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Our Three Biggest Takeaways From Writing Camp

blog post 7.23.24 (1)

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Writing Camp year 18 is in the books! We are grateful for the 101 young writers, 14 writing coaches, and 3 authors that helped us create such a special week.
 
We’ve been at this awhile, but we always come away having learned something new about writing. Here are three of our biggest takeaways from Writing Camp 2024:

1. Don’t be afraid of quiet writing time

This year, our campers were CRAZY about rollercoaster writing.* When we say crazy, we mean it became competitive. Classes wanted to write even one or two seconds longer than the other classes just so they could have the “All Time Write On! Record” for rollercoaster writing. 
 
There was a point in the afternoon session that we started to worry. Is 20 minutes and 2 seconds TOO long? 
 
One writer reassured us, “We love this! It can be hard to find quiet time to write.” 
 
NOTED!  

*If you’re new around here, ROLLERCOASTER WRITING is writing without stopping for a specified amount of time as if you are riding on a rollercoaster. That means no stopping to ask for spelling, not stopping to stare out the window, just keeping the pen moving. We start small, like 2 to 3 minutes, and we’ve found that much can be accomplished in small bites of time. At camp, we kept adding on minutes each day, sometimes with short “shake your hands out breaks” in between.

2. The more kids share, the more they write

Kids gather ENERGY and COURAGE when they share their writing with others. When you build in time for sharing, you create momentum for more writing.  
 
After one writer at camp read her first chapter aloud, we asked the class, “Who wants to hear more?” Seeing all the hands in the air gave this writer such a rush, she wrote all night just so that everyone could hear the end of her story before camp was over:)

3. Writers like to illustrate too!

Surprisingly (not surprisingly?) the writing camp club with the highest number of signups this year was illustration. Not only do kids love to add pictures to their stories, but graphic novel fans also love to try their hand at creating comics. A fun resource for helping kids with illustrating and comics is this website from David Rickert. We love the “Say No to Stick Figures” printable! 

We hope our three big take aways from camp sparked a few ideas for things you’d like to try with your kids! Thanks for caring about great writing experiences and letting us be part of your inbox.  

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