Weekly Creative Writing Workshop (Ages 10-14)

Students enrolled in this weekly writing workshop will practice providing feedback on their peers' creative writing projects, in turn receiving valuable feedback on their own writing. We will discuss how to provide honest, constructive feedback in a respectful manner, as well as the importance of letting one's work speak for itself and accepting both positive and negative feedback gracefully. This experience is intended to give writers insight about things they might want to consider when working to improve their writing craft. However, the writer always gets to decide whether to incorporate feedback into his or her art! Rude, disrespectful, or mean comments about any student or work will not be tolerated. 

In this safe creative space, learners will have conversations about each other's writing—what's working, what can potentially be improved (along with any accompanying suggestions), character arcs, language choices, etc. Discussion content will vary greatly from week to week depending on the group's exploration of the works presented. As the teacher, I will ensure that each student receives feedback on his or her writing by prompting and moderating discussion as necessary. If time allows, writers may ask their peers for advice regarding a specific aspect of their work. This style of workshop is often conducted in formal writing courses, and students who are interested in developing their writing craft will benefit from becoming familiar with the feedback process that I teach in this workshop.

Students should come prepared with a draft of any genre or style of creative writing. (Depending on the number of writers enrolled in any given workshop session, a page limit may be encouraged in order to ensure we have enough time to talk about everybody's work.) Learners who remain enrolled in a subscription may bring the same piece of writing to multiple workshop sessions (editing or expanding their draft between sessions), or they may choose to bring a new writing project to be workshopped each week. 

I will post an open writing prompt in the classroom each week for students who would like to use one, but writers are free to ignore the prompt and encouraged to bring any one piece of their writing. Additionally, optional writing exercises may be provided periodically. Learners who are exploring creative writing are welcome to enroll even if they do not have any writing they would like to share—inspiration frequently comes from other artists!