Finding the write stuff

The only thing better than being around young people is being around young people who love to write.

This is a lucky week for me. I’ve got eight bright teenagers in my creative writing class at MidSummer Macon.

Four of them are from Macon and one is from Atlanta. The other three live out-of-state and are visiting relatives. They are from Louisiana, Houston, Texas and St. Louis, Mo.

This is the seventh year I have taught at the annual summer arts camp at Wesleyan College. We are learning about writing in a room on the top floor of Tate Hall, with a huge oak tree outside our window and a large quadrangle below.

My class is in creative non-fiction. We talk about writing in the real world. I’ve had a number of students in the past who only wanted to write poetry or science fiction. They want everything to come right out of their heads. And that’s OK. But we don’t make up things in my class.

I tell them I get asked all the time if I ever think I’ll write a book of fiction. Maybe, I say. But I come across so many stories THAT REALLY HAPPENED. I don’t have to make anything up. Truth really can be stranger than fiction.

I tell them to be observant of the world around them. There are interesting things happening all around them, if they will simply open their eyes and ears. They can go out to find one story and trip over three others along the way.

Another point I try to make is that you never stop growing as a person, and you never stop growing as a writer. You will be a better writer tomorrow, next week, and next month because of your accumulation of life experiences. Don’t think you know it all when you’re 16. You still won’t know it all when you’re 60.

One of my students asked me about finding her writing “voice.’’ I told her it was a process. It would evolve and grow with her. When you’re young, you emulate other writers. I can remember reading great writers and copying down lines and phrases. I wasn’t stealing them. I was borrowing them. I used them to shape my own writing. I leaned on them until I had the confidence to walk through the world of words on my own.

Finally, I tell them Mark Twain gave the best piece of writing advice ever: “Write like you talk.’’ Writing should be as simple as conversation. One day you will find that voice, or it will find you. And you will know it.