Scrumpalicious and other such words

“But you’re not really an author are you Wendy?” the children ask!  My current charges are not quite convinced of my credentials despite having seen my name in print on The Gingerbread Man, despite having heard the story, despite having said  “that was really good”, and despite seeing me on YouTube.

Am I an author? Well, I rewrote the story of The Gingerbread Man so that’s a start.  I decided to rewrite the classic tale using rhyme.  Using rhyme is a great way to encourage participation in the telling of the story.  The rhythm created when using rhyme produces a pattern that children can follow and anticipate the next piece of the pattern, or in this case, story.

I kept to the traditional sequence of the story and with the added bonus of the already famous “run, run, as fast as you can” section, I was off…

Writing is a creative process and the task of rhyming everything certainly made me scurry around every corner of my creative store cupboard!

I kept a small notebook with me at all times.  When I say at all times, I really do mean at all times.  I discovered how important this was when I was in the shower mid hair wash, and the perfect rhyming string came to me.  I had to repeat the string so I didn’t forget it whilst quickly rinsing the shampoo out and then scurrying around the flat to find something to write with, and anything to write on.  Lesson learnt! 

How creative did I have to become?  Well, I liked one word so much I used it three times, but not once in its original format.  Confused? Scrumptious means tasting extremely good, but boy, is this gingerbread man full of himself.  He’s better than good, and better than plain, old scrumptious…

I have created enhanced versions of scrumptious in this story.  The gingerbread man in my story is so good, I had to make up new words to describe just how amazing he was.  I played with the word, and how I could fit it into the pattern and rhythm of the story, and came up with scrumpalicious, scrumpmunchious and scrumptastic.  Doesn’t that make him sound like the most amazing gingerbread man that ever was baked?  You want to eat him now too don’t you?  Well, you’d better get your running shoes on and get in training, he’s a fast little blighter!