An interesting and inspiring summer camp for writing enthusiasts

Any writer who is serious about their craft should know the value of a writing circle. Presumably, not one like this, but one that is supportive, inspiring, and dedicated. A circle like the one at Write Now!

Co-founders Tiina Johns and Jaime Forsythe created Write Now! as a response to the void of free Summer programming for teens in Halifax, Nova Scotia. “Many of the youth we know love to write,” Jaime recalls, “so we did some research into how we could run a summer creative writing program.” This resulted in a collaboration with LPG member Invisible Publishing, with the support of the 4Cs Foundation, that is just wrapping up it’s second year.

Write Now! meets weekly during the months of July and August in a space generously provided by the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, spending time each session reading their work aloud to each other. “I am constantly amazed by the bravery and creativity in the group. They’re willing to try pretty much anything – writing to music, making up characters, or collaborating on exquisite corpse poems.”

The thing that sets Write Now! apart from other writing programs is that half of the participants are teens and the other half are adults. It’s a mix that meets the mandate of their sponsor, the 4Cs Foundation, but also one that provides plenty of insight for the participants. “There aren’t many opportunities for youth and adult artists to get together, collaborate, and bounce ideas off one another, and we’re thrilled with how our all-ages group has bonded,” Jaime told me. “I find the lines become really blurred in terms of who is a ‘youth’ and who’s an ‘adult’ – it has simply become a group of diverse people with a shared interest in writing.”

Whitney is one of the adult members of Write Now! “When Jaime mentioned to me last spring that she was trying to get funding together for a sort of all-ages creative writing group, I thought to myself: it’s the summer camp I never got to go to as a kid — of course I’ll be involved!”

Two years later, I asked Whitney what she’s getting out of the experience. “At Write Now! I get to return to writing for myself, surrounded by the best listeners in the city. We’re all different ages and come from varied backgrounds but we come together and do the same activities each week. It’s astounding to see the myriad results that can come from that: humour, grief, love… I’m constantly overwhelmed by the talent in that room. I often feel like I’m learning more from the younger members than they could possibly learn from me. Their openness, vulnerability, and passion is infinitely encouraging. But most of all, I’ve learned that encouragement is the most valuable gift you can give to a young person.”

A young person like Saul Hughes, first time participant. “Write Now! is a place in which I can have interesting and engaging discussions. This is something I find rarely nowadays. Not many other people I know are into writing or even just reading.” I asked Saul what he’s been working on: “Personally, I am trying to focus on a variety of topics so I have a wide selection when I finish. We also do a lot of group work in the sessions. As a group we are working on a book that will be composed of a collection of all our works, we also do a lot of group work in the sessions.”

Oh, right. There’s another cool thing to come out of the Write Now! program each year: In addition to managing the program, Invisible Publishing teaches participants some of the rudiments of publishing by working with them to build an anthology of their work at the end of the summer.

We think this is a brilliant program, and the participants and organizers agree. So, what’s in store for Write Now!? Unfortunately, The 4Cs Foundation can only fund the same project twice. This means that organizers will have to look elsewhere for funding if there is going to be a Write Now! 3. Funding goes towards snacks, providing youth bus tickets, and printing costs. “I think everyone involved hopes it can happen again!” says Jaime.

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Thank you to the organizers and participants of Write Now! as well as Invisible Publishing for sharing their story with us.

_______Edited from the original post, published on the LPG blog