With everything our teens have going on today – classes, extracurriculars, college applications, and more – we know how hard it is to sit down and read. Still, we constantly remind our community’s young writers that reading is the single best way to learn how…
Ask any author which book first kept them up reading all night. That book is probably why they became an author. In fact, reading is the single best way to learn to write well. Not just reading, but reading for pleasure, as widely, deeply, and…
By Erin Madigan White I don’t love driving the carpool. I don’t care for stinky cleats or the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack. I’m exhausted by the endless loops to soccer practice and dance lessons, which are cosmically aligned with dinner-time, siblings’ activities, and work calls.…
by Erin Madigan White Mike Allegra is the author of 18 books for children and has taught at The Writers Circle for over six years. As a teacher, Mike helps kids, teens, and adults fall in love with creative writing, and express their voices on…
TWC Instructor Mike Allegra talks about why writing crap can be a good thing. Sometimes I need to get a weird idea out of my system. That’s why my picture book manuscript, Momma No-Nose, exists. Momma No-Nose is the poignant tale of a mom who,…
TWC poetry and fiction instructor Jared Harel delves into the beauty he discovered reading children’s books I don’t remember being read to as a child. My parents were good ones—doting and thoughtful—so perhaps I was, but nothing comes to mind. In fact, I recall only…
It’s that time of year again, when all our thoughts turn to gift-giving. If you have a writer in your life, The Writers Circle has some suggestions that celebrate that special avocation and make your writer feel cherished! Writers love reading, of course (Why else…
by Jeff Campbell, author and instructor at The Writers Circle Storytelling is storytelling, no matter what medium. That is the second lesson I learned at the annual SCBWI New Jersey conference on June 4 and 5. Not only that, I learned it on the first…
by Jeff Campbell, author and instructor at The Writers Circle Writing is often considered a lonely profession. But it doesn’t have to be. That’s the lesson I learned last weekend. On June 4 and 5, I attended the annual conference of the New Jersey chapter…
by Allison “A.J.” Colucci One of the biggest hurdles aspiring authors face is landing the right agent. Three of New York’s top literary agents shared their best advice to a packed crowd at The Writers Circle’s Speaker Series on Sunday, March 8. Marietta B. Zacker…
by Jeff Campbell, TWC Instructor One good hook? That’s hard enough to come up with. Fifty good hooks, one after another, for 300 pages? That’s the daunting challenge I faced when writing my forthcoming book Daisy to the Rescue (Zest Books). It’s a collection of…
No matter how old you are, it’s been a tough winter. The prospect of school extending into summer is crushing our youngest writers’ spirits. And you parents out there are no doubt going stir-crazy with the kids at home. So we at The Writers Circle…
