Creative Writing: Where Imagination Has No Limits by Aadhya Patel
Creative writing was a place where you constantly learned and improved your writing skills. The students in that class wrote about everything — from memoirs to advertisements, science fiction, and fantasy. In creative writing, days were never dull and everyone had fun, but students believed the real reason creative writing was so exciting and engaging was because of Miss Melanie Anderson, who taught it with true passion and a love for all things writing. Her classes changed perspectives and ideas on how diverse writing could be, and how you could shape your writing into something truly unique that carried your feelings and personality.
Miss Anderson had been teaching creative writing for two years, and what made it even more entertaining for students was that they got to learn what they were actually interested in. “I asked my students at the beginning of the year and created all the topics based on their interests,” said Miss Anderson when she was asked how she chose the topics she taught each year. This was also a benefit to the students who wanted to be in her creative writing classes for a few years consecutively, because it meant that every year, the students learned new things. “Honestly, I wish she would start a class specifically about writing a book. It would be so fun and I am sure a bunch of people would be interested in taking that class.” said Ellie Madeline Nicholson Morrissey. Which is true, because a lot of the students in her class have been talking about wanting to write a book, but never getting enough time because of schoolwork and lack of motivation. Her students really do put thought into what they write, which shows how good they already are at writing. When asked how she got ideas for what to write in assignments, Isla Quinter said, “I looked at past assignments I’d done in writing, reading, and art. I used doodles and real-life people as inspiration for my writing.”
Thanks to Miss Anderson’s dedication and creative approach, her students didn’t just improve as writers but as thinkers and storytellers. Each year brought new lessons, new stories, and new perspectives, reminding everyone that writing was not just about words on a page, but about the ideas and emotions that brought those words to life. Her classroom was a space where imagination had no limits and every student’s voice was valued. Miss Anderson continued to inspire writers to believe in their creativity and share their stories with the world.
Caption: Discussing The Art Of Horror Writing. Miss Melanie Anderson speaks to her creative writing students about their current unit on horror, perfectly timed for the Halloween season. The class explored how suspense, emotion and vivid imagery brought scary stories to life. This unit was something entirely different to what they have done so far into the school year, so Miss Anderson kept reminding her students that it was completely normal not to know how to write horror. “I keep reminding my students it’s okay to be bad at something, because it’s the first step to be good at something.” Photo by Aadhya Patel.