Her emotions gather in her throat and pile up, becoming so overwhelming she doesn’t know what to do. All she can think of is to grab a pen and paper and pour everything she is feeling out onto it, almost like throwing up. Suddenly she feels at ease, the feelings aren’t hers anymore they are the papers.  

This is how Eloise Lipp, co-president of the Creative Writing club with Jane Garrett, explained how writing helped her and her mental health a lot. 

Creative writing in general can be very important for anyone and everyone, and can be an outlet or a wonderful display of creativity. The people in charge of the Creative writing club at the iSchool understand this and agree with it. Their thoughts and experiences with writing make the club much more intriguing, enjoyable, and hopefully relatable for those who are interested in writing as well.  

This club has been running for about 10 years, and Ms. Elizabeth Gray is the head advisor for the club. She teaches English and talks all about literature with her students here at the iSchool. 

“I believe the founding members were in my first graduating class of advisees so we probably started it around 2015 or maybe 2014,” according to Ms. Gray.

The club presidents Jane and Eloise met through the club in freshman year and have been best friends since. Originally Jane had joined the club and talked to Ms. Gray about who the president was. The club didn’t have one so Jane stepped up and later, when Eloise joined the club, they ran it together.  

When having a creative writing club or group you really want to be able to foster a growth mindset for all. Jane explained how early on in her life she was always writing and always had a creative mind. “I so distinctly remember fourth grade was like the first year where I had, just, an entire notebook of creative writing and I think it was teachers who fostered it inside of me.” All students can find joy in writing which is why it is so important for teachers to encourage their students and overall invite all types of creativity. 

In an article about creative writing in schools, the author told a story of a young boy who found motivation in creative writing: “Originally, Alejandro wasn’t sure why he was in school and often lacked the motivation to learn. But writing about something he was passionate about and recalling the steps that led to his success reminded him of the determination and perseverance he had demonstrated in the past, nurturing a positive view of himself.” 

Ms. Gray, Jane and Eloise all have their own original experiences with writing and how it impacted their lives. Ms. Gray majored in creative writing during her undergraduate college years and focused on poetry. She also ran her college newspaper. 

“I did a real mix of like, you know, creative poetry and then you know straightforward like narrative journalism” Ms. Gray said.

When talking to Eloise and Jane, they had pretty different experiences compared to each other. Eloise “found writing through reading” as she said in our interview. When she would read, she would think about her own ideas and try to put them into words. She started with writing short stories and sort of switched into poetry. 

Jane, on the other hand, discovered her love for writing through poetry. During the pandemic she wrote a lot of poetry and just found peace and safety in it. She said, “It was just, like, putting a pencil to paper and, like, creating is a really safe thing for me to do and something that helps me express myself to others and process my own emotions”

“Earlier it helped me become the creative person I am,” Eloise stated. Writing also really helped her with her mental health and processing things, along with Jane and writing through covid, it was just overall a very strong outlet the both of them had.  Being able to express yourself through writing is an extremely important outlet because it can foster growth and kindness all throughout. Not to mention, it can also improve the way you look at the world and yourself.

Another article on creative writing in schools explained creative writing as “a form of artistic expression where the writer uses their imagination to communicate meaning, ideas, and emotion through fictional stories, personal essays, memoirs, poems, song lyrics, comics, graphic novels, and even scripts for stage or screen.”

This made me wonder what the club runners believed the “definition” of creative writing and creative writing clubs are. “I think it’s any writing that you know expresses something Artful writing that engages with language in an interesting way or sentence structure in an interesting way,” Ms. Gray explained. 

“I feel like even the pretend games that I played with my friends in like second grade that was creativity, that could have easily been a story but we were just doing it out loud instead” Eloise provided this very interesting way of looking at it. The fact that no matter how young we are, we are always filled with creativity. Being in an environment that makes that feel important is crucial. 

The environment in the creative writing club is very inspiring. It is a wonderfully supportive place for anyone to be in. 

“Making the club a safe space is also really important as well as just writing itself” Jane said. All the people in charge of the club described it as just a kind supportive group of people that have an honest want to write. “I think that students all have a very clear sense of wanting to write and wanting to share their work and wanting to be supported by other people who enjoy creative writing,” Ms. Gray added.

The club also has an entertaining curriculum including fun games and workshops, which Jane described as her favorite part of the club. “I think it’s so cool to see people give each other feedback and learn how to give each other feedback in a reconstructive and creative way,” Jane mentioned.

Overall, the club has so many intriguing aspects to it and it is filled with people who truly care about it. 

The club meets every Thursday at lunch in room 514.“So if you have those feelings stuck in your throat or if you have more to say about the world and the world you’ve made up then come to our club to write it down,” Jane says.