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“Are you guys ready to write?”

This question, posed by youth and teen librarian Erica Voell to a small group of teenage writers, heads off a recent session of the new teen writing workshop at the Bonner Springs City Library.

The session was Thursday, Oct. 29, and was the second time Voell met those participating in the workshop to talk about such aspects of writing as character development, how to formulate story ideas and coming up with a well-constructed plot.

At this early stage of the workshop, Voell says she can already see the impact it is having on her students.

“It’s really rewarding to see them developing,” Voell said following last Thursday’s workshop. “I can see that they’re really excited about it … and that feeds me. I love that I can provide a program to the kids that’s really meaningful to them.”

But Voell can’t take all the credit for the workshop. The idea to start a writing group at the library came from the brain of Ariel Williams, a 17-year-old senior at Bonner Springs High School who describes herself as an avid reader. She says she has been working on a novel in some form or another since the seventh-grade, and is working on a novel about assassins for her senior project. She plans to be a fiction writer someday.

“I write because I can,” Williams says simply about how her passion has developed. “Because I like to think that someday something I’ve written will inspire somebody else.”

Williams wrote a proposal over the summer for a writing workshop, which Voell read and agreed to organize. Voell said she had been involved in a writing workshop as a participant before and knew anybody who signed up would find it just as rewarding as she did.

“It’s something I wanted to do anyway,” Voell said. “I found it really wonderful to be a part of (a writing workshop) … I also found that it was a really cool way to connect with other people who write.”

There is no sign-up required to take part in the workshop, only the motivation to show up and get down to the business of writing. Voell said she had six teenagers show up to the first session in September. Last week’s session was comprised of Williams, 15-year-old Devyn Hayes, 16-year-old Amelia Sheldon and 18-year-old Heather Peters. This was Peters’ first time attending the workshop.

“I definitely got how to write my stories a lot better,” said Peters, who is working on a romance novel for a scholarship.

Sheldon, who also attended the first workshop, said she plans to write historical fiction.

“It’s really good to get feedback on your ideas,” she said of the workshop.

During each session, Voell answers questions the students have, gives feedback and presents writing exercises based on that day’s theme for them to work on. Students are also given the option of reading their work out loud to the group. The session is only an hour long, so Voell gives the teenagers a limited amount of time to work on each exercise. Time limitation is also a way for them to think quickly, which Voell says is a useful skill for any writer to have.

“It gets them to realize that they can put down a lot of thoughts in a short period of time,” Voell said. “You may only have an hour each day to write, but you can write a lot in that hour. It makes them think. Generally the first thing that pops into your head is generally the idea that’s going to take you the farthest.”

Voell said during the first session she allowed the students to come up with their own ground rules for the group, including always using constructive criticism and applauding for every person’s piece of writing — even if that person decides to opt out of reading their writing out loud.

“That’s part of respecting the writer,” she said.

Voell says this gives the students ownership of their own workshop, which is important for the group to continue and grow over the coming months. If the students feel like they have had a hand in creating something, Voell said, then more participation is sure to follow.

As the one with the original idea for the writing workshop, Williams’ feelings of ownership are naturally without bounds.

“I feel so awesome,” Williams said. “I feel awesome knowing that I’m influencing other people by encouraging them to write.”

The teen writing workshop normally meets the third Tuesday of every month. For more information, call the library at (913) 441-2665, or visit bonnerlibrary.org.

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