Hello Kids, Tweens, and Teens!

Welcome to Gateless Writing! This is a safe place for you to write your weirdest, most original, most wild stories...whether they're fairy tales, horror stories, romances, family legends, movie ideas, superhero epics, or true stories from your own original and wild life that reflect your own unique perspective. There is no such thing as stupid or crazy here...the crazier it is, the more original it must be!

In this group, you'll get a quick writing prompt. Then, we're all going to read our writing out loud and give each other feedback. BUT! There's a twist:

Unlike school, you can only tell someone what is GREAT about their piece. What you loved, what you'll remember, what was really strong. The things you hope they never, ever cut from their piece.

Does that sound like gooey, gross, positivity nonsense? Actually, there's a lot of brain science that shows us when you're making something new, criticism isn't super helpful: Your brain goes into fight or flight, and the most creative parts of your brain shut down. (PARENTS and TEENS: Check out this article from Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2019/03/the-feedback-fallacy).

We have to let our ideas out of our heads and then nurture them if they're going to become something awesome. Kind of like planting a seed: At the beginning, it needs lots of water. Once it's grown up, then you can start trimming leaves and branches (aka editing).  

As you point out each thing you love about a piece, I will explain WHY that thing works. I'll show you exactly what tool they used (alliteration, structure, metaphor, etc) and then...YOU will have that tool for your own writing! When you point out what works in someone else's writing, your writing gets better because you learn new ways to write, to express, and to create.

(PARENTS and TEENS: This will obviously be more sophisticated and nuanced for middle school and high school aged kids. For those students, I'll send along the full guidelines for group feedback and interaction in a separate email).

There will also be plenty of time to ask questions about writing, movies, books, and anything else you want to know!

I'm excited to write with you!