A CALL TO ARMS FOR THE SCRIBBLERS:
ATTENTION ALL WRITERS, POETS, PLAYWRIGHTS, AND AFFILIATED INKLINGS
Listen. I know you.
You got the bug early on, probably back in grade school. You lost a few recesses and gym classes under the bleachers poking through paperbacks. You took a whetstone to your words and honed your structure into something keen and potent, if precocious. You rooted through old books like armories, picking up idioms and turns of phrase, new linguistic tricks and traps to augment your arsenal.
Your toddling narratives bloomed with complexity and sophistication. You weren’t waking up in the middle of the night, groping for your crinkly spiral-bound notebook to scribble down little campfire stories anymore. You were crafting lives, shaping the earth on which the gods walked.
Of course, this gave you an idea of what worlds should look like, so when you begrudgingly returned to the one in which you were just a character, you were disillusioned. It was so poorly done! Unimpressive to the point of hackish. The plot was rambling and incomprehensible. All those flat secondary characters, piping rehashed dialogue to their slack-jawed tertiary counterparts – an amateur wouldn’t make this up.
And yet, there you were, living the art that imitates life. Or vice versa. Right?
So you retreat into your dim little hobbit hole and keep scratching out pages that, if you’re lucky, will get passed around some 300-level workshop and everyone will hum and haw about your diction and imagery, except for that one dude in the Buddy Holly glasses and hemp-derivative scarf who will make vaguely contemptuous comments about your “flow.”
Good news, Hemingwannabe. You’re not alone.
The Creative Writing Club (hideously acronymed WCUCWC) is brimming with aspiring scribes at least as jaded as you. They meet in Sykes twice a week to compare notes, kick ideas around, practice, workshop, and grumble.
Prose, poetry, plays, novels, or songs, it doesn’t matter what you bring to the table, so long as you put a modicum of soul into it. Whether you need to find out what your strengths are, what needs work, or you just want to show off some of your stuff in a judgement free environment, the West Chester Creative Writing Club is always looking for new blood. We welcome all majors from all class standings.
The Creative Writing Club always meets in the Sykes Building. On Wednesdays the club meets in Sykes room 254, and on Thursdays the club meets in Sykes room 210 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
For more information about the club, or to contact the club’s executive board, check out the Creative Writing Club’s facebook page called “WCU Writing Club.”
We welcome all those interested in joining. You write for whoever’ll look.
Bring it by. We’ll look.
Matthew Holmes is a fourth-year student majoring in psychology with minors in Spanish and philosophy. He can be reached at MH755540@wcupa.edu.