I've just returned from my school's writer's slam, so even though I promised a continued post about my encounter with the incarcerated, I'm in the writing mindset so I thought I'd do a quick post on that topic instead. If you haven't done so yet, you should most definitely participate in a writer's slam or open mic night! The experience will vary depending on where you do it. At my school, you read any piece of original writing- music, short story, poem, play, etc- and then you receive positive feedback on it. Some performance venues are more Spoken Word oriented- that means performance poetry. If you can't get to one yourself, organize one at your school! There are always writers at your school, even if they don't make themselves known.
Anyway, I thought I'd share a little exercise that we all used to do in the Creative Writing Club at my old school. It's called In 30 Words, and it's pretty self explanatory. You pick any topic- time, love, a season, a holiday, a person, your pet- and you have to write about it in no more than exactly 30 words. And words like "the," "and," "a" etc count! It's a challenging but fun exercise that teaches you a lesson in brevity and getting your point across in as little words as possible. I'll post an example that I did a couple years ago. Give it a shot and feel free to share what you ended writing about!
~Simran
