500 Words 2020 - Live Lesson

VOICEOVER: Live from Liverpool to schools across the UK, join us on a journey through time and space with your hosts... Star of CBBC HQ and the host of CBBC Book Club, Rhys Stephenson. A familiar furry face. And the host of BBC Radio Two's Breakfast Show....

HACKER: Zoe, Zoe, Zoe, Zoe Ball.

VOICEOVER: Featuring authors and 500 Words judges Charlie Higson, Francesca Simon, and Frank Cottrell Boyce, it's the 500 Words 2020 Live Lesson.

ZOE: You alright, you alright? Come on, brilliant. Hello, hello and welcome to our very special 500 Words Live Lesson, coming to you live from an amazing school in Liverpool, are we all alright this morning gang? We are. This year we're celebrating all that 500 Words has achieved over the last decade, and we're gathering inspiration from stories that defy time and space by travelling through time.

RHYS: Ooh!

HACKER: Ooh time travel, wahey, does that mean we can go forward a hundred years and meet aliens, or go back to the time of the dinosaurs?

RHYS: You know Hacker for once you are actually right, it is very exciting indeed, and even more we are joined by some incredible guests here today, our amazing 500 Words judges, "The Enemy" and "Young Bond" author Charlie Higson. applause Author of the Horrid Henry series Francesca Simon. applause And screenwriter and author of "Millions", "Cosmic" and the sequel to "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", Frank Cottrell Boyce. applause Yes, we'll be speaking to them a little bit later on to get their top tips and advice on how to help you create your very own 500 Words story, they will also be answering your questions at the end of the show.

ZOE: Now if you're watching us in your classrooms welcome, welcome, we would love to hear from you this morning. We're gonna be doing lots of activities throughout the show and we'd love to see your ideas. Loads of you have already been in touch, thank you, and if you have you might see your school name on the bottom of the screen now, fame at last. But if you haven't, Hacker is here to give you a quick overview of the practicalities, people.

HACKER: Thanks Zo, oh yes teachers send in your pictures, questions and comments to teach.bbc@bbc.co.uk, or tweet us at bbc_teach, with the 'ashtag, 'ashtag-500wordslesson. Yes you heard me right, ashtag. If you are sending in pictures of children please remember to confirm in the email that you are the teacher of the children featured, and that you have parental consent, thank you.

RHYS: Very very serious terms and conditions there, I'm not used to him being serious, it's weird, ah, now today we're going to be looking to the past, present and future, for inspiration for our stories but, before we begin properly I think it would be timely, hey, right -

ZOE: Nice, slick, get that.

RHYS: - they get it, see what I did there - to get our brains in gear with a quick fire activity.

ZOE: Okay Rhys timing is everything especially making a wonderful gag like that, today is all about inspiration, right now we want you to all have a think of a story that really inspires your imagination, whether it's set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, or centuries in the future.

RHYS: Now this could be a fairy tale that you think still stands up today, a book you love reading or a film that you remember long after you've seen it.

HACKER: Yeah and anything where the dog's the hero that's the good one to remember, whoops!

ZOE: Ah yes, like Dog Man, I love that, I love Dog Man. Okay chat about it to your teachers or perhaps your mate who's sat next to you, or you could write your thoughts down on a piece of paper, and as time is of the essence we're gonna be giving you just ten seconds to do this, we can all do it, are you ready, to think about a story that inspires your imagination everybody ready? Get set, go! ..

RHYS: Ooh and your ten seconds are up let's see what ideas you have, what have you got?

GIRL: Um, I like Oliver Twist.

RHYS: Oliver Twist, I like that, do you like the musical as well? Yeah. I love it, sings where is love? It's a little bit of it for you - What story, what films inspire you?

BOY: Boy Giant.

RHYS: Boy Giant? Do you want to be a giant?

BOY: No.

RHYS: I think it would be quite fun, I am one, I feel like one right now. Those are some super examples, and now remember the reason why you thought those stories are so inspiring because we're gonna be soon going to create our very own timeless tales.

ZOE: Thank you very much Rhys and to help us we have our spectacular 500 Word judges, Charlie, Francesca and Frank, thanks so much, ah, for joining us, hearing some ideas there, um, some examples Boy Giant, liking the sound sound of that, Oliver Twist an amazing story with some great twists and turns, today we're gonna be learning how we can create our own stories. We've got some items now to help us how to remember to do that. Charlie, we're gonna come to you first. Charlie, gonna ask you for a bit of advice, what do you think makes a great story?

