Dragons and Adventure at Dixon Middle School
(I know, I know, I haven’t been blogging as regularly as I should, but if it helps ease the sting, please know that I have been working on Golden Spiral more. A lot more. And I really, really like where it’s going.)
I did take day off from writing, however, to spend the day at Dixon Middle School to celebrate reading, writing, and all things creative with the 7th and 8th grade classes. Fellow authors James Dashner, J. Scott Savage, and Jessica Day George rounded out the party and I hope that between the four of us, we offered the kids a day they’ll never forget. We spent the morning in assemblies, talking to the different grades about how we became writers, why we like to write, and answered some of their questions in an informal Q&A format.
I was honored to have been asked to join such an august panel of authors since I’m the newest one to the profession of “published author,” and it was a treat to spend the day with such good writers and friends.
After lunch (Café Rio, my favorite), we were able to teach three smaller workshop sessions to the kids who had signed up for lunch and lessons. I’ve only done a handful of school visits so far, but every time I go, I’m amazed at how many kids are already writing and how many kids ask me about how to get their book published. I remember being in 8th grade, and there was no way I as brave as these kids are who are already thinking about publication! I love to hear their enthusiasm for the books the read and the stories they are telling. It sparks my own desire to go home and write and tell the stories that are inside of me.
My workshop focuses on some of the nuts and bolts of writing (characters, conflict, motivation, and how to start plotting out your story), and one of the things I love to do is ask for a volunteer to tell me what they did in a two-hour span after school. It’s usually pretty uneventful (went home, spent time with friends, watched a movie, etc.), but then we always ask “What if” and turn the day on its head. The kids at Dixon had great ideas for stories (a microchip hidden in an ice cream cone; playing cards that turned into fortune-telling cards that could change someone’s fate; a school bus that was really a Twinkie; a video game that you could plug directly into your brain and play for real; a sister trained in the ancient art of assassination).
It was a good day, filled with books and stories and imagination. And dragons! We were all given statues of dragons as a thank-you gift. Mrs. Moody said they were magical dragons with the gift of language. So I’m going to put mine on my laptop and see if he’ll write for me while I’m asleep….
(And a special shout-out THANK YOU to Leann Moody and her crack IT guy at the school library who saved me a 45-minute drive back home after I realized I’d left my computer plug at home. You guys are the best!)