The document reflects on the growth and experiences of several writers participating in an annual celebration of writing. Through their narratives, they share how they have developed their skills, faced challenges like writer's block, and explored various genres, revealing their evolving relationship with writing. Each writer expresses their passion for the craft and their commitment to improve and continue writing in the future.

1. Annual Celebration of Writers in Progress

2. What Do You See Here?
This gallery offers audiences a glimpse at our learning, made visible.
What do you notice?
Look for evidence of:
• Reflection
• Courage
• Perseverance
• Collaboration
• Our willingness to seek understanding and share our expertise

4. When I write, I picture a blank canvas. There are endless possibilities. No rules. Just ink and paper. The
great writers in the world may dream of the future, or may want to go back to the past, where they would
like to see Flapper girls drinking exquisite champagne. However, the best writers would take a step
forward, and can literally snatch the Flapper girl, or the man who’s a victim of totalitarianism desiring a
humane life. This year, I was able to expand my understanding of writing, and learned numerous writing
techniques from different authors. Being able to pick out exemplars or models is a very important strategy
to have if you’re looking for different techniques. I found myself reading and writing other genres other than
realistic fiction or fantasy including non-fiction and poetry. This is quite unusual because I tend to reach for
teen fiction in Barnes and Nobles or my local library.
I used to have a great passion for realistic fiction, but now I feel as though that spark has moved
elsewhere. In 2015 my goal was to at least start a small anthology or a group of ideas for poetry, and I
have now completed my first chapter or part of the story. I was inspired by the book Leaves of Grass
written beautifully by Walt Whitman.
In 2015 I was able to improve on my visualization strategy, and was thankfully able to input that into my
poetry as well as a couple of my short stories. I’ve never been that good or interested in too much dialogue
to the point where I’d rather just create a scene without it completely. There is so much you can get out of
a couple details, and I especially love it when an author tries to make the reader think a step further then
what they are used to. Another thing I was able to improve on was the ability to use foreshadowing well.
I’ve been reading tons of stories that were very dramatic and left the reader hanging. I quickly used this to
enhance my writing, and it actually made it easier for me to move on smoothly to the next part.
This year I was already so busy with my schedule that I am quite nervous I may not have that much time
the next school year to give up some time to write. I want to be able to stop procrastinating, and manage
my time well enough to have at least fifteen minutes to jot down or plan a scene. I also want to improve my
dialogue in my new short story I am currently writing. Finally, I want to do some creative writing such as
play writing or script; it would be so much fun to try out something new that I may find a strong interest for.
--Hannah

5. Hannah Reflects…

6. A peek into Hannah’s process

8. I can’t remember life
before literacy. I
experience some feelings
when viewing photos of
Young Melanie, but my
first clear memories are
all with books.

9. I was lying on the floor of my living room. My
parents and sister were sitting on the couch
with the TV on mute. They were impatiently
waiting for me to finish my book: Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Usually I gave into
my sister’s demands pretty easily, but this time,
I refused. I would not watch the movie before I
finished the book.

10. I remember my fourth grade teacher letting my keep The Great
Gilly Hopkins- and I remember being confused when the narrator
used the word “colored” to describe people. (I pictured rainbow
humans). I remember going through the huge Scholastic warehouse
shopping for books with my grandma. I remember exactly where I
was when Dumbledore died. I remember seeing the name Rick
Riordan for the first time. Books were- and are- my life.

11. It was no surprise to anyone when I
announced at a young age that I wanted to be
an author when I grew up. I wanted other
people to devour my stories like I had devoured
J. K. Rowling’s. I wrote stories in school. I
wrote stories when I joined the Western New
York Young Writer’s Studio in its first year. I
never stopped writing, but I changed a lot.

12. I changed stories so often that I never
finished a book. I changed journals so
often it would be impossible to gather a
coherent narrative of my life. The biggest
realization for me is that being an author
is not my calling.