CHARLIE: I think a great story needs to connect with people. ZOE: Yeah. C: You want to make your readers feel something, you make them laugh, cry or be scared, or even just smile thoughtfully.

ZOE: I like that, yeah holding your chin like that, that's the right -

CHARLIE: overlap Yes, and another way to connect is to show them themselves in the story, and see things from their own lives or wonder what it would be like to actually meet one of those characters in real life.

ZOE: Okay, right this is all good food for thought. Francesca, ah, what do you think the key is to helping your reader connect with the story?

FRANCESCA: Well I think you need to think about who is actually telling the story, is it a narrator who knows everything, who can go anywhere, who sees everything? Or, are you telling the story from the point of view of one specific character, so it's I saw this and I'm doing that. So how does this specific character see the world, and take us, the character can take us through the story we're seeing it through their eyes. Cos different people and different characters have different points of view, for example if you have a huge feast laid out and there's a dog, the dog jumps on the table, eats everything and goes, oh boy - HACKER: Oh boy! FRANK: - what a feast, what a feast! And the human comes in and goes, "Agh! My dinner! Bad dog!" So, same story, two totally different point of views, so, by the way that the character tells the story you get a real insight into their world and how they view their life, and what's important to them.

ZOE: Okay Francesca brilliant, that was perfect, and it's very clear, ah, that we need to remember one thing okay, we've only got 500 words to play with - that seems like loads, but it's essential of course that we end the story well. Frank you've got some tips, how are we ending the stories?

FRANK: overlap Yeah, endings are really hard, so we've come up with three different kinds of ending and one very easy way to remember them. You could think of endings like punctuation marks, so you could have an ending that's like a full stop that leaves the story, all the loose ends nicely tied up and leaves you feeling, ah, that was just right. Or you could have an ending that's like a question mark, that leaves you wondering, ooh, wonder what's gonna happen next? Or, you could have an ending that's like an exclamation mark, like a complete surprise ending that makes you end thinking, whoa I was not expecting that to happen!

ZOE: Okay I love that, ah, so for example if you had a Hansel and Gretel story, and you wanted to give it a bit of a twist perhaps Hansel and Gretel could set up a bakery with the witch, they could call it Gretz, they could do a vegan sausage roll, they could do big business. I mean we can play here, can't we, Frank?

FRANK: You certainly can, that gets an exclamation mark AND a question mark - ZOE: Right. FRANK: - so, but remember these are not, these are not rules these are just to help you think about it, you make your own rules when you're writing your own story..

ZOE: Okay, you guys always give brilliant, brilliant advice. We're gonna be using it to create our stories with the help of our judges very shortly, but now it's time to take a journey through time.

RHYS: Indeed it is, many great stories have been inspired by times gone by and in our first section we're gonna be taking inspiration from stories about the past like -

HACKER: Ooh!

RHYS: Yes Hetty Feather, or War Horse, and we've got our amazing time machine here, very expensive. Our first stop is England in the Tudor period so Hacker - HACKER: What? RHYS: - we're gonna be sending you to learn how the people of that time lived and how we can be inspired by them to create our very own stories. Are you ready?

HACKER: I am so ready for this, cocker! - Rhys will you do it? RHYS: Right, I've got you don't worry. HACKER: Yeah .. sound effects

HACKER: Hello cockers, wahey! I'm going back in time with this lot to find out how people lived in the past.

CHILDREN: Yay!

HACKER: To write a story about the past you need to put yourself in their shoes, so let me just get my - I mean their shoes on. - Oh lovely these, nearly there cocker I'm just fastening them, double knots you never know, ha ha. Here we go!

HACKER: Hey it looks busy in here, cocker, what are we up to?

ALICE: Well we've got a wedding feast to prepare for, there's lots to do we've got to cook, we've got to clean, gotta get all the food ready for the feast.

HACKER: Looks proper hard work that does, cocker. Do you lot not have kitchen taps?

ALICE: Well how else are we gonna get water from the well to the kitchen?

HACKER: You know, water goes through those long skinny pipe things and it comes out the other - oh never mind!

HACKER: I love a party, cockers. Bring on the meat paste!

