LBCC Club Cultivates Creative Expression Through Student Writers

 

Looking to express your love for writing and gain a supportive community of like-minded students? LBCC’s Creative Writing Club may be the perfect place for you. 

The Creative Writing Club’s mission statement is “to create a friendly community for writers of all levels to grow through practicing their craft with writing prompts, collaborating on projects, and sharing work.”

As a small group of LBCC students who are passionate about writing, the Creative Writing Club meets together weekly to support each other and give and receive feedback on their works of fiction. The club meets every Tuesday at 3 p.m. and is always open to new members who want to come and see what the group is all about.

According to Student Representative Coen Olsen, if you’re interested in joining the club you don’t need a lot of experience, you just need to have a love for writing.

“The word amateur is derived from the Latin verb 'amare,' which means to love, and I feel that captures the creative writing students. We are all lovers of writing, of creating worlds.” Olsen is majoring in creative writing at LB. 

When asked how students can get involved with the CWC, Cooper Madison-Dawson said, “Just show up. Honestly it’s just about showing up and being consistent.” Madison-Dawson is also studying creative writing at LBCC.

Club member Andy Olsen, who is majoring in dietetics, had a different take. “It’s also worth noting that it’s OK to be a more casual member and only show up sometimes. There’s a lot of acceptance to different schedules and things like that.” 

There are around 30 members total who participate in the club via Discord. The in-person meetings typically consist of a half dozen members who meet in North Santiam Hall, room 106 on the Albany LBCC campus. At these gatherings, members share writing projects they’ve been working on and receive feedback from others. According to Madison-Dawson, they discuss the content and structure of their stories, suggest improvements, and make adjustments. A story or a scene will be read by each member followed by praise and critique.

Madison-Dawson, who will become the club's next student representative in the spring, said that some members look for help with grammar and spelling, some for feedback on the structure and flow of sentences or dialogue, and some for plot and character development.

All of the student members write creative fiction, but according to the club’s advisor, Dio Morales, every kind of prose is welcome. Morales is the only creative non-fiction writer within the club and she is always excited to meet other non-fiction writers. Some of the members are in the process of writing novels or manga, while students such as Andy Olsen are working on web comics and other works of fiction. Genres within the club range from fantasy, adventure, mystery, contemporary, romance, and more. 

Most of the members learned about the Creative Writing Club, also known as the CWC, through Welcome Day at LBCC or through one of their writing instructors. Coen Olsen said he first got involved through Rob Camp’s Roadrunner Connections course. 

When asked what his roles are as the student representative, Coen Olsen said, “My roles include making sure we have a representative at Council of Clubs meetings, booths reserved and manned for events like Welcome Day, and information slides to share with interested members. In the past, I have also helped find new activities for club members, like writing prompts for flash fiction and Ransom Notes for game nights. Right now, I am very hands-off as our current members are very self-driven.”

The club has been restarted many times over the years and was most recently revived by Morales in 2020. The club met on Zoom during covid and the Zoom call is still an option for members who prefer to participate remotely. Members are also welcome to ask for feedback on their creative prose through the Discord server.

In the past, the CWC was merged with the Poetry Club, since they meet at the same time on Tuesdays. Madison-Dawson brought up the idea of pushing their club meeting time back an hour, so they would meet at 4 p.m. instead of 3. This way, members of the Poetry Club could swing by after their own gathering and share both their poetry and works of prose with the CWC. This would also expand the CWC’s numbers, since they currently only have around 6-10 active members who attend the meetings. 

As the club advisor, Morales opens up the room and gets the meetings started. She also helps guide the club, answers questions and provides writing resources, and participates in group discussions.

“The club evolves based on what the interests are of the members. This year the interest has been really strongly in the direction of folks sharing work online, bringing work in and discussing it, and supporting each other as writers,” said Morales.

In the past, a previous rendition of the Creative Writing Club did some work for the Commuter, a form of group writing called exquisite corpse, where one member starts a line of poetry or prose, another member writes the next line, and so on until the work is finished. According to Madison-Dawson, the current club would love to get involved with the Commuter again and submit some of their work if opportunities arise.

The club cultivates a supportive and inclusive environment for writers of all skill levels, Madison-Dawson said.

“We hear each other out. We have very personalized discussions where we give the floor to the writer, the writer will work on something and read what they work on, and then we’ll all bring a bit of our own thoughts and ideas to the table.”

Andy Olsen said, “There’s a lot of different flavors that critique can come in, it can be like, ‘I think there’s some big structural issues with this,’ it can be, ‘I don’t know what I want the plot to be,’ or it can be, ‘Hey can someone do a typos read-through, please?’” 

Madison-Dawson said, “Yeah, it’s whatever you’re looking for too as the writer, we can cultivate that experience. Because not every writer wants to have their work critiqued on spelling and errors.”

When asked about how their experience has been with the CWC, the members said they’ve enjoyed being a part of such a supportive writing community. Wade Johnson, an LB student studying mechanical engineering, said, “This is my third or fourth meeting so far, but it’s been very helpful with my writing. It’s nice to have people that I can talk to about my story.”

CWC member Macie Cooper, who is studying computer science at LBCC, said, “I would say it really pushes you as a writer in not necessarily a new direction, but in a direction. You come to the club with your work so then you’re motivated to write more, to produce more work. Also reading other people's stories and seeing things that you like or you don’t like, it really helps form your own story. The critique you receive and the critique you give are both really helpful to your writing process.” 

At a Glance:

What: The Creative Writing Club

When: Every Tuesday at 3 p.m.

Where: North Santiam Hall, room 106. LBCC Albany Campus, 6500 Pacific Blvd. SW

For more information: Reach out to Dio Morales at moraled@linnbenton.edu or Coen Olsen at coen.olsen.2584@mail.linnbenton.edu for further questions about the club. 

Join the Creative Writing Club Discord Server: discord.com/invite/hpuUmUWwcK