13. I love writing. I will not stop writing stories, even
if I never finish a single one. I write, not because I
want to be an author, or for other people to read my
work, but for me. My audience is just a single
person: Melanie Izard. And because of this, I can
write whatever I want, whenever I want, and I can
fall in love with writing all over again with each
blank page I put a pen on.
--Melanie

15. I have always been a reader, though not always a writer.
It was only about four years ago when an opportunity came in the form of WNY Young Writer’s
studio that I decided I wanted to start a more serious passion of writing. To be honest, when I
was introduced to Writer’s Studio I was a bit reluctant. Until then I was never a phenomenal writer
like some of my friends or wanted to create something new because I liked to just stick to
reading. However as that year passed, I had grown to enjoy it. I had grown attached to creating
new worlds and going on adventures and breathing in that creative air of the studio atmosphere.
That bond to writing still goes strong today. I am a writer that evolves. I have gone through
different phases, enhancing my style after every transformation. Fantasy, realistic fiction, thriller,
group works and poetry. From improvising to planning, fragmentary to complete, dull to action-
packed, I believe that my experience with writing has immensely improved and will keep on
improving. Because to me writing is a passion. To write isn’t something that comes and goes or a
quality one is born with. Writing is an adventure. To write can take you places you’ve never
before visited, include a bountiful of twists and turns, and full of surprising rewards. Writing is
emotional, it’s malleable, it’s an experience. It’s not a skill you earn, it’s not an object, it doesn’t
have a master. Writing is what you take it to be.
Ever since that point when I started to enjoy writing, it's been a part of my life. I started to carry
notebooks on vacation, collect scraps of my ideas, and thought most everyday about story plots.
I got to catch a glimpse of the lives of authors who wrote the books I had come to love and now
inspire me to keep writing.
So although I have always been a reader, I will always be a writer. ---Jaiha

16. Jaiha reflects on her writing in progress….

18. Writing about writing is like staring at your
name for so long that it loses all realness.
After all, I’ve had the urge to make stories
for as long as I could write my name.
When you’ve grown up as a writer, you can
look back on your old work in much the
same way you can look at a diary. Putting
my old and new stuff in juxtaposition, it’s
easy to see the evolution that occurred—
that one phase when I was too pretentious
to use the word “stuff” in my writing comes
to mind.

19. Through a combination of bad
advice, insecurity, and just a touch
of internalized misogyny, I used to
think that good writing was the
exact opposite of whatever came
naturally. My once innocent and
evangelical zeal for writing became
confusing and stunted—a dilemma
that translated into a whole lot of
clutter. But despite my frustration,
my taste was still acute.

20. The first breakthrough was learning to storyboard. It was
physically engaging, allowed me to associate writing with art,
and, if nothing else, served to get me excited.

21. Subsequently, I gained more tools.
The most directly impactful was the
deep point of view method. In writing
a deep point of view, the author
brings the reader as close to the
writing as possible by cutting out
filter words—“he touched,” “she
decided that,” “he wondered,” etc. It’s
showing in place of telling, and it
transformed how I tell stories.

22. I’ve learned to write authentically, to
say exactly what I mean in the most
simple and significant terms. Most
importantly, I’ve changed my
perspective on what good writing is
and how it’s achieved. I’ve found that
the most effective prose isn’t the kind
that delves deep with lots of details
and wants to show off its extensive
vocabulary, but the kind that evokes
meaning in the reader as well as the
writer.
--Mary

24. Whenever people would say someone was a good writer, I used
to think of heavy books hundreds of chapters long. I stand
corrected. There are many ways to express your writing skills
through newspaper articles, poems...etc.
A book I'm writing is called Kids' Revolution. Before I came to
studio, I improvised everything as I went along. Obviously, that
led to more than a few problems when writing long stories.
That's why I wrote down what I knew about the plot, which is the
beginning and the end. The middle I'm still working on. Luckily,
with post-its it's easier to move things around.
I love it whenever authors come to visit studio. Usually they
come with a lot of good ideas on how to improve my writing.
One reason for that is because they actually finished and
published something (better than me). At least I walk away
thinking I learned something.
The first part of my book was written when I was very young.
Now that piece of writing seems...inexperienced, so I tinker with
it, and try to make it up-to-date with my other writing. One such
idea would have made the book go in an entirely different
direction. I'm not sure I want that, but it's still a good idea.
My homework essay once was to use all the vocabulary words
in a story. I thought it would be easy...until I was sleepy and not
a word was written. Desperate, I played Mad Libs to think of
sentences, like: There was once a gallant knight that lived in...a
tree? Okay then. After that, I quickly wrote the rest, and it turned
out better than I expected.
Freda’s thoughts
on writing….

