Kendall here 🙋 – I volunteered with Greenville Wordsmiths to see one of their creative writing workshops for students in action, and you’d be surprised how excited middle schoolers are to share their ideas.

That’s why Greenvillian Adrienne Burris created Greenville Wordsmiths in 2012, a non-profit that provides free workshops for kids age 7 – 14 + helps them develop confidence in their voices sooner rather than later. ✏

You’ll find Adrienne + Greenville Wordsmith’s volunteers leading workshops at no cost in elementary and middle school classrooms and in the Wordmobile. Greenville County public schools and organizations with special education students can sign up for a 90 – 120 min. workshop during the school day, and the decked-out Wordmobile bus hosts writing sessions and readings, like the free Saturday Writing Club.

The class I helped out with was finishing up a Choose Your Own Adventure story (the previous classes had written sections with two possible choices, and later classes built on the story until it was time for our session to write the ending.) The two mantras for every student: write without fear, edit without mercy. And no ideas are stupid.

Once the stories are written (ours involved a zombie Corgi named Jeff), Greenville Wordsmiths has artists illustrate them (good luck, whoever is asked to draw Jeff on the Titanic) before each story is professionally printed + bound into a book that’s stocked in the classroom + school library. 📚

It’s a lot of hard work, but seeing their name in print could change the life of a future Stephen King or Nicholas Sparks. If you want to support Greenville Wordsmiths, grab a ticket to their first benefit, a silent auction called The Price is Write.

And find the Wordsmiths in May at Piedmont Natural Gas Downtown Alive in the MAC Arts Tent, or in June at the TD Saturday Market. And follow their Instagram to see Adrienne document the entire process, from handwritten stories to fully-bound and illustrated books.

Being published can have a huge impact on a kid’s confidence… but sometimes adults need a boost, too.

Greenville Wordsmiths hosts The Yarn monthly at M. Judson, where participants prepare a short oral story around a theme to share in front of the audience. I tried that one, too, although I volunteered on impulse without preparing – I can say it was worth a try if you want to challenge yourself.

– Kendall