Creative Writing Club: Share and Practice Writing
As the six of us sat around the square of tables, we went around sharing what we had spent the last ten minutes writing. There were two prompts to choose from. The first: “Pick one of your fears. Write about an encounter with it from its perspective.” The second: “gargantuan, wonder, party.” Jennifer Koster, professor of English and Writing Center Coordinator, shared first about her experience with her son going to college in Maine. She described the fear of hearing the news about the killer and then the relief of receiving a text from her son, telling her he was safe.
“That’s how I’ve survived,” said Michael Gauss, creative writing club president, on the benefits of writing about his own experiences. However, he has not always liked writing. In elementary school, he would hide a book under the desk and read when he was supposed to be writing. When Gauss started attending PVCC, Koster became a sort of mentor for him. After taking a break from school, he came back and decided to join the club Koster ran, the creative writing club. Since then, he has grown to appreciate writing.
After the prompt writing was done, the club members began organizing an event for the following Friday. They have three major events throughout the year. The first is The Fall Line, the annual literary magazine for PVCC. They accept submissions from students, faculty, and staff. “There are guidelines; there are some word limits,” said Gauss, “You can not go overboard on any not-safe-for-school stuff.” There is a 10-page maximum, and the club will reach out to propose edits to the author of a submission. Otherwise, students have total creative liberty. The largest submission in the 2023 issue was three pages long, while the shortest was only 36 words. If you want to submit a piece for The Fall Line, submissions open in mid-November and close the first week of February.
The second event is the 600-word horror story contest. They accept submissions from Sept. 14 up until Oct. 16. They then chose the winners and runners-up and had a reading of their stories on Nov. 3.
The third event is the Peep-o-Rama, in which students make a diorama of a scene from a favorite book using Peeps, which happens early April.
To find out more about these events, and how to get involved with the club, you can find the club on Instagram (@pvcc_creative_writing_club) and Facebook. You can also contact Gauss over email (msg24253@email.vccs.edu) or the Vice President/Social Media Manager Sarah Cate Nordman (scn2380@email.vccs.edu). Although Nordman is fully remote, attending PVCC from Belgium, Gauss said that she keeps the club organized. They meet in M627 on Mondays, from noon to 1 p.m.
“My goal for the club is to create a community of people who all love to write and want to help each other become better writers. Whether you’re looking to improve for school, or whether you want to go into writing professionally, or whether you just enjoy it, I want to create a space where everyone is equally passionate about writing,” said Nordman.
