Creative Writing Club: Learn to Write Fiction Stories!
An online workshop where you can try writing a story & share it out loud. (But only if you want to.) Take the class one time & see how it goes. Come back again if you love it! Our process is the same every time.
Leeyanne Moore MFA
Average rating:
4.8
Number of reviews:(228)
What's included
1 live meeting
50 mins in-class hours per weekAssessment
Students are keenly aware of their peer's reactions to their work. They know when everyone is listening breathlessly. They know when everyone is excited about their writing. Positive reinforcement for strong writing from the group encourages students to write at a more challenging level. Students also feel a sense of accomplishment when they begin to write longer stories and their writing becomes more fluid and sophisticated.Class Experience
US Grade 5 - 8
We'll start by brainstorming different ideas every time: Week 1 on 7/5: topic/theme for our writing exercise: There is a local ruin nearby where you live. It's very old and there is a story connected to it. What is this story? Week 2 on 7/10: topic/theme for our writing exercise: The A-Z brainstorming challenge. Week 3 on 7/12: topic/theme for our writing exercise: A student is going to a museum and an old cultural relic--very, very ancient--has magic in it that reaches out and curses the student. What happens next? Week 4 on 8/7: topic/theme for our writing exercise: What if you had the perfect, most amazing pet? Does it have special magic? Let your imagination go wild, creating octopus kings, cities of sphinxes. Imagine strange, powerful creatures that you go to school with every day. There's no homework--just fun--as students improve their writing skills and practice their presentation skills by reading their work out loud to others if they want to. The reason we start by brainstorming is so that students can learn to begin visualizing different elements to put into their story. When these are in place and ready to choose from, they don't get bogged down later on as they start writing. Then we'll create extraordinary characters that we'll have a blast writing about. In every workshop class we start with brainstorming exercises, then students write fiction for 20 minutes. Afterwards, everyone can read his/her/their writing out loud. Everyone in the workshop will say what they like about the story or recall details they remember about the writing. The class is so much fun students won’t even realize they are learning to focus, and creating sustained works of fiction. Moreover, they will practice reading out loud as well as listening to each other and working to form helpful comments for the reader. Great thinking, reading, and speaking skills are in use--though to kids it all seems like fun! The process is the same each time, but the creative ideas they write about change with the exercises. The extraordinary thing is that more than half the children want to keep writing on the same story. They begin to learn how to sustain a piece of writing over many sessions and many days. Parents often report that their learner has so much fun they are eager to keep writing even after the workshop is over.
Learning Goals
Learning Goals:
FOR PARENTS:
As the class goes on students will get practice in:
• Organizing their thoughts with pre-writing exercises
• Reading their work out loud
• Listening to their peers in an engaged and respectful way
• Giving articulate, respectful, and helpful feedback to their peers
• Developing focus and concentration on a task
• Letting their creative ideas flourish
• Exciting collaborative engagement with other students
Other Details
Supply List
Students should have access to writing paper and pen for each workshop class. While they can write on the computer if they want to, we want to put our inner critic away--it's too easy to erase words on the computer. Tip: have a folder on hand so you can put stories from the workshop together at the end of each day.
Language of Instruction
English
External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Joined May, 2020
4.8
228reviews
Teacher expertise and credentials
I have an MFA in creative writing from Syracuse University where I worked with George Saunders. I've taught not only creative writing, but rhetoric and composition at a few colleges and universities. I am a published author who has won awards, grants, and prizes as well as taught creative writing for 30 years. (!) This workshop is for tweens and teens who relish a creative challenge. There's so much to write about--new characters, new creatures, new adventures--your teen/tween won't want to stop even after writing time is over. Regular attendeeds share stories and build a creative bond between students that they won't forget. This instructor has seen tremendous, professional writing emerge from students by using this format.Reviews
Live Group Class
$15
weekly1x per week
50 min
Completed by 1 learner
Live video meetings
Ages: 10-14
3-6 learners per class
