Ellwood City Library To Host A Creative Writing Group

Starting August 14th, the Ellwood City Library will kick off this year’s Creative Writing Group. This group has been taught by Nancy Wallace for the past 12 years and meets every two weeks.

Wallace holds a BA in English Lit and has had 19 traditionally published children’s books, along with a young adult fantasy series called The Wolves of Llise published by Harper Collins, UK.

“The program is very rewarding for me and has sparked a lot of friendships over the years,” said Wallace. “I enjoy moderating it very much!”

The group holds students from grades 6 through 12 who wish to be writers in the future. The common issue Wallace sees amongst her students is that they want to be writers but aren’t sure what it involves to become one. She said that they have ideas for plots but don’t know how to develop them into a complete story. Wallaces uses writing prompts at each meeting and has the students read their work aloud, she uses this time as a chance for the students to listen to other people’s writing styles.

“They go from being anxious about reading their work aloud to excited to read their latest installment,” Wallace said.

Her prompts can range from writing a paragraph about a picture, listening to music and imagining a scene inspired by it, to using spices to evoke a particular time or place. Everything is geared towards the students having one of the paragraphs they wrote open a magical key to the plot of a novel or a short story.  They use these tactics to help concentrate on the beginning, middle and ending of a book, while also filling in the parts around those components. Wallace includes the fact that a lot of the groups time is spent on developing characters.

Most of these students are already currently working on a project and will bring their latest work to read to the group. Students usually read a chapter from a novel, but there are some poets. The group time can also serve as a critique group, Wallace will give her own take on the writing which is followed by comments from every other member in the group. This activity helps encourage students to have something ready to read for the next meeting.

“The only rule is that any criticism must be positive and constructive,” said Wallace.

Seeing as Wallace reviews young adult books for VOYA magazine, she has been able to sponsor at least six of the Creative Writing members as teen reviewers for VOYA. Those who become teen reviewers receive free advance proofs and are able to have their reviews published while they are still in high school. This year, Lincoln High School student Helena Kalantzis is the current teen reviewer.

Aside from using connections at VOYA, two of her students have won the contest put on by the Pittsburgh Playhouse for high school students and got to see their plays performed by professional actors.