LADY: I'm not so sure what you mean about meat paste, but we have all sorts of lovely delectables - we have roast boar's head, roast chicken, and here we have our blackbird pie.

HACKER: Urgh no, blackbird pie, yuck! I mean, no offence.

LADY: Oh but it's quite good fun, you open it up with a knife and the blackbirds all fly out. ..

HACKER: Right what we doing now, what's all this?

LADY: Well any good wedding feast will have dancing to show off their skill and their grace.

HACKER: Why aren't you dancing, Alice?

ALICE: Well we're not allowed to dance with the lords and ladies. We wouldn't really want to anyway look at them all being fancy and strutting around, we like to have fun when we have a dance.

HACKER: We have dances too in the modern day.

ALICE: Ooh.

HACKER: Do you like this one, um .. Anyone like it? Just - just me then, unclear?

HACKER: Man, I've learned a lot today ha! The Tudor folk were a strange bunch, but isn't it interesting to see that some things stay the same cocker, oh yeah. Right, got to run, I'm literally itching to tell my mum that Queen Elizabeth the First was considered one of the cleanest women in the country, and she only took a bath a few times a year, ha. I'll see you back in the future, or the present. It's messing with my mind, all this time travel. ..

ZOE: Wow, what a trip that was, are you feeling alright after that time travel, Hacker?

HACKER: Right as rain, Zoe Ball, right as rain.

ZOE: Hacker found out some weird and wonderful facts there about life in the Tudor period. Francesca, how can we be inspired, how can we be inspired by stories from our past, would you say?

FRANCESCA: Well all writers ask themselves questions as they start writing a story and if you wanted to set a story in the past you should ask yourself, what's the same about the past, and what's different? So for example if you wanted to write about a Stone Age family you'd say okay it's a family, but what would be different is instead of sitting around in the evening watching telly, they might be sitting round the camp fire throwing bones at each other.

HACKER: It sounds good to me, cocker.

ZOE: Yes definitely.

FRANCESCA: And I'm working on a story at the moment, two terrible Vikings, and then in this family and in this world the parents would punish those terrible Vikings for sharing or for being nice to each other, they want them to fight and argue.

ZOE: Okay yeah.

RHYS: (unclear) my sisters they would have loved me. And one of the other top tips we mentioned earlier is thinking about who is telling the story. So how can we do this with a story that is inspired by history?

FRANCESCA: Well you have to ask yourself, is the person telling the story a time traveller from the present, or is it a character from the past? But if it's a character from the past is it a princess, is it a peasant? They are going to have very different points of view about how they tell their story. But remember if you're being inspired by the past you don't have to set your story in the past. I wrote a story called The Sleeping Army, and in that story it's set in modern Britain but it's a world where people still worship the old Viking gods, so I brought the past into the present. Because you are allowed to twist things, it's your story.

ZOE: This is gold, this stuff from Francesca. Frank mentioned earlier about ending a story well so, how might we do this with a story inspired by the past - we're talking about endings, Francesca.

FRANCESCA: Well yeah so the same, the same ideas apply - you can tie it all up neatly, they lived happily ever after, you can leave it mysterious, does he choose the lady or the tiger? Or my favourite ending which is always on a twist, you can change history, it's your story. So for example what if our world existed where the dinosaurs still walked the Earth, they never became extinct. Or what if the Germans had invaded mainland Britain during World War Two? All is open to you.

RHYS: Now these are some great ideas, and don't try and steal them, you lot - cos I'm watching you. Cos we want you to come up with your very own spin on a story inspired by history and for this you'll need your activity sheets. So on your sheets you'll find some examples of time periods in the past that might inspire a story, and we want you to choose one of these periods and come up with an idea for a story.

ZOE: Doesn't have to be a full story plan just the seed of an idea.

HACKER: Well I've got one cocker, like a sixteenth century girl starts a flossing dance craze in dance loving Tudor Britain.

ZOE: There he goes, once he starts flossing he can't stop, something like that, Hacker - that's brilliant. Remember you might want to think about who's telling the story, how you might want to end your story, but don't worry if you don't get through all of it - you can finish your ideas off later on, after the show.

RHYS: And teachers we want to see your student ideas as well so, send them in using the details on the screen. Now we're gonna be giving you 60 seconds to select a time period and jot down your story idea inspired by that time period. Are you ready?

