Looking Good

I received a text message yesterday morning from a lady whose children had attended the first AYW session at PMT in Addiscombe.  She said that her two youngsters had decided that a writing group was not for them - and that is fair enough.  Writing - with or without group support - is not something to be entered into lightly.  It demands complete commitment and an overbearing passion.  It means thinking about writing every waking moment and not being able to wait to get back to something you are working on.  Without that, it becomes another of life's unpleasant chores so I thanked the lady for her honesty and for letting me know and I wished them well.

Not for the first time, I wondered uneasily if their departure was going to set the pattern for the future.  Would it be that I turned up at Session Two with nothing but the hiss of the coffee machine for company?  NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  For all the fact I'd lost two members, I actually found I'd gained three!  In fact the Coffee Shop was heaving and I was, once more, astonished and humbled by the sheer unadulterated dedication of these young writers.  Their raw enthusiasm is pure and golden - and surely an inspiration to anyone wishing to take up their pen!  So a massive thank you to everyone, children and parents alike, for coming along.  The next session will be on Wesnesday 13th June, same time, same place - not the first Wednesday of the month I know - but designed not to interfere with any jubilee celebrations in the offing, so I hope that's ok for everyone.  The assignment set yesterday was for the young writers to take one of their many ideas produced as the first assignment and write a poem about it.  I am starting with poems because they are quite short and not too demanding - particularly since they don't have to rhyme.  And we will see where we go from here.

I am aware that this is a learning curve - not just for the young writers, but for me as well.  Reading aloud does not work but sitting them round the tables with an exercise in mind and trying to get round to each individual child during the course of the exercise did seem to work.  And making myself available if they have any questions for fifteen or so minutes at the end of the session also seemed to work  - and of course I am there for you, too, of you have any questions realating to the group - or indeed to writing in general.

I am going to introduce worksheets as of the next session.  The idea will be to give each youngster two sheets - one to work on that day and one to take home and use for their next assignment.  I think that will work better than notebooks and makes it easier for me to keep an eye on each member's progress.  Of course they can keep all the notebooks I have already given out and I will try to keep a few in stock just incase they are needed in future.

Please feel free to comment on this blog - and could you let me know if you are happy for me to mention your children by say, christian name and surname initial in future postings (as in JillyHL).  If you would rather I didn't I will naturally respect that.

So that's it for this time but keep in touch.  Good writing, all.