Meet your storyteller
Brandon VanHoy
"You write for fun?! What's wrong with you?!" That's how I learned that my son's friend... wasn't a fan of writing. He joined the writing group because he wanted to spend more time with his friends, not because he had any particular love for writing. Six months later, he's become one of the strongest writers in the group. Sometimes, you don't have to love writing to discover that you love what you can do with it.
When some students first join a writing group, reading a story out loud can be a real challenge. And honestly, I get it. Most kids don't spend much time reading aloud unless someone asks them to. But in our writing groups, every story gets read by someone other than the author. At first, some students struggle with it. Over time, though, something wonderful happens. They stop worrying about simply getting through the words and start experimenting with how they read them. What if a police station were filled with officers who all sounded like 70-year-old grandmothers? What if an epic fight scene were performed as though everyone were from the Bronx? Suddenly, reading aloud becomes an opportunity to play, perform, and make each other laugh. But there's more to it than that. When someone else reads your story, you discover that you never quite know how a reader will hear the words you've written. And when you read someone else's story, you learn that you have a voice of your own to bring to it. You can be dramatic. Ridiculous. Serious. Completely over the top. There's no single right way to read a story. Today, reading aloud has become something our groups look forward to. What once felt uncomfortable for some students has become another way to share stories, express themselves, and have fun together.
A few snapshots from my personal life, outside of the writing groups.