HACKER: Yeah.

RHYS: Steady.#

HACKER: Yeah.

RHYS: Go!

HACKER: Go!

RHYS: And time is up, stop, stop writing, stop it. Let's see what we've got here in the studio what historical ideas have you got?

GIRL: Like, where Vikings start fighting every day and then, so they just become like a bit friendly and make the world a bit better.

RHYS: Ahh - bless you, friendly Vikings, I love it. And what about you?

BOY: I done Romans.

RHYS: Okay, well what about the Romans?

BOY: I done like the way they fought everyone and they was really good in war but they never ever lost except for once, and that was from Britain.

RHYS: True, and that was a big loss. You can call it "How to Conquer the World 101", those are some perfectly periodic points of views. What do you think, Francesca?

FRANCESCA: Well I love the imagination in these stories. I was just thinking about those friendly Vikings. Maybe they get together with the not so friendly Romans, cos sometimes it's fun to combine two completely separate ideas and come up with something kind of explosive.

ZOE: Fantastic work. Look at that, in just 60 seconds as well. And we're gonna have a look at some of the ideas that have come in from people watching, you guys watching at home in your classrooms. "Our story is set in ancient Egypt where we follow a group of explorers who get lost inside a pyramid whilst it's still being built." This comes from Linn Primary School in Larne, lovely to have you guys joining in there. Keep your ideas coming in to us.

HACKER: Yes but while you're mulling those over, cocker, check out these equally time-warping facts.

VOICEOVER: Did You Know? In the 500 Words competition, Queen Victoria is mentioned more then 200 times every year, and is always one of the most popular historical figures. Jules Verne predicted aspects of the Moon landing in his 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon, over 100 years before the event. He wrote of astronauts launching in an aluminium capsule, with precise calculations of how much force they needed to push their ship out of Earth's atmosphere. Imagine that!

ZOE: Imagine that, and did you know, Rhys, that our time machine is also a very handy teleportation device, it can transport us from place to place in the present - close personal friend of Doctor Who.

RHYS: Stop it, I did not know that.

ZOE: Yeah, yeah, it's impressive.

RHYS: Contacts here. How very convenient though cos right now we are going to be teleporting our roving rabid

HACKER: Whoa!

RHYS: Stop it - reporter Hacker T Dog to a news studio in the present day and learn just how we can get inspiration from stories that are all around us.

HACKER: Oh are we now well I'm not sure that was in my contract, cocker.

ZOE: Yeah if you have a little look it's on page 232, it's in the small paws print I think you'll find it.

RHYS: Yeah, let me just reset that, ready? ..

HACKER: Hello it's me Hacker T Dog, super star news hound with the lastest scoop, hey hey. No who am I kidding cocker, here's the real expert Martin Dougan, CBBC Newsround journalist extraordinaire. Now Martin's gonna be telling me all about how we can be inspired by the news to write stories aren't you?

MARTIN: Yeah well, news is really important when it comes to writing stories because if you can imagine when you watch the news it's like a window to the world, it tells you people's inspiring stories, it tells you about recent events that might not be happening just here in the UK. It's about finding people's personal stories and finding the emotion that people can relate to. So if you take for example climate change, it's the massive topic right now Hacker, so if you think about the student protests that have been happening

HACKER: Oh yeah.

MARTIN: yeah cos it's not adults that have been doing that, it's been young people. And I think that's been really capturing the imagination of the whole world to make change happen.

HACKER: Technology is always moving isn't it?

MARTIN: Oh it is Hacker, every young person knows about technology because it's moving at a rate that is so fast but, it can also be bad for us because the World Health Organisation have officially named gaming disorder as an illness. Too many young people are spending way too much time on their tablets, their phones and their consoles.

HACKER: And you're not kidding about technology moving fast I mean no one faxes me anymore.

MARTIN: Fax?

ON-SCREEN TEXT: fax - noun - a machine that sends and receives documents in an electronic form along telephone wires and then prints them

MARTIN: Okay so we've mentioned climate change.

HACKER: We have mentioned that, we've mentioned gaming.

MARTIN: And I think the last one that I'll mention to you, Hacker - alright - equality.

HACKER: Oh like them sweets you can get, I like them.

MARTIN: Equality is all about being treated fairly no matter what your age, your race, and whether you've got a disability.

