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Today’s guest author was Diane Haig, both a nonfiction and fiction writer. She began her presentation by sharing with the campers how she became a writer. Haig had always been a fan of reading but this didn’t lead to a writing career until she suddenly became very ill. Bedridden, Haig found herself reading a lot about her favorite historical figure, Napoleon Bonaparte. After many travels to France to see his physical surroundings, she had gathered a wide array of knowledge dealing with Napoleon. She then decided to write a historical travel guide that compiled all of her knowledge.  This lead to her finding an agent and getting published many more times. Haig found herself with an itch to try fiction writing next and connected with an illustrator to create two children’s ebooks. This experience with both fiction and nonfiction, allowed her the knowledge to share with the campers three things, seen in the pictures below, that both genres require.
After reviewing each point, and providing both a personal example and an example using J.K. Rowling, Haig led the campers in a quick writing activity. She gave them a prompt and had them use the tools she gave them to turn it into a creative “hook” for a story.  Once the campers had a few minutes to write their responses, they were given a chance to share their “hooks” with the rest of the camp.
After the presentation was over, campers were able to ask Haig questions about her experiences as a writer. Once back in the computer labs, campers got busy with their stories. As Friday begins to grow nearer and nearer, the young writers are feeling the pressure and putting in hard work in order to have their pieces edited and published by then. Additionally, the campers must start to think about which part of their story they want to share on Friday, as each camper is limited to 2-3 minutes of reading time. The campers enjoyed a refreshing break today as Kona Ice returned. This time allowed their brains to clear for a little while before they began writing again.
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Today’s guest author was Travis Mulhauser, a stay at home novelist. He discussed the aspects of being a stay-at-home author and how that affects his life. Mulhauser recently published a novel entitled Sweet Girl in addition to one previous publication. The campers were really active in asking questions today. Many campers wanted to know his writing process, how he got his books published, and his personal preferences with writing. Mulhauser concluded his presentation by emphasizing to the young writers the importance of dedication and approaching writing as a job, noting he even writes when he doesn’t want to.
The campers are working really hard to refine their work. One of the best ways to prepare themselves for Friday’s presentation is to present some of their writing. The 3rd and 4th graders do daily writing activities, and some share their writing in front of the group. It is a great chance to give and receive feedback, not just for their writing, but also their presentation skills. It is great practice for their final presentations at the end of the week.
As campers are finishing their stories, they begin to look at how they might publish them. There are multiple medias for them to choose from. Flipsnack is a program where the campers can upload their stories into a flip book format. They can find pictures to make a cover in order to give a chapter book feel. Storyjumper is good for stories with lots of pictures and images. Weebly is an online tool where the campers can make their own website. It is really good for nonfiction stories or stories that are able to utilize its multi-page functions.
Today was the first day back after the weekend. The camp kicked off with a presentation from a UNCG graduate and current podcast writer, Katie Shepard. She is in Iceland right now so she conducted her presentation via Skype.  Shepard began her presentation by talking about her journey to becoming a podcaster. Originally working as an English teacher, Shepard decided that her true passion was writing and moved to New York City to pursue this dream. In a series of unplanned events, Shepard found herself hired as a podcaster. This opportunity offered her a way to share other people’s stories. She plans to further her experience in this nonfiction style of writing by attending Columbia to get her MFA. She also shared with us a short clip of one of her podcasts, a segment from her series that covers the stories of first-generation American high schoolers.  This clip contained an introduction about Shepard, which she notes is a crucial part of every podcast. The campers were then allowed to write their own introduction.  At the end of the presentation the campers were given the opportunity to ask Shepard a question.
Today was also a day of editing for the campers. Kids are wrapping up their stories and entering the editing stage. In this stage they receive suggestions from peers and writing coaches and instructors.   This stage is sometimes the most difficult part for the young writers as they have become attached to their pieces. However, each revision is able to strengthen their writing and advance them one step closer to their final product. Throughout the rest of the week campers will begin to finishing their editing and proceed to the publishing stage of the writing process, as they prepare for their presentations on Friday.
