WIT Writing: Creative Writing Drop-In
You spend the school year writing for other people: papers and reports for your teachers, essays for your college applications, articles for your school newspaper. With so much on your plate, it’s hard to find time to write for yourself.
Wednesday afternoons are for you!
Each week we'll focus on a different aspect of creative writing: poetry, language, plot, character, dialogue, and other aspects of storycraft. Whether you like to write poetry, fiction, personal essay, journals, or all of the above, there's a place for you here!
Write without worrying about grades or deadlines, create new work and polish existing pages, and work closely with a professional writer who will help to guide your process and answer any questions you have about writing, publishing, living the writing life, and more.
At the end of this session of WIT Writing, you'll have your work published on StoryStudio's online magazine: Cooler by the Lake. Best of all, you’ll get to meet other teenage writers like yourself who are serious and excited about their stories!
This class has two components:
• Writing: Writing prompts to spark your imagination, help you break through blocks, and learn to write past your "internal editor."
• Workshopping: We’ll share our work and give each other feedback on what’s working well and what opportunities we can find in each piece (whether it’s fiction, non-fiction, or poetry). We'll talk about where we can extend scenes and dialogue to push the narrative, how word choice can affect the piece as a whole, how to spice up language and how to find--and trust--your original voice.
Age Groups and Who Should Attend
We invite all young writers in grades 7 through 12 to participate. The small size of our classes and individdual attention from the instructor means each student will be challenged with customized prompts and receive appropriate feedback.
M. Molly Backes has often been accused of being stuck in junior high. Her YA novel The Princesses of Iowa will be published in Spring 2012 by Candlewick Press. A graduate of Grinnell College, Molly taught writing in New Mexico where she got 150 middle schoolers to write novels with her for National Novel Writing Month. These days, in addition to teaching and tutoring writing, she works as the Assistant Director at StoryStudio Chicago where she’ll be happy to answer all your questions about life, the universe, and all our classes.
Date/Time: 8 sessions
Wednesday, September 14 - November 9, 2011; 4pm to 5:30pm (No session on September 28)
Location: 723 Elm Street, Winnetka, IL
Course Fee: 8 sessions: $270; 6 sessions: $205; 4 sessions: $140; Single Drop-In: $35