This year Justice has its first Creative Writing Class. And what's great is that we get to build it together -- even as we help each other build up our skills and portfolios of writing.

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The famous American author Ernest Hemingway once described how easy it is to write creatively. He stated: “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” And that’s a very creative way of describing the art of writing. Of course, bleeding on your keyboard is both metaphoric and messy. Surely there must be some tricks to writing, right? 

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Yes, and this year, students will get the chance to learn these tricks which have been used by other authors. Students will also have the time and space to practice writing without the need for bloodshed, in a safe and supportive community. 

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The Portfolio

That’s where this class comes in. Over the next year, we will meet together to explore the tricks used by other authors as they created plays, scripts, poems, raps, songs, stories, sermons, editorials, and more. Students will be allowed a lot of freedom in choosing what they want to write and how -- as students create a portfolio throughout the year. This portfolio will contain:

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• One persuasive essay

• One short story/work of fiction

• One non-fiction piece

• Two poems/song lyrics/raps

• One short script

• One memoir (fictional or autobiographical)

• One video or web production

• One analysis essay on a book of the student's choice

• Two other texts/creations of the student's choice

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We have a lot of time together to work on writing as a community, which means getting comfortable enough with one another we can each share parts of what we have written to one another for feedback.

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One great part about this class is that it goes all year. Many High Schools offer a half-year version of Creative Writing, which means things have to move very fast in order for students to cover all 4 areas required by FCPS (Drama, Poetry, Fiction, Non-fiction). We will have the time we need to be creative, to write and fail and write some more. 

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Here is the Overview of Creative Writing Class as a pdf -- which expands on the info n this page. In addition, here is a list of the 20 Fiction Class Books -- each student is asked to pick one to read this semester and comment on the way the author uses words and sentences.

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