HACKER: Oh yeah.

MARTIN: So one of the big stories is all about making sure that everyone gets treated fairly and everyone gets a chance in the world.

HACKER: Well I think that's right and in fact I think that every job interview should be done like The Voice where they have their backs to them because it doesn't matter as long as they know the answers who cares?

MARTIN: You're right, yes.

HACKER: Yeah, me for Prime Minister.

HACKER: This is Hacker T. Dog reporting from the studios here at CBBC Newsround. Back to you, cockers, in the studio.

RHYS: Thank you Hacker for that insightful report.

HACKER: You're very welcome, cocker. I do what I do when I do what I do.

ZOE: Indeed you dooby dooby do, now it's time to turn to us. Frank, we want to take some inspiration from the events going on around us, how do we do that?

FRANK: Well just like you could imagine yourself at the court of Henry the Eighth you could try to imagine yourself in the news, you could imagine yourself in Downing Street or at the Olympics or in space. When I was very little humans walked on the Moon for the very first time and I spent all my childhood fantasizing about being an astronaut. And when I grew up I wrote a book called Cosmic which is all about a bunch of kids who go into space.

ZOE: Brilliant, there it is.

RHYS: But news headlines are already stories in themselves aren't they so how we make sure that we tell a story inspired by the real world, but making sure that we get that point across about who's telling the story right.

FRANK: So I think you've got to think about how you feel about being in that story I mean, if you went into space would that be a glorious adventure or would that be the worst thing that could ever happen to you? If you woke up and you were the Prime Minister would that be a dream come true or would that be a living nightmare? And we keep saying this, think about who you are in the story, in that story, are you the Prime Minister, or are you the big sister of the Prime Minister who's much cleverer than he is and should be running the country? Are you the astronaut? chuckles Are you the astronaut or are you the very very worried parents of the runaway astronaut?

ZOE: Okay like this, so we've talked about a story ending well as well. How could we end a story inspired by the news but in a fresh way, Frank?

FRANK: Right, well I'm struggling with an ending I always ask myself these three very straightforward questions. Question one, what is the most amazing thing that could happen in this story? So for instance, imagine if Henry the Eighth came back to life and decided he still wanted to run the country. Or question two, what is the very best thing or the very worst thing that could happen so, imagine you woke up and, yay you've been picked to play in the Champions League final, but oh no the team's lined up but no one can find a football.

ZOE: What?

FRANK: And my third one is, what if nothing is as it seems? What if we suddenly realised that we are all puppets and that Hacker T Dog is the puppet master?

HACKER: Don't get personal.

RHYS: No way, I'm not reliving that nightmare again. But thank you, Frank! Those are some great tips, and now we want you to put these into practice yourselves by coming up with a story idea that's inspired by some of the past year's biggest news stories and topics.

ZOE: For this you will need your activity sheets, choose one of those topics or headlines there and come up with a story idea based around it, and remember it doesn't have to be a full story plan, just the beginning of an idea.

RHYS: A nugget if you will. And teachers we want to see your pupils' ideas so send them in using the details on the screen. You've got just 60 seconds that's one whole minute to choose a topic or headline and think about a story idea, are you ready!?

CHILDREN: Yes.

RHYS: Your time starts now!

RHYS: Ding ding, ding ding, read all about it, your time is up! I know you've come up with some truly terrific ideas so let's get a flavour of them here in the audience, what story have you got that is inspired by the news?

BOY: I've got Australia.

RHYS: Australia, what is Australia doing?

BOY: Australia as people might know it is under fire by like the bush fires, and I want people to just know that I feel sorry for the animals who are losing their habitats.

RHYS: Oh that'd be a really interesting story about how those animals look after each other during that - brilliant. And what stories have you got, what's breaking news?

GIRL: About social media and now it affects people.

RHYS: About what?

GIRL: Social media about how it affects people.

RHYS: Ooh I like, I like that all the pros and cons of social media, these are some newsworthy ideas indeed. Frank, what do you think?

FRANK: These are great, these are really really big ambitious themes, and you can remember that 500 words is actually quite a lot of words you can tell big stories in a small space.

ZOE: Fantastic, and the bush fires there taking - you know, I mean it's amazing and just, and we've all been following those stories so great work there. Okay, again we've got some thoughts coming in from your classrooms all around the country. Hacker, do you want to read this message out for us here?

