Creative writing club is more than just putting words on a paper; it is an exploration of imagination, and a journey of incredible storytelling and expression.
Creative writing provides an environment where writers can just be writers with different forms of styles and techniques while receiving feedback from others like teachers and peers.
Students who are in the creative writing club work on individual pieces after sponsor Colette Love posts a prompt on the screen. They have time in the club to explore their creative spaces, and just produce without any real expectations other than writing for themselves.
Junior Caprice Jones enjoys creative writing club because she gets to show off her skills and abilities in the best way possible, while enjoying being a part of the group.
“It helps you to get better at abilities like articulating yourself in the best way possible,and just enjoying every moment of it and being more aware about your strengths and weaknesses and setting future goals,” Jones said.
In addition to students being able to show off their creativity within the club meeting time, the group also holds monthly contests for all Ritenour students to submit art or creative writing. The
October theme was Edgar Allen Poetry, and it brought in a lot of Halloween themed pieces for the group to discuss and review.
“We had about seven different entries to the contest. The winner of the contest was a junior who had a whole lot of imagery and used a series of questions as its framework,” Love said. “We have a lot of talented writers and artists in the school.”
The contests also help grow a collection of art and poetry to build for Reflections, the literary journal that the group produces every year. The magazine contains stories, poetry and art, and is available for just $1 when it is printed.
“We use the writing and art contest every month and select from those entrys that we have. We use many of the pieces that are created in creative writing class and we also use pieces from the club to help build the book. People submit to the contest and we build from there,” Love said.
Junior Olivia Brown says that the club engages people to want to write and be more creative than they were before and think outside the box.
“It gives visuals on how fun writing can really be if you just write. It helps reflect on how people can grow and change,” Brown said. “It engages more people and gets more people to art, and also shows how big writing can be and how fun it can be.”
Creative writing is not just the bare minimum of writing, it’s really about students thinking outside of the box and really using their imagination to the best of their abilities to come up with ideas they probably never would have thought about before.
“It is just fun to get your creative juices flowing,” Jones said. “We want to share the joy of creation and the love of writing.”
