Class

Jumpstart Your Writing (for Ages 12 to 14)

This full-day summer writing experience invites young writers to spend four creative days building skills, confidence, and imagination at the Loft. Mornings focus on practical writing tools students can use in school, afternoons open up space for creativity and collaboration, and a midday lunch break offers time to recharge with fun enrichment activities. Together, the day balances structure and play—helping writers strengthen their voices, try new ideas, and discover the power of words in a supportive community.

SESSION 1: Expository Essay Writing (for ages 12 to 14) with Kat Shepherd

Writing in school can feel like an joyless, impossible chore: What are you supposed to write about? How are you supposed to write it? What does your teacher really want? Fear not, friends! This class offers practical, concrete steps to help you painlessly write anything from a basic paragraph to a multi-page essay.

Using tips and tricks from the experts, we’ll learn to crack the code of essay writing and build a toolbox of strategies that can manage even the most intimidating writing assignments. We’ll pull from a variety of games and high-interest topics to explore thesis, structure, and audience, giving participants the opportunity to complete expository writing about subjects that excite them. Does this mean this class might write persuasive essays about farts? Very likely!

The goal of the class is to practice expository writing in a fun and engaging way that gets students ready to head back to school as confident writers with a host of new strategies at their fingertips.

LUNCH AND ENRICHMENT:
We'll break for lunch with more activities that will inspire us to express ourselves while having fun! We may explore Gold Medal Park to seek creativity outside the classroom! Please bring a packed lunch.

SESSION 2: World Building Through Craft (For Ages 12 to 14) with Kelsey Daly

Come build a unique and spectacular fantasy world from the ground up!

During our first few days together, we will flesh out some of your new world's grounding details, including its geography, cultures, laws, magics, technologies, languages, weather, wildlife, and more. Start your world from scratch or continue developing a world you're designing outside of class.

Beyond writing exercises, we'll do crafting activities to create tactile artifacts--such as maps, letters, newspapers, and road signs--that will help us feel as if we're inhabiting our worlds. We'll play games that encourage imagination and idea generation. By observing our own environment, insights, and sensations, we’ll intuit the best details to include to immerse our readers in our scenes.

To get inspired and sharpen our skills, we'll take world-building tips from authors such as Nnedi Okorafor, Laini Taylor, and Aiden Thomas, as well as from graphic novelists Shaun Tan and Nagabe. To end our week, we'll have a showcase in which an ambassador from our world presents the crafts and writing they've created that best reflects their world.

Spark you imagination through crafts and leave class with a world you feel is strong enough to carry the heart of your next novel.

Aspiring writers, grab your notebooks and pens, and let’s write at the Loft!