[Nicky Rainey is Workshop Coordinator at StudioSTL]

This Saturday from 1:00-2:30, join StudioSTL at The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts for a mini writing workshop and a dream-writing reading.  All elementary aged dreamers are invited to read to our group in the courtyard.  Our featured reader is Emma, a student at University City High School, who wrote a series of micro-fiction stories playing with the difference between dreams and reality.

In early April, StudioSTL’s young writers visited the Pulitzer ’s Dreamscapes to write about the art we found there. We used images as inspiration, told stories about our own dreams, and invented dreams that didn’t exist.  Truly, young children’s creative writing process is similar to dreaming–kids take a story from one plot point to the next, sewing them all together with a loose thread.  Maybe they write like Joan Miró paints. Miró famously said,“I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music.”

Just for fun, blog readers, let’s play a little game.  Dorissa Claire Tyndall, one of our young writers (age 8), wrote the dreamy story below.  What happens next?  Only you can decide; add your extension to her story in the comments section of this blog.

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You hear a scary noise and decide to investigate. The sound was coming from the river! You walk down to the river bank and see something strange! You can see the other side, but in the middle of the river there is pink foam rising up to the surface. You pinch yourself to see if it’s a dream. Ouch! That hurt! You must be awake.

Then, out of the pink foam, a blue sea monster with orange spots arises. It looks like an octopus, but it has four times the legs.

You scream! The monster must be what was making the noise. Your friend turns to run, but slips and falls into the river.  You jump in to save her but before you can reach her, the pink foam sucks you in. Suddenly, you’re swimming inside the pink foam! You can’t see her anywhere. You can’t see anything! You can’t hear anything! But you can definitely still breathe.

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StudioSTL offers free creative writing programming for young people in Grand Center.  We are now enrolling for our summer series–check us out at www.studiostl.org. –Nicky Rainey