K-State Young Writers' Workshop

Today was the final day of the Young Writers’ Workshop and we had a blast! From the scavenger hunt to the final reading, the day was filled with good vibes, energy, and excitement. To start the day, the young writers pondered the question: What was your favorite part of the week? With an overwhelming number … Continue reading The Closing Chapter: The Fighting Platypi Graduate and the Young Writers Share their Work

It’s hard to believe today is already Thursday! With only one day of our workshop left, our young writers are making the most of each and every activity and are preparing to share their work tomorrow. To get started thinking about fiction, today’s starting question was: “What fictional world would you want to live in?” … Continue reading Tapping into Creativity: Bookmaking, Embracing Kairos, and Revision

It’s already Wednesday, which means the Young Writers’ Workshop is halfway over! We are soaking up every last moment we have together with a jam-packed day today. Our young writers began with the starting question: How would a bee describe a flower? My favorite answer is that the bee wouldn’t be able to put it … Continue reading The Power in Poetry: Ekphrastic Poetry, Epistolary Poetry, and Embracing the Abstract

The second day of the Young Writers’ Workshop began with the question: Who would Spiderman be in your universe? With answers ranging from spider-rat to Rapunzel spiderman (no webs, just hair), the young writers got their creative juices flowing and got ready to write! First, Riley led the young writers in a game of telephone … Continue reading “Setting the Stage” : Building Characters, Settings, and Scenes

This morning kicked off the 2023 Young Writers’ Workshop, and it is off to a fantastic start! Our morning writing prompt asked young writers to “Write a one-sentence fantasy story”, and to our delight, the young writers began to build off each other’s sentences! After our program director, Traci Brimhall, and our head of the … Continue reading The Beginnings of Stories and the Beginnings of the 2023 Young Writers’ Workshop

There are so many ways to spend summer vacation: going on trips, hanging out at the pool, relaxing at home, and more! With the 2023 Young Writers' Workshop beginning less than a week away, our instructors have been spending their summer preparing to meet our amazing young writers by creating exciting activities and brainstorming ways … Continue reading Introducing the 2023 Staff!

The final day of the 2022 Young Writers’ Workshop was a wild success! Our morning question was: What was your favorite part of the week? The young writers were big fans of Thursday’s poem-comic activity... and they loved playing Mafia during breaktime! In the tradition of the Young Writers’ Workshop, the instructors and young writers … Continue reading “You Will Use It All Your Life”: The Young Writers Share Their Work with the World

The penultimate day of the 2022 Young Writers’ Workshop passed too quickly! Today’s morning question was: What book do you want to see made into a movie? From middle grade fantasy to adult historical fiction, our young writers have great taste in books! Riley got the young writers up and moving for our first writing … Continue reading “Get in Late, Get Out Early”: The Young Writers Learn Revision Techniques, Develop Dialogue, and Reveal Their Artistic Talent

The third day of the 2022 Young Writers’ Workshop was a productive one! Though we were all a bit low on energy this morning, the young writers perked up with the help of our morning question: What song could save you (from Vecna)? (Can you tell we love Stranger Things?) Check out the playlist we … Continue reading “It’s Time to Try Defying Gravity”: The Young Writers Practice Songwriting and Character-Building

The second day of the 2022 Young Writers’ Workshop dawned a little louder, a little more energetic, and a little spookier (thanks to our morning music, the Stranger Things soundtrack). Today’s first question was: If you could live in one fictional world, which one would it be? Though Hogwarts was a popular choice, some of … Continue reading “Love is a Gentle Earthquake”: The Young Writers Craft Haiku, Odes, and List Poems