HACKER: I've love to.

ZOE: Go on Hacker.

HACKER: Cos I've got a better speaking voice than you. This one's been sent in by St Matthew's Primary in Bishopbriggs. Some of our ideas so far include an author who disappears into her own unfinished novel, saving endangered pandas, and disappearing into portals, and video games.

ZOE: So much in that! Frank, what do you make of that?

FRANK: There's loads of good ideas in there but ask yourself those questions that we've been asking like, is that author happy to go into that portal, or does she want to get back to normal life? Think about who's telling that story and how they feel about it.

HACKER: I will.

ZOE: You will, now do what Frank says Hacker you know it makes sense. Those stories would certainly make the news and we can't wait to hear some more.

HACKER: But while you're sending those in, check out these front page facts.

VOICEOVER: Did You Know? Around 2.5 billion people across the world read newspapers every day! On average, grown-ups in the UK watch 99 hours of news in a year. In entries to the 500 Words competition, the use of the phrase 'climate change' has increased by 374% in 2019. And if you're looking for writing inspiration from the news, look no further than A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist author Charles Dickens. An accomplished reporter, Dickens was the first ever editor of The Daily News.

RHYS: We're live today in Liverpool but throughout the show you've been sending in your messages from all over the country so let's have a look at some of these now.

HACKER: Oh yeah.

RHYS: And this one's from Nonington CofE primary school in Nonington. "We have already started thinking about our stories and are amazed by the quality and creativity of the entries from last year. We are very excited to enter this year's competition." Love that spirit. This one's from Warren Wood Primary School in Stockport. "We thought about rather going back into the past we could write a story where historical figures time travel to 2020." Imagine a cave man turning up in 2020!

HACKER: There's loads of cavemen in Wigan.

ZOE: Are there?

RHYS: Stop it. Stop it!

ZOE: I'll be straight there. That's from Warren Wood Primary in Stockport.

RHYS: Yes, but now it's time to hold on to your hover packs, Hacker, cos it's time to get ready cos I think the future may be a-calling.

HACKER: You're working me too hard today, cockers you really are. Zoe, do the honours, love.

ZOE: Shall I do the honours? Hold tight everyone, here we go, ready? ..

HACKER: Wahay, I'm in the future, wahay. How long has it been cocker, 100 years, 1000 years? 38,465 dog years? Oh, that's disappointing, it's just a green screen in my over-active imagination. But do you know what, when you let your mind wonder into the future sometimes you can create things that inspire the future itself. Now, let's have a wander then, which way is the future? Ah. See, I might not be able to predict the future myself, but I'll tell you who did. Writers - yes, many stories, novels, TV shows and films imagined what the world would be like in the future, only to have it happen in real life. Writers were writing about things long before they happened, like credit cards, social networks, space travel, even solar power installations, over 60 years before the introduction of the first solar powered calculator. Funny no one predicted my sudden rise to stardom though - innit, cocker? Speaking of stars, science fiction is known for showing off technology that didn't exist then, but is widely used now. Everything from mobile phones to tablet computers, sliding doors to voice-activated virtual assistants.

ACTRESS: Computer, I need my appointment schedule for next week.

HACKER: Luckily some things that writers have come up with haven't happened yet. Yeah, talk about the dog's day being over. So, cockers, what I'm trying to say is, you can use your imaginations to think about what the future might look like. What's your crystal ball saying cockers? Ha ha. Get thinking why don't you. Over and out.

HACKER: Wahey!

ZOE: Haven't got a crystal ball, we've got a Zoe Ball, but I am definitely imagining dinosaurs in my future - Terry Dactyl always loved him.

RHYS: Gonna need a bigger letterbox though. Charlie you've imagined some scary futures in your stories including a post apocalyptic world where adults all turn into zombies. How can we create stories about the future when we don't even know what the future looks like?

CHARLIE: Well there's lots of different ways. I mean one way is to be inspired by stories that already exist, and just tell them in a different way. For instance when I was writing my Enemy books, I was inspired first of all by zombie films, but also by stories and characters from Greek mythology and from Norse mythology just like Francesca, and also books like "Lord of the Rings". So I mean the future that you imagine it can be centuries away or it can just be the day after tomorrow or ten minutes in the future which is a bit what I did in my Enemy books I imagined, you know, what happens if all the adults turn into zombies. And so it's set in a familiar world so kids have that connection to the world and it makes it that more fun and exciting for them.

