“How do you get the idea for a book?” Neal Zetter chats about his latest poetry collection, ‘When the Bell Goes’
Neal Zetter isn't someone you can ever imagine being short on ideas for poetry books – here at Troika we’ve published nine of them so far!
His latest collection, When the Bell Goes - A Rapping Rhyming Trip Through Childhood, is perhaps his most personal one as it draws on Neal’s own days as a youngster. It’s out this month and it’s full of Neal’s trademark humour and playfulness, and perfect for sharing out loud at school or at home. The book is packed with characters you might also recognise from your own young life, from ‘Mr Shoutyteacher’ to various members of a slightly embarrassing family.
So, what inspired this collection of poems? Over to Neal…
During my many school visits children often ask me, “How do you get the idea for a book?” and “How do you make a book?”. Here, I’m going to focus on the first of those two questions.
When the Bell Goes captures the day-to-day experiences and emotions of a primary-aged me growing up. It covers life at home, with family, and life as a pupil in a north-east London school. The subtitle A Rapping, Rhyming Trip through Childhood is pretty much the journey I took inside my head to write it.
As a writer I think it's important to avoid too much self-indulgence. However, despite the massive age gap between me and today's children, the events of my childhood are still not too different from theirs. This I know because I spend a lot of time visiting schools and interacting with kids. For example, most children have experienced:
struggling to get to school on time ('Bad Morning')
having the daily register called – yet again ('Good Morning')
being forbidden to speak in assembly ('Talk in Assembly')
thinking adult conversation is pretty boring ('Blah! Blah, Blah!')
having a dad who MUST sit in HIS chair ('Dad's Chair')
loving the sound of the home-time bell ('When the Bell Goes')
These are of course some of the 40+ poems in the book.
This theme-based approach to writing a poetry book is one I frequently use. The children's book market has exploded in recent years (thankfully!) and poetry in particular is experiencing a major boom. So it's vital for me that my books are noticed among the many being published, and focusing on one unifying topic seems a good way to achieve this. I've previous tackled superheroes, supervillains, food and animals - so school days and growing up was my choice this time around.
I've also tried to make the book more than ‘just’ a poetry book: every poem has an accompanying original joke or wacky fact to embellish it! Here are a couple of extracts -
Totally True
While in high school our deputy headteacher's teeth fell out when she was talking in assembly. This is totally true [it is!] - but her teeth were totally false.
Q: How do you stick two fish together?
A: With fish paste!
There’s also a few other little additions, such as an inventive approach to the contents page ('The Timetable'), and some extra insights into the author (me, obviously) and the illustrator (the super Emily Ford - I’m so pleased with what Em’s artwork has brought to the book).
Whether you’re a child or an adult, I do hope you enjoy the book and, if you’d like a signed and dedicated copy at no extra cost, you can email me via my website at www.cccpworkshops.co.uk (CCCP stands for Confidence in Communication through Comedy Poetry).
My website is also the place to go if you're interested in school or library visits, whether in-person face-to-face or virtually online. There’s nothing I love more than performing my poems, running fun writing workshops, answering children’s questions and signing books – why not drop me a line to chat about how that might work for you.
And, if you'd like to share a fun or embarrassing memory from your own childhood or school days - in a poem, a piece of prose, a bit of artwork, or (drum roll) in a song, I’d love to see or hear it. Pop it on Twitter and tag @nealzetterpoet and @TroikaBooks. Go on, I double dare you!
I must go now – I can hear that bell ringing...
Bye for now Neal, and thanks for dropping by!