Starting a Creative Writing Club

My tips for bringing together imaginative kids and encouraging them to put pen to paper.

It has probably been written before, but it’s never been written by you.

I have run creative writing clubs at each school I have worked at. These have differed in content and intention, depending on the types of kids that have joined, and what they were looking for. Some have been lunchtime activities, others after school. But every time, I have been blown away by the dedication and creativity they have displayed, as well as the kinship between fellow writers of different ages, abilities and interests. It can be such a beautiful thing to foster in your school or library.

Here are some of the top tips that I have come up with over the years. Not all of these will suit your purpose, but hopefully some of them spark an idea for an existing club, or give you motivation to give it a go.

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Make things as casual as possible. I believe the more opt-in your club is, the better it will be attended. No one should be forced to be there.

In saying that, I’ve had kids who have been pushed to attend (usually from parents or English teachers) and have eventually, reluctantly enjoyed it. My opinion is that the best thing to do is to tell these kids: just come along once (maybe twice!) and see what you think. If you hate it, you never have to come again. Agency is important. It’s an extra-curricular, after all.

I will say this: don’t be put off by a super small club. I’ve had groups of between 2-25 kids, and while all sizes have value, the 2-student club has a soft spot in my heart. It grew in due course, and that was great too, but even a tiny club can make a huge difference in a young person’s confidence, creativity, and discipline to their writing habits. Maybe more so.

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Be led by the kids. In the first meeting, brainstorm some ideas of how the club should run. Do they want to share work and receive feedback? Play around with some short writing prompts? Work on a particular project each term? All of the above? This is another call for agency.

I also think it’s good to evolve the club as you go along. I ran one that was really loose, and over time the kids decided we needed a more clear purpose each week, which we crafted together, and stuck to. It worked much better after we’d ‘lived in’ the club for a bit, played around with things, and figured out what would work for us. Don’t be afraid to change things up if they aren’t clicking.

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Typically, I’ve always started each meeting with a short writing exercise. Something really accessible and fun—the chance to warm up a bit. A couple of prompts that have worked well include:

• Young people like to talk (or write) about themselves. They want you to be curious about them, to ask questions. I think it’s great. Lean into this. I used to often print out this ‘get to know you’ exercise (or something similar) to use at the start of the year, which was always fun:

I stole this idea from somewhere but I’m not sure where!

• Print out (or display on a screen) a whole bunch of different, interesting images. They could be photographs or illustrations, abstract things like an extreme close-up of an insect (don’t tell them what it is), or detailed scenes that depict many characters. Let the kids choose one and write a story based on it.

• A one word prompt. You can either set the word, let them use an online prompt generator such as this one, or if you want to keep them off computers, hand out a list like the one below and let them choose their own:

• Literary telephone is always engaging, even if it gets a bit silly. Sit in a circle. Everyone writes one sentence and then passes the story on. The next person reads the sentence and adds to the story with one sentence. It ends when you get back the paper with your first sentence. You can set parameters for each sentence like, this time introduce a new character or, for this round make sure you describe the setting in some way. That keeps things more focussed.

• I love the below prompt for developing character, and am currently using it on my book tour during some of the creative writing workshops. It has been working so well! The kids have come up with the most wacky, creative stuff.