People complain about our workshops. A lot. Sure, we get lots of feel-good comments, too; lots of “You inspired my child!” and “He hated to write before he came to your workshop, now he’s working on a novel!” and “Wow! How in the world did you come up with something so creative?” and “You guys are amazing! Thank you.” We get lots and lots of that.
But people complain, too. And they all complain about the same things; lots of “Your workshops fill up too quickly!” and “I couldn’t get my kids in!” and “We’re number twenty-seven on the waitlist…do you think we’ll get in?” Our workshops are popular. We’d like to say it’s not our fault, but, well, it is.
It is with this in mind that we came up with: Drop-in Writing Time! It’s been so successful the last three summers, we’re thinking of making it a year-round happening. How does it work? Well, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-5pm, writers of all ages gather in our writing lab (and basement) to create, laugh, think, share, and just generally enjoy writing. What do we do? Last week, we took poems that were written in other languages (languages we didn’t know), and phonetically “translated” them into English. The week before that, we wrote “Pi Stories” by taking pi (3.14159265…) and writing stories that started with a three-letter word, then a one-letter word, then a four-letter word (hopefully you get the picture). And hopefully you get the point: It’s just fun. Volunteers and students hang out and write, and everyone enjoys themselves, and the age range is usually from six to sixty or so. It’s never “full,” and there’s never a “waitlist.”
So drop-in! Everyone is welcome at Drop-in Writing Time, and you don’t have to register, just show up. Now quit it with all the complaining.