Students Share Brave Words, Foster Understanding

 Every Monday night for the past six weeks, they have walked through the after-hours hush of downtown Newhall into a brightly lit studio, toting comfy seat cushions so they can spend three hours on their butts, writing their big old hearts out. I watched these brave students walk into that first class, one by one, each fortressed by the walls we all build to shield our precious souls. And then, one by one, I’ve watched those walls melt away as if they were only made of icing.
Each week, we gather around the paint-splattered folding tables like a fire, and we tell our stories. After their tireless pens have spewed out every last prompt I’ve given, I sit back and listen to their hopes and fears and dreams and neuroses and loves and desires and massive expectation, all told through the transporting eyes of finely drawn characters. I watch as these students slow down, take a breath, and connect with their own longing. And then, willingly, vulnerably, uncover that longing for each other through their stories.
And what happens then is nothing short of a miracle. What happens then is a common understanding. Each discovers a new faith—faith in the truth of who they are. And then they take the terrifying risk of putting that truth on the page. As they read their work out loud, they share their light with each other—and with me. And I, for one, am forever changed by it.
I hope you’ll join us as the brave students of my adult creative writing class read their work out loud in public for the first time on March 5, at 7 p.m., at The Open Book in Santa Clarita. We are also currently forming new Teen and Adult sections of this six-week class. Visit www.scvstorymine.com for more information.
Liz Cotone is a film and television writer living in Santa Clarita, currently working for Warner Brothers TV and Clear Pictures Entertainment. SCV Story Mine’s creative writing class series takes place in downtown Newhall at ARTree Community Arts Center.