Be Creative, Write Now!
Today I held a creative writing workshop for young writers at my local library. Y’all, it was a blast. I was really impressed with the students’ creative energy! Their ages ranged from 5 to 15 (+adult parents and helpers), but I’m happy to say I think an enjoyable time was had by all. At least, that’s what word on the street is. And we all know that you can trust the honesty of an 8 year old.
Here’s a quick rundown of the event.
Poster created using Canva.com!
Our local library has a wonderfully equipped community room that can be reserved completely free of charge. If you’re looking for a handy meeting place, I strongly suggest hitting up your local library!
Members of my church provided notebooks and pens to give away to all the writers. How cool is that!?
And of course there was food. It is a well-established fact that creativity is fueled by carbohydrates.
What I enjoyed most was hearing the students’ insights. I asked them to respond to several prompts, but my favorite was a visual prompt. I played some instrumental music and thew an image on the projector screen, then I asked them to write based on how the combination of the music and image made them feel. The first was this Jackson Pollock piece coupled with this single featuring Yo Yo Ma. I wish I could have read all their responses to you! One kid said the Pollock painting (and I hope I’m remembering this correctly!) made him feel “crazy and wonderful” and that the image reminded him of fire dancing on a prairie. Seriously? Wow. The second visual was one of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies paired with the score of Little Women. One girl described the painting as a kind of “beautiful chaos”. I was not thinking that deep at 10!
Overall, I so enjoyed hosting this little workshop. It was inspired by a call-to-action from my church to become a blessing to our community. I hope Be Creative, Write Now! blessed the students and their families as much as it blessed me. Thankfully my young writers said they would be interested in doing a workshop again soon and I fully intend to oblige them.
And to learn more about the artists we used for inspiration, click the links below!
This is so awesome, I love that really young children were there, too. Were they all kids from your church or the community? How did you get them to sign up? Just posting a flyer at the library?
Sarah M
Oh, thanks Sarah! We had one community member show up and, to be honest, the rest were from my church. I just posted flyers around town and shared on Facebook. No preregistration or signup fee – just show up and write! I’m hoping we’ll get the same group and more next time!
Wonderful! I’m always encouraging my nieces and nephews to write. I love the imagination of their little minds. 🙂
There’s something really creatively refreshing about young minds, isn’t there?
That’s so cool, Victoria! Yay!
I’m a huge fan of reserving library rooms 🙂