ZOE: Brilliant, well it's quite tempting when you're writing about a new world to spend a lot of time describing that world, Charlie. How do we think again about who's telling this type of story?

CHARLIE: Well, just think about the people who would live in that world and try to see the world through their eyes, what would they be doing, what would their lives be like? You don't have to go into all the details of the world, even if you're telling the story with a narrator who should know everything. I mean for example if you are maybe telling a story about a trip to Mars, you want to think about what's important to the story. You don't necessarily need to go into all the technical detail about how they get there, it's like what's important to the story - unless the details of how they get there are fun and exciting so maybe the rocket is being pulled by giant space bats or something.

ZOE: I like that.

CHARLIE: But otherwise think about the characters in the story what's important to them, and think about the readers what's gonna be interesting to the reader.

RHYS: And lastly the ending, how do we end this type of story well?

CHARLIE: Well we've been talking about that all through the show, our three different types of endings. Do you want to stop the story by tying up all those loose ends and saying, there we go that's what it is, or do you want to leave it all open and mysterious so the reader can use their imaginations to think what might happen next? Or do you want to do the twist ending? You know with it being set in the future you can play with what the reader thinks they're reading about, and surprise them right at the end. For example a story about an astronaut who crash lands on a planet and he finds that it's ruled by apes, and he spends the whole story trying to get back home, and eventually he realises he's been on Earth all the time.

HACKER: Whoa whoa whoa, Higson! That one sounds familiar, cocker.

ZOE: It does sound slightly familiar. All fantastic advice, Charlie. Well done, brilliant, and advice we're all gonna be using right now. So folks here we go, grab your activity sheets once more everyone because we now want you to imagine the future: what would it look like to you, what would people be doing, what are they wearing? Can you come up with a story idea inspired by the future?

RHYS: This future could be anything from 10 minutes from now to 500 thousand years from now, the only limit you have - ironically - is the time you have to do it in which is 60 seconds, and again teachers we want to see all of the spectacular science fiction fantasies so send them in using the details on the screen.

ZOE: Remember it doesn't have to be the full story - just an idea or concept for your story inspired by the future, are we ready?

RHYS: Yeah.

ZOE: You'd better be, your time begins now.

RHYS: And once again your time is up, what have we got here, I want to know, is the future bleak, is it bright, what story have you got?

BOY: Um, it's about if the Roman Empire came back.

RHYS: Would they have like new futuristic tech?

BOY: Yeah.

RHYS: Oh love that like laser swords or something. What does your future look like?

GIRL: It's about flying cars and people being half androids and talking animals.

RHYS: Well I mean I could really use a prosthetic leg or arm or something, jet packs, jet boots. Charlie, what do you think of those ideas?

CHARLIE: Yeah, no, they're great. I mean, I expect that quite a few people might have also thought of flying cars - that's something we all think about in the future, and then you could think about a flying car traffic jam or something.

ZOE: What, a flying car M25, can you even imagine such a thing, can you? I thought we'd have flying cars by now, Charlie, when I was about 10 years old, I'm a bit disappointed. Let's look to the future with our budding authors around the country, what have we got here? "We love ideas about other planets for humans to discover! In our story everyone has had to leave Earth as it had run out of air, what a terrifying thought. And where will they go and will they find somewhere to live that is safe?" Thank you, Oatlands Junior School in Harrogate. What a brilliant idea, that's a good starting point isn't it there, Charlie?

CHARLIE: Yeah, yeah and maybe there could be Romans there as well,

ZOE: Romans there too.

CHARLIE: in flying cars.

ZOE: In flying cars, you could throw all the ideas in there.

HACKER: Is it me?

ZOE: It's you, Hacker, what a lovely crown.

HACKER: Well thank you, cocker, yes it's well rehearsed. Thank you, there were some fabulous futuristic fantasies there, and wait till you hear how some of these far-fetched fiction fashion the future, it's freaky.

