VPL Book Camp

Leading writing workshops (in a cartoonish green tie) for groups of 11 to 13 year-old writers at the week-long Vancouver Public Library Book Camp was fun and enlightening. I tried to encourage them to write without fear but also to re-write without mercy. Some were as sharp as very sharp things and I had to be careful not to get pricked by their barbs nor shatter what might be a brittle sense of self. I tweaked the content each day, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. The group dynamics and the individual needs were all so different.