Three talented writers were thinking big in the January Young Writers’ workshop. Taking inspiration from Neil Gaiman’s ‘Make Good Art’ Harvard commencement speech, the young people created their own miniature books to keep their writing goals for the year safe.

It was fun to see how the young people expressed themselves, creating eye-catching little books. We provided some structured questions to get them thinking about their goals, but gave them free rein in terms of the design of their books. As you can see, there were no two the same.

Elsewhere in the session, we learned about foreshadowing and wrote introductions to our own Netflix-style productions. From small scale series to big budget productions involving replicas of The Empire State Building and multiple explosions, there was a full range of creative ideas on display. At The Writers’ Block, there are no limits.

After an action packed pitching session for our fictional series, Olivia introduced us to prose poetry. It’s harder than it looks, but the young people took to it well. Poetic subjects ranged from favourite colours to favourite hobbies and most things in between.

The young people shared their words in a friendly, supportive manner and we all enjoyed hearing what they had been working on throughout the session. To close, Max asked us to reflect on the things that we would like to happen in 2019 more generally.

The writing from this exercise spoke of more free time, more opportunities to engage in the things that move us and drive us. The writers look forward with hope to time with friends and family, and future happy occasions.

This first workshop of the year was alive with possibility, and we look forward to broadening our creative horizons in forthcoming workshops.

 

 


Blog by writer and workshop leader, Casey Bottono