InkSwarm is a re-envisioning of several of our teen writing courses that allows us to continue to nurture burgeoning creative writers virtually in this time of Covid 19, while also giving students even more flexibility in the genres they wish to explore. Rather than asking teens to select a camp devoted only to poetry, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, or personal writing, Inkswarm gives students many opportunities to explore all of these or to focus only on one.
Aspects of the program:
- Four weekly prompts and activities in four different genres: These will include readings and model texts, but also specific guided writing exercises designed to focus on a specific aspect of each genre: (poetry, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, multimedia)
- Interactivity and writer’s workshop: We will strive to build a community of writers who respond to and celebrate each other’s work and learn how to workshop each other’s writing. There will be online discussion boards, ways to post work, interactive games, etc. Students will formally workshop one longer piece of work towards the end of the course.
- An audience: There will be a platform for posting work that will allow others to comment on it. We will also encourage participants to submit their work to writing contests.
- Artistic Sandbox : Students will also be given weekly opportunities to play with visual art, photography, and experiments that crack open the genre of “writing” to include other art forms in their creative process.
- Writing instruction: The teacher will read and provide elaborated feedback on one piece of writing that participants have revised.