Summer Writing Club

It is summer. School is out. The weather is warm. What have I been doing? Writing fiction with students from 6th through 10th grade.

Imagine a place where people who like to write—I mean really like to write—get together for two hours a day…to write. Sure, we talk and laugh and eat snacks too. But the real purpose of our meetings is to write fiction. And we do. By the end of the four-day week, participants and I each write at least ten beginning drafts of stories. Some of us fill nearly half of a composition notebook. All of us come up with ideas, put them on paper, talk about them a bit, and make some tweaks to what we have done. We communicate, face-to-face. We give honest feedback in the form of questions and comments and real conversations.

Writing Club is a way to give middle school and high school students a chance to write fiction, lots of fiction. They need this writing outlet, and they simply don’t get enough of it in school. I noticed this need at least eight years ago, and I decided to do something about it. Writing Club was born.

Writing Club began as a Colt Time (Advisory-type) activity. Because I could not accommodate all interested students in my during-school program, after about two years, I formed an after-school Writing Club. The response was strong. We met once a month, ate snacks, used objects as prompts (See Shoes and Boxes and Peanuts and Keys), and wrote a lot. Some years have culminated with a magazine-style publication, including the best of each participant’s writing and some 2-D art from our school’s Art Club.

The success of Writing Club at school encouraged me to try a summer pilot at our public library. I held two weeks of this summer pilot, and had a rather lengthy waiting list. This response led me to my current situation: after-school Writing Club during the school year, and Summer Writing Club in June.

The pressure is off in Writing Club, because Writing Club is a place to write fiction with no grades. What I find interesting is that, even though there are no grades, the participants want feedback. They are hungry for thoughts from others answering the question, “How can I make this better?” And they gracefully accept the feedback from other participants and from me. Probably because I remind them often that it is their writing. They can choose to listen to the feedback or to ignore it. It is that simple.

This year, my planned week of Summer Writing Club filled up quite quickly. I am able to accept twelve members because I have space and seating for twelve. I ended up with a waiting list of eight more students, and so I added another week of the club. I am glad that I did. Most of my Writing Club members were my students during the school year, but not all. Some met me on the first day of Summer Writing Club. By the end of our first day together, trust was built and conversations flowed freely. Of course, some participants were more willing to share their work with the entire group than others. Some were a bit more reserved, and that was OK. All participants found someone comfortable to share with. Sometimes, that someone was me. Other times, unlikely partnerships formed. Some of the participants worked in groups to listen and respond. In all cases, a part of the experience was face-to-face feedback and real conversation.

By the end of the week, I think we all realized that we had been a part of something special. And I feel confident that I will hear of a Writing Club member getting published someday. I already know of two Writing Club participants who entered writing contests after our week together.

This was Summer Writing Club. It was fun. It was filled with energy and creativity. The stories that came from our time together included the stories we wrote and also the stories that happened because of the camaraderie of people with a shared interest spending time together.

If you feel that your students are not getting enough fiction-writing, consider hosting a Writing Club. I would be happy to speak with you to help you begin.