– (n) a genre of fiction that uses magic or other supernatural elements as a main plot element, theme, or setting.

Mike Cooper

What do you practice?

Fantasy fiction writing.

How long have you been practicing writing?

I discovered writing in primary school, which is the equivalent of elementary school in North America. I wrote short pieces of fiction, drifted into nonfiction to gain teaching degrees, then back to fiction. I wrote a number of short stories for adults, and it was fine, but I just didn’t get enough out of the short stories in order to keep me interested. The short stories for adults were fun, but it was hard work and it wasn’t something I was really excited to work on. I have to feel energized about what I’m working on.

I’ve always been a reader, especially of fantasy fiction. And I’d always kind of thought, “I could write stuff like this.” So that’s what I’m currently working on. I’m writing a fantasy fiction series that’s targeted at a younger audience. It’s designed for the age group that I currently teach (primary school). Since I’ve started this series, I’ve been really getting into writing.

Would you say your style of writing comes a lot from the kind of reading you do?

I’d say it comes more from the way I teach.

I think teaching is just another form of storytelling. Kids don’t want to get mired in the whole theory behind the development of a curriculum, they just want to learn from it. When I’m teaching, I present just a little bit…just enough for kids to want to find out more. Every day, I give myself 10 minutes from the time that class starts to make the kids curious. If I can do that, then I’ve got their attention for the whole class.

I think good writing does the same thing. It makes you curious. Sometimes I’ll stand in a bookstore and read the first chapter of a book. If I get to the end of a chapter and I’m not curious, then something isn’t working. Even if it’s my favorite author, they still have to grab me.

I teach by telling stories. I show the kids the pathways we can follow. I develop the questions within them. I try to inspire curiosity through my storytelling. The craft of teaching pretty much mirrors the writing process — hook the reader/learner and don’t let go until the story/learning is done.

What are you working on now?

Currently, I’m working on a trilogy of books about two 12 year old twins, Archer and Mimi, who go looking for their missing grandfather. It’s firmly in the genre of fantasy fiction, aimed at the 10–12 year old age group.

The great thing is I’m actually reading my students the book that I’ve written. It’s a great feedback loop because if I’m sitting on the floor reading a chapter to them, and I see a whole bunch of blank faces, I say to myself, “Okay well they didn’t get that.” Then I go home and redraft that chapter and read it to them again the next day. So in a way, I’m demonstrating to them, firsthand, the writing process. They heard the first draft the previous day, and then they hear it the next day when it’s got a little bit of polish on it and easier for them to understand.

So it’s sort of like teaching them the importance of rewriting and editing in composition.

Yeah. And, I’m actively teaching them that — whether it’s shooting a basketball or flicking a hockey puck around — any skill will get better with practice. That’s the aspect of the OneRoom Novel Writing group that really resonates with me. It’s focused around practice.

Have you ever been a member of a writing group before?

No, OneRoom is the first one. It’s been really helpful. I did an online writing course last year where I had a published children’s author actually look at some of my manuscripts. I paid her to do a manuscript assessment of the first book of my series. It was largely positive feedback. She was very impressed with my voice and how I told the story. But after that it all kind of stalled a bit.

That’s the thing, writing courses are often more about how to craft the story and tighten up structure and figure out plotting and work on character arcs — that sort of thing. I was looking for the next step. I wanted to get in the door of the publishing world. Also, writing can be a lonely process. There’s only my wife and I at the moment — all the kids have left home. There’ll be nights where she’ll be working at one computer and I’ll be sitting on my own typing away and writing stories…it can just be a lonely process. I wanted to be able to help others and get some help back.

So I joined the OneRoom Novel Writing group in order to get some support. Laura [the group coach] has already been very helpful in pointing me in the direction of agents and publishers. The peer networking aspect of the OneRoom group has been pretty great, too. Through OneRoom, I found another writer to help out/be helped by. I swapped synopses with this lady in the United Kingdom who’s writing a similar genre of story for a similar age group. That kind of peer support is important.

You said that the fact that the OneRoom writing groups are focused on practice resonated with you. Can you tell me a bit more about that?

I know practice will make me better at my writing craft. Having said that, I don’t set aside structured time each day to do it. There are always conflicting priorities that get in the way of a regular time slot each day. I don’t think I could work that way anyway because sometimes the creative juice just isn’t there. So instead of trying to force it, I just get up and walk away from it for a while. Sometimes when you’re ambling away at something else, that creative box unlocks and ideas just kind of pop out. It’s a balance of knowing when to push through and knowing when to walk away.

Something that I’ve read a lot about the craft of writing says it well: you don’t learn the craft of writing by not writing. I try and do that. Write. There are times where I’m stuck and I know I need to get up and walk away, but I always have in the back of my head, “Practice will make me better.”

What advice would you give to other writers? What do you think is the most powerful thing you’ve learned in your time writing?

Just grab ahold of something and tug at it and see where it takes you. I started working on my current series of books with no other intention than to give them to my own grandkids. But I’ve tugged at it and tugged at it and tugged at it and it’s now morphing into something else. Keep tugging at an idea and see where it leads. Or, if you want to put it into just two words: start something. Start something.

Mike’s into a lot of things — music, writing, teaching, reading, and spending time with his wife. That list isn’t necessarily in order of priority because grandkids take up a bit of his time as well. Mike teaches primary school students and views teaching as storytelling. He would love to see his work in print some day and enjoys the creative process, both in writing and teaching. He lives in Sydney, Australia and some of his adult fiction can be found at: www.narratorinternational.com/?=michael+cooper.