26. Alina’s reflects on a year of writing….
I have changed as a writer over the course of this year, because I
am more aware of the processes authors go through in order to
come up with meaningful works. I have heard from a local author,
who provided insight on how she comes up with ideas, structures
her stories, battles writer's block and achieves her ultimate goal of
getting published.
One of my greatest struggles this year has been how to overcome
writer's block. It is a problem a lot of writers face at one point of
another, and through my work at Studio, I have learned how to
spark new ideas and apply them to my stories. I now know that
doing simple things can form new ideas like listening to music,
looking at art, watching movies, and reading!
The best skill I have learned this year has been how to write
poems in an organized, smooth way by looking online
and reading other author's poems. I can take note on how to
word phrases, and include literary techniques in my poems.
A huge learning moment for me was when I learned to re-write
my works more than once and change them a little bit each time,
according to other's constructive criticism. This helped me become
more flexible and open minded to other's perspectives on my
work.

28. The first book I ever wrote was My Puppy Book. It was all about my dog and it was only published at my house. It was cherished by my
parents and I received many praise for it. That was the spark of the idea of becoming an author when I grow up. I love reading which is
probably what started the author idea at all. The idea of seeing my name written on the cover of a book always excited me. I love
imagining stories about people and places I’ve only dreamed of before. The only problem was finding a place where I could write them
all down. That’s how I found Studio. I drove past it many and never paid much attention to it until one day my mom pointed it out. After
that I always perked up as we drove by it. Later I would be a student there spending my Saturdays every second week of every month
from one to four. That’s how my first book would get started.
My greatest accomplishment this year was getting my story where it is now and this experience as a whole. This has improved my
writing for the better and I learned a lot of things along the way as well that I know I will use later. I found out my story involved a lot of
editing and a lot of commitment. These two things are my greatest accomplishments because of how it’s change me as a writer and its
given me a sense of who I am as a writer. My goal for next year would be to finish my story and publish it.
I’ve confronted many struggles when writing my story and I still have some problems even now. The hardest would probably be when I
had to get rid of pieces of my work. Once I got rid of them I was sort of lost. Will it still make sense? What will happen as a result of me
crossing out that certain part? These questions went through my head. I read my story over and over trying to see if it will still make
sense. I still have to add more and fix a couple things now and those questions still occasionally go through my head but I was able to get
through it(thankfully).
I’ve learned a lot of things along the way. But the biggest thing that’s affected my writing for the better is writing to appeal to the reader.
Making it seem like a real thing that’s happened or make it relate to them. Another big thing I learned was how to critique other’s work
by giving them the right advice to people about their writing. Next year I hope to improve my writing even more and continue to learn
and grow.
--Katarina

29. I’m discovering that…
I’m not the same writer I was five years ago.
Five years ago I was in sixth grade, eleven, and enjoyed writing fictional stories.
Now, I’m approaching my senior year in high school, I’m almost seventeen, and my
writing taste has definitely changed.
As much as I sometimes wish I could stay eleven forever, I proud of the progress I’ve
made as a writer. Given the choice between staying eleven and growing up, I’d pick
growing up because of how much I’ve developed and changed over the past few years.
Five years ago, all I wrote was fictional stories, and I loved it. Now, I still continue
to write stories, but my passion for creative writing definitely has plateaued. This
doesn’t mean I have distaste for writing, as I still love it (and probably always will),
but the type of writing I’m most comfortable with and enjoy the process of writing
the most, is actually literary writing. Ironically enough, I’ve grown to love writing
about writing more than making something out of nothing. I still have a special
appreciation for authors and writers, because I know the difficult process of writing.
I still think it’s incredible that full fledged novels and series stem simply from an idea
in a brain. I think the biggest reason why I feel like I’m so different than my eleven-
year old self is the fact that my idea of who I am as a writer and what I like to write
about most, has solidified and become apparent. I don’t think at eleven I even
realized what literary writing was or that there were option of writing something
other than fiction.
Elyse’s
self-assessment