Today’s author was Caroline McAlister, a children's book author. She read aloud her book John Ronald’s Dragons, a picture book about J. R. R. Tolkien.
Caroline McAlister reads John Ronald’s Dragons She also had the campers do an exercise to help them come up with names. On one side of the paper, the campers wrote names for the villains, and the other side for the heroes. Some of the names included: Urchina, Fergunson Dinkleburg, and Maledictus for the villains. For the heroes: Oliver, Felicity, and Regenaldo. She explained the importance of names and the meanings behind them.
The 4th and 5th grade campers discussed the hook of the story. Ms. Christi read aloud the first few lines of short stories and chapter books. She discussed the difference between a good hook and a bad hook, as well as what makes the hook grab people’s attention. She read the opening hook from The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and asked the campers to close their eyes and imagine it. Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood. If you’re reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. Being a half-blood is dangerous. It’s scary. Most if the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways. --Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Ms. Christi reading aloud the hook Camper envisioning the story being read aloud The high school group also worked on writing a poem in a mini lesson. One of the writing coaches made a slide that prompted the campers about what to write in each line.
Today was the last day of week one and the campers are making great progress on their stories. Many campers are wrapping up the rough draft portion and entering the editing process. This part of the camp is one of the most difficult, as campers must ask themselves what should stay and what should be revised. To get some insight into how the campers are feeling I asked a few campers a series of questions and recorded their responses. Sophie, a sixth grader’s responses: What has been your favorite part of the camp so far? The people What are you most excited about doing next week? Completing the writing and creating illustrations to go along with it. What do you think will be the hardest thing about next week? Timing and editing. Sophie noted that, as a returning camper, she knew that publishing takes a while to make the final piece look nice. She also mentioned that editing is hard because, as the writer, she is attached to the story and revising is hard for her. Mary Rose, a sixth grader’s responses: What has been your favorite part of the camp so far? Using the computers What are you most excited about doing next week? Continuing to type up they story and then creating drawings that correspond to the story and then figuring out which publishing service she wants to use. What do you think will be the hardest thing about next week? Editing  Today’s camp began with a visit from Julia Ridley Smith, a short story writer.  She began her presentation not talking directly about writing, but rather about the various jobs she has had throughout her life. These jobs ranged from being a student, to working at Ben and Jerry’s, to working in a Manuscript Library. Through listing all of her jobs, Smith also shared all of the lessons that she learned while working each. She then expanded these lessons to show how each influenced her writing, which she did throughout all of her jobs. Based on that point, Smith revealed to the campers a tool to use when trying to imagine a story to write about: think about a job and use that job description to guide your story. She listed a few ideas and questions that the campers could use to facilitate the process (see list below).
Towards the end of the presentation, Smith allowed the campers to draft a few introductory sentences to a story they envisioned, using the list above as a jumping off point. Some of the campers that were especially excited about their beginnings shared them with the group.
Once all that had wanted to share, had shared, the campers were able to ask Smith questions about her life as a writer.
After the author talk, the campers split up. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders went to the Weatherspoon Art Museum, and the rest of the groups headed to their respective classrooms. Each group began to work on their stories, split up into small groups, or complete writing exercises. Nose to the grind, these campers are enthusiastically writing their stories.
Of course camp doesn’t always run smoothly. Sometimes the computers or the internet connection glitches, leaving the campers no choice but to temporarily abandon the computers. Luckily, the campers can just have an early snack time while they wait for the computers to work again. In the meantime, the campers can laugh and have fun with each other.
In addition to each class having a writing instructor, each class also has writing coaches, who are graduate students at UNCG. These coaches come to the classes around 10:00 everyday and stay until noon. They help with the brainstorming and editing processes that the campers go through, but, they also create mini-lessons that they teach to the campers in small groups. These mini-lessons are centered around the use of “tech” tools in learning and writing. Today the sixth grade writing coaches conducted their mini-lessons with topics on How to Write an Email, the Differences Between an iPhone Keyboard and a Laptop Keyboard, and How to Use Google Draw.
These mini-lessons are conducted primarily during the first week of camp.
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