Wilson Center Camp: A Fantastic Week!
What do you get when you combine 16 enthusiastic young writers, 4 jazzed writing coaches and a gorgeous creative arts center? Pages and pages of writing and a whole lot of fun!
We started the week by brainstorming our autobiography titles and combining this with a creative problem-solving activity. Amazing what you can do with a ball of yarn and a little teamwork!
And then there was composing a silly story with a little help from our friends!
Other “sparking” exercises included getting in touch with our senses, creating a character from a pair of shoes (yes, shoes!) and brainstorming some of our own “bests” and “worsts” to set the scene for some made-up characters.
Every day, we dedicated ourselves to our “sacred” writing time: a sustained period of time to write whatever we wanted. Most writers wrote multiple chapters of novels in progress. Sometimes it was hard to stop for lunch. (Well, not too hard!)
Most of the afternoon was dedicated to sharing our work with each other for feedback and support. The coaches were amazed at the depth of the young writers’ insights about each other’s work and their positive approach to helping each other grow as writers.
A visit from an author, 
a book jacket design for a partner,
lots more writing, and, before we knew it, it was Showtime! The audience was AMAZED at both the quality of the writing and the heartfelt reading of the stories and poetry. Our young writers made us all proud! Hope to see you at Writers’ Circles in the fall!
