On Feb 23 and 24, 2019, I conducted my first writing workshop called the Young Author Program for children in the age-group of 9-15.
When I was young, I wrote all the time. I remember attending a workshop, a friend’s home in an apartment complex. I wondered when I got there how I would write in an unknown environment because when you write it is always best to sit at your desk and begin. Nevertheless, I was given a worksheet and when I finally finished, my parents had arrived to pick me up. An hour had passed all too soon.

I don’t remember what I wrote but I liked the idea of being engaged by words and the way time flew.

At the Young Author Program, I was exhilarated that the children were so absorbed by characterization and setting and plot. Their heads bent, they made quite the studious picture. In fact, when I mentioned that we were running short of time, a student said quietly, “Let me finish.”

My children say this to me when I interrupt their gaming rituals and I must admit I was surprised. No matter how far ahead we may go as far as technology is concerned, if a child likes to write, he or she will write in all earnest. And they all wrote with pencils, mind you! No typing fingers or gel pens.

Young writers are also good readers. We were a small group but each child read out with conviction and listened patiently as the others spoke.  I always think that the reading voice and the writing voice should go hand in hand.

Look forward to the next workshop already.