Last week, Valley Reporter editor Lisa Loomis and I visited Harwood Union Middle School to talk to journalism and creative writing club students. It was a small but enthusiastic group of aspiring writers, along with English teacher Korie Born and staff member Katie Kenney. The students were interested in journalism, poetry, songwriting, and storytelling.
Lisa spoke about her extensive experience as a reporter and the importance of local news to communities. We answered questions about how we come up with story ideas and what our days look like. We also talked about recent local news stories and exciting feature stories we’ve done. There was a lot of excitement about our upcoming dog (and cat!) issue.
We talked about the difference between creative writing and journalism. As someone who does both, I talked about my approach to different kinds of writing, crafting pitches, dealing with rejection, and persevering. The young writers were inspiring and we expect you’ll be reading their work one day.
