What is the objective of this club? Well, to be quite frank, the objective is... NIGHTMARES! 

We will come together once per week for an artsy, spooky, gothic sort of experience. Think haunted coffee shop from a cozy mystery novel; for tweens and teens! Students can expect to enjoy a collaborative experience making stories of the *ahem* frightening kind, while making friends and also drawing, if they like to draw! Illustrators are also welcome in this club, but please know you will be expected to at least write and share short snippets of creative writing at times.

Here’s how it works: All manner of creepy genre will be explored in this fun club. Horror, paranormal, creepypasta, gothic, thriller, mystery, psychological, urban legend... Basically anything that goes bump in the night, any monster, any ghost, any psychopath, is welcome to find their way into our tales. Each week I will share something brief about writing scary stories... How to set them up, the psychology of why we like scary things, story elements, history of the various genres, snippets from various authors... Each club member will then be given time to read aloud their writing they were assigned from prompts the previous week. I will allow up to six members in the club, so the number of students signed up will determine how long they may get to read. The MINIMUM allotted time for each student to read aloud will be five minutes. It will be ok if they don’t take the full entire allotted time, but if the class is full, they may not be able to read an entire piece if it takes longer than the allotted time. However, anyone who wants to share their whole story can post it in the classroom. 

Creatives may also draw while listening to my story and those of the classmates, but in order to ensure we give every storyteller our undivided attention, we will only draw pictures inspired by that reader’s story! So if you’re drawing, please make sure it’s something that goes with the story that’s being read. Quick sketches! When we change readers, change to a new illustration! 

Before class is over, anyone who drew will be allowed to show us if they care to. Then, I will present writing prompts for the next week. These may be character ideas, story generators, story prompts, or photo prompts. I will provide numerous prompts to choose from for your writing for the following meeting. But I do challenge you to choose one of the prompts and stretch your writing abilities and imagination to stick to the theme rather than going off script. Believe me, I will furnish a whole wicked world of cool ideas.

This will be a very relaxed and informal space, but also one to flex your writing muscles and grow and improve your skills. It will also be a fantastic place to meet like minded friends.  

One last awesome opportunity this club will provide is the opportunity to be published! I love creepy tales and know many kids who do too. At the same time, even though we like scary stories, sometimes, those stories have profanity and certain adult themes that make the stories inaccessible to kids. Therefore, I am creating a horror for kids initiative on my own author/illustrator website. I am creating a collection of scary stories written for kids and by kids! I am publishing some of my own stories and also stories I write with my students. I am also seeking stories that my students write independently to add to the collection of free online stories for kids. I publish the story in written form, and I also create a YouTube narrated version which I attach to the story. I publish the author’s first name only, or they can select a pen name. I will also include any artwork the student creates that they would like to publish with the art. I also post the writings on various Reddit forums where the readers are excited to support kid writers! The stories I’ve published so far from my Outschool stories have reached an impressive audience due to the YouTubers who have contacted me asking to narrate the stories for their channels! Publication is optional, and I would never share a student’s work with out both their consent, and the consent of their grownup at home.