Young Writers Club of Lynn Valley

This past spring, I took over the leadership of the Lynn Valley Literary Society’s Young Writer’s Club. Every month, I lead these monthly two-hour workshops for young writers in grades 5 to 12. The sessions run from October to June and use various techniques including free-writing, interactive exercises, role-playing, black out poetry, and round robin writing challenges to help young adults develop a passion and skill for writing.

The Lynn Valley Literary Society has been running these Young Writers Clubs since 2007. before I came along, these workshops were led by my colleague Maggie Bolitho From November 2012-March 2014.

This November, Maggie and I will be joining the board for LVLS along with fellow North Vancouver author, Lynn Crymble.

If you know of any young writers in the North Vancouver or Victoria area who would be interested in these workshops, please contact info[at]lynnlit[dot]ca.

For more information on the Lynn Valley Literary Society visit their site.

Sample Exercise:

This was done in the October 2014 Session. It was adapted from 11 Amazing Quotes by Famous Writers and Writing Lessons to Accompany Them:

Unlikely Hero (approximately 30-40 minutes)

Group discussion: Ask participants to list people who they think are heroic. Facilitator writes those people on the board. It may be jobs (like Firefighters, Astronauts, Soldiers, EMTs, etc.) or it may be public figures (such as Mother Teresa, Ghandi, Martin Luther King).

Then ask the participants what character traits make people heroic. Write those traits on the board as well. (You might see selflessness, generosity, willingness to take action, etc.)

Break off into small groups of 2-3 people. Each group is given a character and they must figure out a story where that character is the hero:

Examples:

40 year old comic book store owner
a six year old baby brother
a garbage collector

Once all the groups have a general story line for their group’s hero, one spokesperson from each group tells their story. Everyone cheers each other on.