30. One of my greatest challenges is that…
I struggle to write as often as I’d like to. I believe that writing is something that
I will always carry with me, and it’s become a very important part of my life.
However, finding time to actually do it, has always been a struggle. I’ve found
that many of life’s obligations and distractions seem to take place at a time that
could have been used for writing. I also feel like I have to write or add to a
creative writing piece I’ve been working on. I forget the fact that I can make up
my own writing prompts and write about them. I feel and hope that I can write
more this summer, and I plan to. I’m thinking about creating my own book
review blog where I review books a few times a month. It seems like a good way
to improve my writing, as well as giving me the opportunity to read more books.
Here’s my advice to upcoming writers…
Never. Stop. Writing.
I guess most importantly, never stop doing what you love. So if that’s writing
than keep pursuing it and exploring who you are as a writer. As a writer, I
believe I’m constantly evolving as is my writing, so as long as you keep on
writing, you’re going to improve and get better. Also, read as much as possible. I
think writers should always read what inspires them and pick out what you like
about a certain book. Reading books that you truly love, will help your writing as
the books that you read and are inspired by, will influence you the most. I know
that after reading a good book, my writing style or ideas may evolve to fit or
share commonalities with the book I’ve just read. Lastly, stay inspired. Hold on
to that spark of inspiration that first drove you to want to write(or become a
writer), let it motivate you to continue crafting your identity as a writer, and
your writing.

31. Roy rants about his notebook:
The notebook I use is a place to
dump raw material of thought.
Later, I’ll page through it and
use it as inspiration for my
writing. In it are reflections,
doodles, short stories, more
doodles, and random scraps of
sentences. Some of these scraps
can be combined to make another,
one idea blended with others to
create a massive concept. They
become as one, a collective of
thought, a dystopia of knowledge.
Every piece builds upon another,
brick upon brick. Thus ends my
unnecessarily philosophical rant
about the contents of my notebook.

33. Nina
Nina is among
our most prolific
writers,
submitting an
abundance of
poetry to each
year’s anthology
and consistently
contributing to a
variety of
collaborative
writing projects.
Nina’s talent is
overshadowed
only by her

35. “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader”
-Robert Frost
As a writer I think differently than the New York state curriculum, most writers are like this. We
think in more ways than just the graphs and other ways of writing that are taught in school.
Writing comes, it can’t be taught. In school we learn how to graph, and write essays. But being a
writer is not in paragraphs with opening and closing sentences. It is being able to let feelings
come out in the form of words.
To be a writer, you have to have an open mind set, willing to let new ideas take over and push the
story forward. If you use one idea and “fluff” it, the story ended 15 chapters ago, new idea please.
Who you are as a writer, is who you are as a person. Not a lie you tell your friends to seem cooler,
not a made up story. Fantasy is not in your head. It is real, as real as your daydreams. If you think
it, it can be real. Once you describe it enough to put it in someones head, it is real. It lives in their
daydreams, their nightmares, everywhere. When i’m writing, I live in the story. I forget the real
world, Because my writing becomes my world.
As a writer i’ve grown to respect other people’s ideas, and what they think. Because to them, it’s
who they are, and someday that idea they shared that you thought was weird, could be your
favorite book someday.
“Books are powerful, it turns out. A book can save lives. A book can start a war. A book can topple
a government.”-Evan Angler
Alanna’s Reflections

37. Hannah S. reflects…..
A struggle I've had this year is trying to
connect different events smoothly and
fluently. One of my triumphs was when I
rewrote the beginning of my story to
make my story more in-depth.
I have grown as a writer because I
learned more strategies to spark an idea.
Some tips I have are when you have
writer's block don't automatically go to
the next story and give up on the
previous one.
Ask friends or peers for different
options or events that could take place.
You may be surprised to see how much
they can help you.

38. Hannah S.
notebook strategies

39. This year I learned what some
buttons on my keyboard mean. Like
some buttons help you save what
you write when you press “ctrl” and
when you press shift and the
number, it makes things happen on
the computer.
I also learned that I need to add
feelings and actions when I describe
my characters. I also need to have a
setting so that you can picture
what’s happening in my story.

