Early Age Talent

Image from: Write to Done.com

I recently volunteered to help edit a book for a local middle school. The book is a collection of essays written by 7th and 8th graders. I volunteered because it was the right thing to do. What I got out of the assignment was priceless.

You need to understand that it was not an easy editing assignment. Oy. The goal was to try and retain the writer‘s voice as much as possible. There were times that I had to toss entire sentences because there was no way to fix the durned things. Otherwise most of the editing was for minor punctuation and spelling errors, but it was still a challenge to keep the writer’s voice in tact.

There were two things that struck me whilst editing these essays:

First, I was in awe of the stories these kids had to tell. Many of these kids have experiences that they should not have had to deal with at such a tender age. Want an eye opener? Read a story from a child whose parents are getting a divorce. Or maybe a story about how cancer slowly took their dad. There were also heart touching stories of kids who took their garage sale money and while standing in line at the market, opted to pay the rest of the grocery bill for the old lady in front of them who didn’t have enough money. They gladly put back the Nintendo game they didn’t really need. The seventy essays are filled with these life stories.

Second, I was absolutely impressed with the writing ability of some of these kids. Their stories had poignant characters, vivid descriptions and an engaging style. Only about ten percent of the essays had these attributes but for me that is more than enough. There is some real talent there. The great thing is that part of the editing team consisted of these kids teachers. They knew these kids. They were able to put pieces of the puzzle in place in terms of understanding where these kids were coming from. They were also able to confirm what they already knew about the writing talents of some of these young folks. Now that they are identified, their talent can be encouraged and nurtured.

The edited versions of the essays go to the publisher next week. In a few months, those kids will get to call themselves published writers. How stinkin’ cool is that?

The lesson for me here is that in giving a small amount of my time away, I gained a multitude of life lessons. What a great reason to take on civic writing projects from time to time. Highly recommended.