Issue #1

My Hometown

Letter from a WriteGirl Teen

Every writer has gone through writer’s block. It may be due to lacking motivation, though your head is full of pockets of inspiration for the next great leg of your writing journey. Or it may be due to having motivation but lacking inspiration, perhaps because of the trying times of the year or a lingering blankness in the recesses of your mind.

That’s why, with my battered Les Misérables notebook in hand, I’m always excited to attend the virtual workshops at WriteGirl: I want to feel inspired again.WriteGirl has the same feeling of welcome and warmth even though the workshop now takes place behind a screen. Executive Director Keren Taylor starts us off with a humor-laced monologue and then a challenge. For example, try to make an ancestor your muse, whether it be an ancestor from outside, like the apple tree hidden in the corner of your backyard, or one of your human ancestors, like a great-grandmother.

Then we go into breakout rooms dedicated to different topics — one for comedy and one for romance, for example — where I realize that romance doesn’t have to be between two people: it can refer to the relationship between two best friends or the relationship between a character and themselves. Additionally, romance doesn’t have to stand alone: you can merge it with comedy to make a rom com or even add it to a work of mystery.

At the end of the day, I leave the workshop with a bolt of inspiration pricking behind my eyelids, making me feel almost euphoric. There is nothing in the world like a WriteGirl workshop, and a quote by Margaret Atwood helps remind me of that: “A word after a word after a word is power.”

– Sam Krug, age 17