No Really, Writing is Fun
Considering writers tend to be some of the most shy people you will ever meet, it’s understandable that not many people know that our school has a Writers Club. We might as well be made up of the Lochness monster, a unicorn, and a few yetis for how much we put ourselves out there to the public. Despite that, we’re trying our best this year to get the word out for all those awkward writer types.
Writers Club, or Writer’s Inc as it is officially known, consists of a handful of students who have an interest in, or love writing. The main idea is to have a space dedicated to getting better at writing by bouncing ideas off other members or simply just by having a time of the day carved out specifically for writing. Because writing can be so visceral and personal, we also take some days just to go to Dairy Queen or watch a movie. It’s infinitely easier to confide in and trust someone once you’ve watched Wall-E together, it’s just science. Writers Club isn’t all poems and deep dark secrets though, in fact it hardly ever is. One of the best lessons I’ve learned from Writers Club is how underrated stupid writing is. Some of the best ideas and characters can actually come from stupid writing, and even if they don’t, it simply helps you get better at good writing by stretching what you perceive to be your creative limits. The most common, and generally favorite, form of stupid writing we do in Writers Club is the Swap a Prompt (name still under construction). The exercise goes as follows: you go on I Need A Prompt .com, and get a randomly generated prompt. You then have one minute to start writing something about it, when your minute is up, we all switch our papers and continue writing the story for thirty seconds to a minute (rules vary). Usually, when the papers cycle back to their original writers they are considered finished and read out loud in turn. Nothing good has ever come out of this. And that is what makes it so great. You end up with the most ludicrous, confusing, hilarious, and stupid stories you’ll ever hear, and it helps. There’s something about it that forces you to loosen up and look at writing from a different perspective, and that makes all the difference.
Writers Club is held every Thursday after school in Mr. Reynold’s classroom. I encourage everyone who enjoys writing, or wants to work on their writing to come and check it out. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to come again. If you’re worried about not knowing anyone there and feeling awkward, then you should definitely come because that is a surefire sign you would fit in. If you have any questions about Writers Inc, feel free to email me at
18faith.dvergsten@myprowler.org.