What we do at a kids story workshop

Today I held a one-hour story workshop at the Grapevine Library, the second of these that I've done. Basically the story workshop if something I realized was a lot more fun to do than a reading, because it makes it less about the visiting writer and more about what a writer loves, which is telling stories. We still do a Q&A, but I like that this is more about the reader.

The workshop goes like this: I do an intro to my own work and what I tend to write, then I give the students a scenario: you're a writer, and someone has asked you for a story. You have a few hours. In this workshop, we'll shorten that to ten minutes. But first let's talk about what a story is.

We get into protagonists, antagonists, basic story structure, genre, etc, and then we divide the students into groups and they brainstorm for ten minutes. At the end of that, each team presents their idea.

Today we heard stories of magic, but I noticed that the girls' teams were more emotionally charged, while the boys' story was way more adventurous. And this is in a pitch.

A great experience.