By Nathanael Chan (21A01A), Chairperson and Jade Kong (21A01C), Vice-Chairperson
Writers’ Guild is a CCA that focuses on creative writing and expression, where everyone is given the creative space to vent, reveal, and convey their thoughts, emotions and beliefs.
Our CCA is held every Monday from 4.30-6.00pm, and the activities are planned and initiated by the EXCO. There are inspiration sessions, when we work individually off prompts (such as songs, short quotes and premises, and moodboards), as well as critique sessions, when we review each others’ works and give comments and feedback. Some of the best pieces will be published on our Writers’ Guild Instagram (@writersguild__), but all of the submitted pieces, after critique and improvement, will be published on our Guild WordPress, which essentially works as an archive. We also work towards submissions for writing competitions such as Commonwealth, Foyle Young poets, and more.
Occasionally, we invite guest speakers to conduct workshops for the batch, and these workshops are generally open to the entire year. Sadly, due to the current climate of COVID-19, these sessions have temporarily been put on hold.
A hallmark of every batch’s creative writing journey is the anthology that we publish every year. Another significant event in the Guild calendar is closely tied to the anthology publication—the book launch. Traditionally, it celebrates the publication of our works, and is the main physical promotion for our anthology, and usually consists of skits and spoken word poetry. Given the restraints of COVID-19, we may not be able to carry out a physical book launch in 2021, but should we be able to, what EXCO has in mind is a haunted house themed launch. (More details at the end of each year.) This anthology is a diverse curation of the best written pieces our CCA has to offer, after a year of deliberate writing, intensive critique sessions and arduous logistical planning. (You might recall seeing promotional material of our seniors’ anthology ‘lacuna’ floating around recently!)
We are an auto-accept CCA, because we believe that everyone has the creative capacity to materialise our unique lived experiences in our writing! Our main focus is on personal growth and improvement, so what we look for is simply people with commitment and passion for creative writing, and natural curiosity to explore new mediums and ways to write.
If the above sound intriguing to you, please consider applying to Writers’ Guild—we’ll be happy to have you, and we promise to make your experience in this CCA worth it.