A group of students sit around room 138 relaxing with their friends and discussing how to best incorporate internal dialogue into writing. It’s an environment of open discussion where everyone has input. Chatter and talk over each other’s work fills the room.

These students are all part of the Writer’s Club at Westside, which is in its first official year. The club president, senior Cal Caudell, sits at the front of the classroom. They lead the group in exchange of views.

“[There’s] not a wrong way to write a story, but there are better ways to go about writing it,” Caudell said.

This club has been around for years, but it wasn’t sponsored because the students didn’t want to be censored in their writing. Since it wasn’t previously an official club, they would hold their meetings at the Bookworm, a local book store. When the Bookworm moved from Countryside Village to the new Loveland Centre, The Writer’s Club  didn’t have anywhere to hold its meetings. The club decided it was time to find a school sponsor.

English teacher Charlotte Weyler agreed to sponsor the Writer’s Club this year. The club agrees she has been a great sponsor.

The club uses other authors’ works to help them with their own. They discuss how to incorporate aspects of others’ work into their own writing.

Although the club doesn’t compete with its writing, the students are looking to publish their own magazine in the near future. The magazine will be titled Verbatim, a latin word which dictionary.com says, as quoted word for word, means “word for word.” The students plan to make the magazine a collection of writing to share with everyone.

Each month, the club selects a theme for its writing that month. Their last theme for the month of February was love. The members of the club create writing based off the prompt to share with one another.

“We [strive to] take chunks and aspects of ideas to make a main story out of it,” Caudell said. “The characters add to the plot.”

The club uses a Google Doc to easily share writing among the club members. They do this to help each other and to receive criticism and advice. The club hopes to create a bigger writing community at Westside in the future and continue its writing traditions.

If you are interested in becoming involved, contact Weyler, or Caudell via email.