A man walks into a school yard.
Students read out stories.
GIRL 1:
If I have my picture taken with this Band-Aid on, everybody will look at the photograph when they're old and they won't remember me as the brilliant genius I was. They'll just remember me as the idiot with the Band-Aid on his face. It's not fair.
GIRL 2:
Brussels sprouts - bad. Five of them - bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. I hate Brussels sprouts.
BOY 1:
'It wasn't a nappy', says Terry. 'I was wearing emergency, self-inflating underpants. They get a bit baggy when they deflate.'
GIRL 3:
'In case you haven't noticed, Mum,' I say, 'I'm a boy! Boys don't want to read about magic fairy ponies.'
Andy Griffiths enters a classroom.
ANDY GRIFFITHS:
Good morning.
STUDENTS:
Good morning, Andy.
REPORTER:
This is Andy Griffiths, and when it comes to authors, he's kind of a big deal.
ANDY GRIFFITHS:
And I write very stupid books.
REPORTER:
He's the author of more than 20 books, like The Day My Bum Went Psycho, the Bad Books and the Just! series.
Various books covers by Andy Griffiths.
REPORTER:
And today he's visiting this class to teach them how they can write wacky, imaginative and hilarious stories, just like him.
ANDY GRIFFITHS:
He used my head as a bowling ball.
REPORTER:
He says the most important part is brainstorming a fun storyline.
ANDY GRIFFITHS:
Now, we're going to start in the classroom. What crazy, amazing thing could happen in this classroom? Yes.
GIRL 1:
A science experiment could go wrong and the teacher turns into an animal or something.
ANDY GRIFFITHS:
And what sort of animal could your teacher turn into?
GIRL 1:
Maybe a cow or something?
GIRL 2:
Moo!
(Laughter)
ANDY GRIFFITHS:
Obviously she's a girl cow. Alright, so the principal's turned into a cow, your teacher's turned into a cow, all the teachers have turned into cows. What are we going to do?
GIRL 3:
We could do, like, the Big Fat Cow Goes Kapow.
ANDY GRIFFITHS:
Oh, you'd like to see a cow explode?
KID:
Yeah.
ANDY GRIFFITHS:
Alright, now it's your turn. Who would like to write a story?
Students raise their arms.
Time-lapse video of students going to their desks.
ANDY GRIFFITHS:
What you're going to do is draw a box, just like that and the box is going to have 'do not open'. What's coming out of the box? It could be something nice, it could be something horrible, it could be something really unexpected. It's up to you what comes out of that box. So, your 'evil me' robot is jumping out of the box and we know it's going to try to put you in the box and take over. I love that illustration. You've written, 'I lifted the lid and out flew the shadows of darkness.' What's the next line in the story?
KID 1:
I lifted the lid of this box and out popped a monster puppetmaster.
KID 2:
I lifted the lid of the box and saw this huge, scary clown with big ears.
ANDY GRIFFITHS:
Just from doing this little one scene, you've got the beginning of a really cool story.
Students draw.
REPORTER:
But what other tips does Andy have for writing a great story?
ANDY GRIFFITHS:
Number one, base the stories on your own lives and the things that have happened to you and the people in your lives. Number two, it's a really good idea to work quite quickly. So, you see, I'm just getting the ideas down as fast as I can without worrying about spelling. It won't make sense, at first creating stuff is very messy. My third tip is to rewrite your work constantly, and make it as good and clear as you can, and then I read it out to people. Alright, thank you so much, everyone.
REPORTER:
And with that, it's time for Andy to leave and for these kids to get writing.
ANDY GRIFFITHS:
And I'm going off to write my own stories now. See you later.
KIDS:
Bye, Andy!
(Giggling)
