold Popchuck had been around for more than 75 years. And I knew that kids who attended the camp as far back as the 1950s still harboured a hidden fear of that ghost. I also knew that the kids didn’t know the ghost was created solely to keep kids safely in their cabins at night, instead of sneaking out once their counsellor fell asleep.
The ghost story I ran into was intriguing and captivating, and it teased my love of all things spooky. But it wasn’t until several years later that I realized what had been revealed to me was an opportunity to share my love of all things scary with a real audience. It’s likely that you, too, have experienced things that speak to who you are and what you love, and it is these deep inspirations and imaginings that will motivate you to write.
Being at the camp, experiencing it, listening to version after version of sightings and engagements with the ghost, and immersing myself in the actual setting made a huge difference. The camp was a canvas and the stories I’d been told truly inspired my writing — allowing me to write about what I knew, what I was experiencing, and what was right in front of me.
The importance of writing for whom you know
Finding an audience with whom to share your ideas enhances your motivation to write.
My personal motivation came from two boys named Robert and Allan, both of whom I taught in grade 7 Language Arts. Neither boy would read a book to save his own life! I couldn’t pay these guys to read throughout the school year. They were your typical reluctant readers, and they frustrated me to no end as I was desperate for them to catch the reading bug.
And then they arrived at Camp Bickell. Surprised to see me (and I them!), the conversation went something like this:
“Mr. T., what’re you doing here?”
“I’m the Camp Director for the summer,” I replied.
Robert looked at Allan. Allan looked at Robert. Then, simultaneously, they said:
“That’s GREAT! You can save us from the Ghost!”
From that point on, they regaled me with story after story involving the ghost of Arnold Popchuck. What I realized at that moment was that these two guys had big stories in their heads. With a BA degree in English Literature, I was confident I could write a short story and maybe — just maybe — they’d read it when I had them in Language Arts again when they came back to school in September. They formed the basis of my target audience — something that all writers must consider.
Robert and Allan were my first inspirations, but I quickly realized that I was going to focus on middle grade readers, particularly because that age is a great place for getting kids hooked on books. In the process, I was awakening the middle grade kid inside of me who got to tell spooky stories and release his imagination to the world.
I started writing thinking that I’d fire off a short story for them. The first draft was written by hand, on foolscap, over a 5-week period, and I just could not stop writing; 800+ double-sided pages later, I was finally done. It was an incredible feeling!
What made it truly authentic was that I literally wrote for a clear, intended audience. The authenticity resulted from using Camp Bickell and all of its camp activities, routines, celebrations, and traditions to backfill the story. If I needed to describe the outhouse (the location of my inciting incident), I would go down the spooky trail that led to it, take my notebook, and describe it in detail. During the scene of the novel when the kids were engaged in Water Wars, I made both written and mental notes and used them in the story. Lake Chapman that fronted Camp Bickell was home to a legendary fish named The Chief that everyone spoke about with deep respect — so, I used The Chief in my novel and had my main character battle with the ancient creature. And so much more!
The camp provided a cornucopia of ideas, settings, activities, and even characters, most of whom are loosely based on a number of kids who attended it. Writing what I know, for whom I know (like Robert and Allan), was what helped make Popchuck’s Ghost such a success. And it didn’t stop there.
If you don't know — find out
When it came time to write book three, Popchuck’s End, I ran into a bit of a predicament. The story I had formulated was set entirely in Salem, Massachusetts — and I’d never been there.
So, I went.
My wife and I, along with some friends, travelled to Salem the week before Hallowe’en and had the time of our lives. The best part is, of course, that I was able to take copious notes and snap pictures that I’d use later to help me describe and define the feeling of Salem, MA around Hallowe’en. Details like street names, shops, restaurants, and tours added depth and richness to the world I was describing — as did engaging in the activities that are celebrated annually in the town.
As you continue on your own writing journey, take note of the details that will provide a window for your reader to view all of those things that are known to you. As you describe your characters, your setting, and the details that support your narrative, do it in a way that is familiar to you to ease the work of trying to “make things up” as you write.
Should you need to describe settings where you have never been then you still need to do the work of researching those locations, sights, streets, etc. in order to give your work credence. Readers love to be transported to places that they’ve never been or dreamt of going to, and working to get it right is time well spent. So much information is now accessible through various search platforms, which greatly eases the task of establishing your setting’s authenticity.
As I grunt my way through the draft of my fourth novel in the Popchuck series, I’ve added a science fiction element to the story that brings science and magic together in a way to make it easy for my readers to suspend their disbelief. In order to do so with the highest effect, I’ve been reading and researching information on the multiverse theory, which purports that we exist in an infinite number of universes that exist at the same time. I’ve taken the elements of the papers that I’m reading and applied those that work to explain how it is that my “bad guy” can still be alive when, clearly, at the end of the third novel, he was dead and gone! It has been a fascinating opportunity for me to expand my knowledge and bring plausible ideas to support my premise. It’s really allowed me to work with integrity and authenticity, shaping the story so that it’s more believable.
So, ask yourself 3 simple questions:
What inspires me?
Who will want to read what I write?
What do I need to know to bring authenticity to my work?
These are guiding questions that I always ask myself before I write. It takes time, but I can guarantee that the work done ahead of the writing — and during it — will produce a much higher quality product in the end. Research, reach out, and dig deep in terms of your own inspiration and find your audience. These are the foundational elements of my own writing.
Be in touch! Send me an email or visit my website at thespookyauthor.com. I always love chatting with new authors.
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Paul Toffanello is a retired director of education and an accomplished author who has written a trilogy for junior level students called The Popchuck Chronicles. He’s also writing In Blackburn Hamlet, a softly spooky illustrated series of stories for emerging readers. Paul has presented his novels to students in over 700 schools across Canada and the United States, sharing his story and inspiring them to read.
