Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
There are a lot of fun things to do at our local libraries and, now, on Wednesday afternoons, youngsters in the Green Bank area can take part in a creative writing workshop led by Ned Dougherty.
The workshop began its second year last Wednesday with a small group of eager writers, who were ready to let their creative side shine.
The workshop kicked off with Dougherty’s prompt of an Ode to Pocahontas County. The young writers put their thoughts about living in the county into poetry form.
While Dougherty is used to working with teens and adults, he said the younger group has really shown a knack for writing.
“I’m used to teaching older students, like high school – it’s my background,” he said. “Usually the creative writing workshops I’ve done in the past are for older folks, but these guys are pretty young. It’s a lot of fun. They’re very sharp.”
Dougherty developed the Ode prompt as something he could adapt to classes of all ages and all communities. He used it with the Green Bank youngsters as well as with a group in Highland County.
“I wanted to do something that I could do anywhere in any zip code,” he said. “I wanted to find out how the kids liked living in Pocahontas County and what made them proud about where they live. They’re still pretty young, so they’re not too jaded about things. I found that creating an Ode to Pocahontas really got them excited to think about the positive things in the neighborhood and their families and communities, and the events we have and the traditions they’re a part of.
“That was an ‘ah ha’ moment for me,” he continued. “I thought if this is connecting with nine year olds, I wonder what it would be like to do the same with some older folks, and they loved it. I feel like I can do this all over Appalachia at a time I feel like people could really use some reflection and community building around communication and celebration of who we are.”
It went so well with both groups, he is presenting it at the Appalachian Studies Conference at Western Carolina University, where he will display work from the Green Bank group.
“They’re excited I’m bringing their work to Western Carolina and sharing it,” Dougherty said. “It’s going to be on display in the workshop room, and I’m going to talk about them and kind of gas up my little guys.”
The Ode prompt is just the beginning for the Green Bank writers. They will be discovering all kinds of creative writing and learn to hone their writing skills. Some kids have even gotten into writing chapter stories on their own time and bringing them to the class.
While Dougherty says he doesn’t want to stifle their creativity, he does keep the workshop writing to shorter stories and poems because it enables him to give feedback faster.
“I want to ignite that love of writing and stoke those flames, but I also want to do justice to what I can do with them,” he said. “If I just have them produce work that’s not setting them up for maybe pursuing writing as a lifelong thing or maybe a professional thing, or get attracted to the teaching profession – I want to be able to actually show them how to make small things better or make small changes work.”
Dougherty honed his love of writing outside of Philadelphia where he grew up and in Maryland where he earned his degree. He lived in New Mexico and taught high school there for 15 years before moving to Green Bank. Dougherty is a playwright and has had several plays developed for stage at the Greenbrier Valley Theatre, Alchemical Studios in New York City and AboutFACE Theatre in Dublin, Ireland.
