Workshop to ‘sharpen’ young writers’ heads

“Sharpening their heads,” is how director of the School for Young Writers Glyn Strange describes the benefits of a workshop to be held in the South Library on September 25.

It’s part of the fast-paced, time-limited approach that is employed to really focus students on creative thinking and writing, he says. “We like to start on poetry because we can move quickly, and we often start with the short things like haiku. We don’t do them in the traditional way, with counting syllables, we prefer to get right into the really imaginative stuff and make them quite sharp.”

“We’re cutting down the number of words, obviously, but we try and get the thoughts sharpened up as well. It’s not just descriptive but looking for ideas, and how you can use words to convey ideas. It’s a bit like putting the kids in a big pencil sharpener and sharpening their heads.”

Time pressure is also applied to students to fire their imaginations.
“It’s quite effective as a workshop because it really powers them up they can see clearly what they’ve got to do and how they’ve got to do it. Jason (Clements, workshop facilitator) is good at leading them through it and getting some amazing stuff out of children.”

But it’s not a competitive environment, Strange says. “It’s just saying what is good writing, how do we achieve it, and let’s have a go.”

Demystifying the writing process is a large part of the learning, he says. “A lot of it is really saying that the imagination is not something that’s soft and misty and vague.”

The two-hour workshop will concentrate on poetry, but workshops in schools can be run over several days allowing plenty of time for development, reflection and performances of the written pieces.

“We like to tell the children that they should suggest more than they say, but were working with a lot of precise imagery, and they’ve observed things and they’ve described things quite carefully in as few words as they can. That’s the beauty of poetry. Good poetry looks precise, but when you look at it closely you say ‘hang on, there’s more than one meaning in here’. That’s really quite powerful.”

The chance to work with successful writer Jason Clements is an opportunity not to be missed, Strange says. “Jason’s a real barrel of fun. He’s not looking for boring po-faced ideas make the reader laugh, that sort of thing.”

The workshop normally ends with a performance, although this is more difficult in a one-day workshop. A younger student, in Year 11, will assist with the workshop, which takes place on September 25.

• More NZ Book Month library events
• The School for Young Writers is based at Hagley Community College and runs programmes for 8- to 18-year-olds