VOICEOVER: Did You Know? In his 1735 book "Gulliver's Travels", Jonathan Swift wrote that Mars had two moons. It wasn't until over 140 years after his book was published that we discovered that he was right - Mars does in fact have two moons. Reality TV is everywhere nowadays, but long before we saw it on our screens, a "Doctor Who" episode showed citizens of an alien planet casting votes in an extreme form of interactive reality TV. Thank goodness reality TV hasn't gone that far... yet...

ZOE: We've come to the part of the lesson now where we are posing your questions to our our amazing authors here. Rhys, have you got a question from anyone in the audience?

RHYS: I certainly do, what is your question?

BOY: I've got a question for Charlie Higson.

RHYS: Go for it.

BOY: What inspired you to make the Young Bond series?

CHARLIE: Well I was a huge fan of the James Bond films and the James Bond books, and I started to think, I wonder what he was like when he was kind of your age so that's a good starting point of like a James Bond story but with kids.

RHYS: What is your question?

GIRL: My question's for Frank Cottrell Boyce.

RHYS: Go for it.

GIRL: What gave you the idea to write "Millions"?

FRANK: Right, I think a really good place to look when you're trying to think of ideas for stories is the question, "wouldn't it be great if...?" - Wouldn't it be great if you had a car that could fly, wouldn't it be great if you were invisible, and wouldn't it be great if you found a bag full of money what would you do with it?

ZOE: And I'm just thinking about what I would do if I found that bag full of money, Hacker I'd take you out for a slap-up dish of dinner.

HACKER: I am very available.

ZOE: Very much you are, so am I. And we've also got some questions coming in from you watching in your classrooms, thank you for sending these in.

HACKER: There's one look there!

ZOE: There you go, Hacker, do the honours please.

HACKER: Fair Isle Primary School in Kirkcaldy says – Kirkcaldy, I know - I know! "What are the best techniques the authors have for editing their own story when they are in draft form?" And I know how to pronounce it, I was being whacky.

ZOE: You were being whacky. Francesca, let's give this one to you.

FRANCESCA: Oh, I mean the best and the easiest technique is to read your story out loud, because you will instantly notice the bits that you are a bit bored by, also if you've repeated the same word five times. So it just gives you a sense for the rhythm of the story, because all stories take a lot, I mean they take a long time to write and you want to write them and rewrite them and change them, and reading them out loud is probably one of the very best things you can do.

HACKER: Saint Mary's Primary School in Chiddingford says, "When did you start writing and w-hat inspired you?"

ZOE: W-h-at?

CHARLIE: I started when I was the age of these kids here when I was inspired by the books I read and the authors that I loved and, but mainly that idea that you could take a piece of paper and a pen and you could make up something that had never existed before, whole new characters and stories and that, that is magic.

FRANCESCA: I was eight and because I loved reading fairy tales and mythology I wanted to write my own fairy tales, so I did.

ZOE: Great, and Frank?

FRANK: I don't know about writing a book, like, when I was in year six my teacher read a thing that I'd written out to the whole class, and that was when I first started thinking, oh words are something you could be good at, cos I was not good at anything but there were kids in my class who were good with a football or good at the piano or good with drawing, and I thought words are something you could be good at.

HACKER: Words can be fun, Frank.

ZOE: They can be, they can be fun and I like the idea that anybody watching that might have thought, I'm not particularly good at anything but maybe words is my thing, just like Frank. Thank you so much for all your questions, sorry we didn't have time to answer them all.

HACKER: No chance and this time machine would have come in handy but sadly it's a bit of old MDF.

ZOE: Don't give the game away, we'll be thrown out of the Magic Circle.

RHYS: Ah, you've ruined everything, but now that we've been on a journey through time we hope you've been inspired to pick up a pen and start your very own 500 Words journey.

ZOE: Can we say a very big thank you to our specials guests, our 500 Word judges - Charlie, Francesca and Frank - to all the kids in this class in Liverpool, thank you for having us, and all the teachers. And I bet you cannot wait guys to read some of the brilliant stories that you guys are gonna be sent this year, it's gonna be a big task.

RHYS: Yes and the 500 Words competition for 2020 is now open, and will close on the 27th of February at 8 p.m. For more details on how to enter and terms and conditions visit the website at bbc.co.uk/500words.

CAPTION: The 500 Words competition is now closed for 2020

ZOE: So now you're inspired, get writing and good luck and we can't wait to hear from you, thanks very much. Shall we shout goodbye everybody?

ALL: Goodbye everybody!