This morning kicked off the 2023 Young Writers’ Workshop, and it is off to a fantastic start! Our morning writing prompt asked young writers to “Write a one-sentence fantasy story”, and to our delight, the young writers began to build off each other’s sentences!
After our program director, Traci Brimhall, and our head of the English Department at K-State, Karin Westman, kicked off the workshop with an introduction and a welcome to all our young writers, we started getting to know each other. In response to the icebreaker question, “What fictional character would you be best friends with?”, young writers’ answers varied from Katniss Everdeen to Harry Potter, from Baymax from Big Hero 6 to Snoopy, and everywhere in between.
Next, young writers’ began decorating their writing journals for the week with an assortment of supplies, including lots of washi tape and fun stickers! As they were decorating, our three groups of young writers created their team names: The Amber Dragons, The Muffin Cats, and D.W.S. (Different Writer’s Society).
Our first writing activity had young writers’ pondering what words they might or might not find in a love poem. Once they came up with a list, the young writers got to work, trying to write a love poem or romantic flash fiction piece involving two of the words they wouldn’t typically find in a love poem, such as feet, cacti, or annoyance. When their writing was finished, the young writers passed their work to the person next to them. The young writers then had to transform their neighbor’s work into a comic…without words! Finally, the young writers’ passed their drawing to another writer who had to translate the comic back into a poem or story.
After sharing some of their work, the young writers transitioned to their next activity on visual thinking strategies, led by Beach Museum Associate Curator of Education, Kathrine Walker Schlageck. Kathrine took the young writers to Bo Bartlett’s painting “The Lobster Wars” in the “Do You See What I See” exhibit of the museum where writers began identifying parts of the painting. This activity helped young writers to understand how to think visually in order to apply it to their writing, as it helps them to provide visual evidence for the scenes they write through vivid description. After the exercise on visual thinking strategies, young writers had the opportunity to peruse the various galleries in the museum for inspiration in writing.
After lunch, visiting writer Dustin Vann, a past instructor of the Young Writers’ Workshop team and expert in fiction, led the young writers in an evaluation of what elements are in the beginning, middle, and end of a fictional story. After discussing these elements, the writers played a game called “Full Circle”. Sitting in a circle, the writers went in order and added sentences to create a story. Occasionally, young writers were given objects (such as a pearl necklace or a dog figurine) they had to include in their sentences. One story they created was about the hidden diary of someone they knew!
Next, Dustin led the writers in an evaluation of popular book beginnings, including They Both Die in the End, You Should See Me in a Crown, and The Hunger Games. Then, the young writers worked together to create their own character, Helena Richardson, by answering questions about her. Finally, using what they’d just learned, the young writers got to work writing their own beginning of a story with the starting sentence: “Home looked different to me this year.”
The next activity our young writers participated in was a game of Mafia! Our young writers had very compelling alibi’s, but eventually the citizens won! With the game still in mind, Ian led our young writers in a worldbuilding exercise to create their own version of Mafia to play later in the week. After considering various time periods, locations, characters, and conflicts, the young writers created a game that takes place in Palm Springs, California in 1992 regarding a high school swimming team preparing for their rival meet. Who will outlast the other – the rival infiltrators, or the Palm Springs Platypuses? The young writers are very excited to play this game later in the week!
Finally, our young writers ended the day pondering this question: What animal would make a good hero / villain in a movie? Our writers showed their creativity once again with their answers, including a Canadian goose as a very evil villain and a mouse as a hero.
Our first day of the 2023 Young Writers’ Workshop was definitely a success! Our young writers came with excitement, a readiness to write, and the best vibes imaginable. The rest of the week is full of potential and we are excited to embark on that journey with our young writers. Stay tuned to see where our adventures take us for the rest of this week!
— Jordan Dombrowski, Program Assistant
K-State Young Writers' Workshop 