42. Shea’s self assessment…..

43. Mia’s reflections…..
I learned that when I draw the
setting or the plot that I come
up with better ideas. Also, I
learned that I can put the part
of short story in a different area
into my story.
I think that me focusing on my
writing has been hard. I
overcame it by adding
something fun—pictures! This
helps me focus more.

44. Mia’s notebook strategies…..

45. The most important thing I learned to
do as a writer here at Studio is how to
brainstorm and really plan my writing.
This is important because now, before I
write, I have a good and strong
understanding of what my writing is
going to be about.
One thing that is hard for me as a
writer is creating my characters. This is
hard because the characters have to
have just the right feelings and
personalities to fit into my stories. I
have overcome this by writing less
complicated characters.
I learned how to tinker with my
stories this year. And I learned
new words. I learned how to
brainstorm and how to publish
my stories. I learned to do nice
deeds for others in December.
One thing that was hard is it took
a long time to think of a story
and characters. But one day I
thought of something and with
characters in it. The story was
called FLARES!

46. Zoe and Zach

47. Ella
I learned how to make my
characters more interesting this
year. I described them more than
I did last year. I learned how to
use dialogue too.
The hardest thing as a writer was
to make my characters and
stories interesting. I tried to
think of better and more fun
ideas to solve that problem. It
was also hard for me to use
dialogue.

48. Stephen
I learned how to
add details to my
writing and revise
using Google Docs.
I was challenged
when I had to give
my characters
more traits, and I
had to add details.

49. Clare
This year, I learned
how to put dialogue
and feelings into
my stories. I also
learned not to make
my characters the
same. This helped
me like my stories
better.

50. Alyssa
reflects…. I learned how to use good word
choice and voice to display mood
and tone in my writing. Plus, I
learned how to write and use
descriptive details to show how my
character feels, thinks, and acts. I
learned how to do this without
saying, “Then she did…” I am
proud of my work this year!!!

51. ALYSSA’S ARTIFACTS

52. Gabby’s reflections…..
One of my greatest challenges in writing is putting my
thoughts into words. I’m always coming up with new ideas
for stories and books, but when it comes to writing them
out, it feels as if something is holding me back. I’ll write a
chapter or two, and then I just stop. No matter what I do, it
feels impossible to continue.
I’m discovering that if I take the time to plan everything it
out and then put it all together, my writing improves. Charts
and lists help me figure out what I’m going to do with my
writing and how I’m going to do it. Then, I can end my story
and move onto the next piece.
Being able to finish my work is what I’m most proud of this
year because I’m never really able to end a story, and it
feels great to do so. Writer’s block is almost like a prison,
because I feel trapped, like I can’t do anything, and
overcoming that is amazing.

53. Minecraft
has inspired
SO MUCH
writing this
year!

54. Erin’s special strategies….
Erin uses cartooning, doodling, and
other types of illustration to sketch
her characters and story ideas. She
engages with her pictures, and she
does, her stories come to life. This is
how she fills her notebooks!

55. Peter learned to sequence his story!

56. Peter reflects on his writing…..

58. April contributed a
significant number of
poems to our annual
anthology. Please take
some time to read them
before you leave today.
Our draft is available on
the printer stand, along
with issues from previous
years.

60. Kara, Sydney, and Julia persevered through all
sorts of technology upsets this year. They never
let this stop them, though. Proud of these girls
for publishing their notebook strategies at Amy
Ludwig Vanderwater’s Sharing Our Notebooks
site!

61. Jordan is in the process of
seeking publication for her book
of poetry, which she dedicated
most of this year to completing.
She is learning a great deal about
querying agents and publishers,
and we can’t wait to hear more
about her journey!

63. Remi is an incredible
thinker and creative story
designer.
So many have
appreciated her insight
and thoughtful
perspective this year.

65. Anna represents our
community so well, and
she gives a great deal of
herself so that others
might shine.
She’s a cracker jack
journalist, and you may
find examples of her
work hanging in the
back room at Studio.