Writer's Week

Julie Halpern seems to have had a very interesting life that seems to have inspired her writing a lot. I noticed that a lot of her books dealt with depression or problems she has faced. I am really interested in reading her book, Don’t Stop Now. She said that it was based off the situation about when her friend faked her own kidnapping. Since it was based off of something true that really happened to Julie Halpern, I am very interested in reading this book.

On Tuesday, we saw students, and I thought that most of them were very good writers. I especially enjoyed Jonathan Stoller-Schoff’s story about his airplane adventures. It was humorous and interesting, and it stood out to me because the theme of his story was different from everyone else’s. Most of the other students wrote about how friendship was very important or wrote a poem about what or who they loved, and I just thought it was cliché, though they were wrote good stories/poems.

Sierra DeMulder seems very… interesting… well at least the way she acts. Her poems, though, are very meaningful, and I can tell she really means what she writes. They are all inspiring poems about problems everyone faces in life. Though she seemed very young, her poems were very mature sounding and meaningful.

I enjoyed watching the musical part of Writers Week on Thursday performed by students. All of them can sing about twenty times better than me. I particularly liked Hannah Lee. I had already known that she got into state for her Original Comedy in speech, but I did not know that she could also sing. I don’t really know much about singing, but I thought she was talented. I also enjoyed her OC at the end, though she did not finish it. It was definitely funny, and since I’m not in speech, I don’t really know much about how they judge them, but I definitely think she did well in state.

Lastly, Billy Lombardo was also at Writers Week. However, to be honest, I did not enjoy this as much as the other sessions. He seems to be a creative author with a lot to write about, just not the best performer. It would have been helpful if he gave us some more background to his stories, since I have never read his books. He seems to really have a passion for writing though.

Overall, I learned a lot about how hard it must be for someone to perform their writing in front of a large crowd. I also learned how writing can really be anything, even music! I was surprised to hear students perform their songs and music at Writers Week. I learned that anything written down can be performed, whether it is a poem or music lyrics, and the important thing about writing is sharing your ideas with others and communicating it to other people, not whether or not it is entertaining or funny.