By Victoria Sottek
Round Table reporter
The creative writing course at Middletown High School is offered to students yearly due to the popular request of students. With almost forty students total in the class, there many of the “serious writers” will soon hopefully be looking for careers and further education in that field.
The class doesn’t stick to a strict curriculum like other English classes. It has a very relaxed atmosphere. It’s broader, more imaginative. There are no lectures, no textbooks. Nothing is set-in-stone.
“This is a course for kids who love words and want to write,” said MHS creative writing instructor Daria Baldovin.
MHS sophomore Dani Anderson said “the class is entertaining and more fun than the structured English classes.”
Anderson is one of the few sophomores admitted into the creative writing class, as most of the students accepted into the class are juniors and seniors. She plans on continuing to write through college and becoming a published author.
“I want to write and major in English, so I feel like the more I know in that field the more knowledgeable I will be when I finally get to college,” said Anderson.
MHS senior Jenna Capobianco is one of the three veterans taking the class for a second time.
“I have a passion for creative writing. I don’t want to be a published author, but I do want to continue writing. It’s a good hobby to have,” said Capobianco.
As part of the course, students are given different assignments every few nights and are expected to write a piece to share with the rest of the class. These assignments range from creating a poem using only words associated with the color red to writing a fictional short story about someone calling a telephone number they found scrawled on a bathroom wall.
The class allows for students to test their writing skills and experiment with different styles of writing.
“Go where you haven’t gone before,” said Baldovin.
One thing that is different about the class is the group discussions, by talking about your piece with other students you get input about what sounds good in your piece and what doesn’t.
“You get good feedback from the class and teacher, and you learn things you don’t realize you’re doing good or bad,” said Anderson, “When you sit down you think ‘what can I improve on this piece.”
Creative writing is unlike many of the other classes offered at MHS. The students in the class have developed almost a family-like bond with one another. The nervous feeling of reading aloud to a class of thirty-some students disappear within the first few weeks of the course, everything just clicks.
Capobianco said, “We share all of our pieces with the class and that creates a family-like atmosphere; not only because we give constructive criticism and encourage each other, but also because writing brings out the deep emotions in people and we can all relate and offer support. Writing unites us and it’s a class to look forward to.”
