MS Writers' Symposium

This year’s Middle School Writers' Symposium welcomed local author Christine Day to campus to share her work and journey as a writer. Day was born and raised in the Seattle area and is an enrolled citizen of the Upper Skagit tribe.

Day spent Monday and Tuesday visiting classes and coaching students through a writing exercise. She pulled a passage from one of her books, removed the character names, and painted a scene depicting the main character searching through boxes in the attic. Suddenly, they stumble upon a particularly interesting box and students had to finish the prompt to describe what they found in the box in the attic.

After some time, students who wanted to, shared what they wrote and the variety was broad. Some stories were mysterious, some were historical, some were scary, funny, and even sentimental. Day expressed how impressed she was with the varied ideas students came up with.

Later, Day spoke to the whole Middle School during an assembly. One of the most surprising parts of her visit was when she shared her favorite moment from the writing exercise. One student had solved a plot point in her book that she had never resolved! “I worked on that book for two and a half years before it hit shelves, and she came up with a solution in five minutes!” Day exclaimed.

During the assembly students asked lots of questions about the advice she has for young aspiring authors. Some advice may have come as a bit of a surprise to aspiring authors. “You’ll probably use math. When you sell your first book you become like a small business owner,” she says. Her key piece of advice was to simply read. A lot. “I got into writing because I got into reading,” she said. “Read, write, practice, persist.”

She recalled multiple manuscripts written early in her career that never saw the light of day because they were rejected multiple times by multiple publishing outlets. However, she never let that stop her because there was always something new to learn and continue to improve upon. “One of the best things about writing is that it’s something you only get better at,” Day says. “As long as you persist and don’t give up on yourself and don’t compromise your own ambitions, I do believe you will find your way.”

To learn more about author Christine Day, visit her website.