Does your child love to draw AND write?

Comic book movies dominate the box office, but did you know that comics and graphic novels also dominate the New York Times Best Seller lists as well? Smile, Dog Man, Amulet, and Bone are just some of the massively popular graphic novels taking root in children’s literature.

Comics, graphic novels, and sequential art are all ways to describe how we tell stories with both pictures and text. This three hour writing workshop course will give children some basic skills for writing and drawing their own comics, regardless of their drawing ability. Above all, we’ll focus deeply on how to tell a strong story using both pictures and words.

On May 14 join us for Creating Comics I. This program will demonstrate how even simple line drawings like Raina Telgemeier’s Smile, Sister, and Guts can lead to powerful and funny stories.

Creating Comics I & II on May 21 will introduce new students to the techniques and strategies from the first session, while giving returning students more sophisticated methods to develop stronger stories.

Each workshop takes place at the East Grand Rapids Community Center.

Sign up here!

Does your student love to write? Do they spend hours dreaming up adventures for their own Jedi? Or maybe they’ve created their own wizard for Hogwarts? A Minecraft survival story? An alternate ending to their favorite dystopian novel?

This three hour workshop, Meaningful Fan Fiction, will give your student support in planning, drafting, and revising stories inspired by the stories that move them.

We’ll take a deep dive into what makes source material like Harry Potter and Star Wars so compelling, develop meaningful characters based on their favorite world, plan and outline character driven stories, and write, write, write! Our day will culminate with a share of our progress and goals.

Our workshop is meant to be a supportive, inclusive, and nurturing environment for young writers!

Each workshop takes place at the East Grand Rapids Community Center.

A morning session for students in grades 3-5 will run from 9:00 AM until 12:00 PM, and our afternoon session for students in middle and high school will take place 1:00 PM until 4:00 PM. The cost of each workshop is $75.

Click here to sign up!