When senior Julia Kidd approached English teacher Holly Leach, she had an idea in her head, of an organization in which students could come to have fun and be with others of their kind: writers.

The Writers Guild is an organization that is devoted to writing. Members can write any genre, and in any format. Students can write poetry, novels, short stories and more. Experience is not needed. Each month has a different theme or lesson. For example, September was Character Development, and October is Scary Story month. Meetings are held on Tuesdays in the library and B103, Ms. Leach’s room, after school.

“I get to do my two favorite things: eating and writing,” said freshman Alyssa Tarabay.

Students can come to the meetings and hang out with their friends and make new ones. Food is offered before, during, and after every meeting. The Writers Guild will be doing field trips to museums to tour and do live readings of their work. They will also be entering and going to competitions for scholarships.

“The Writers Guild all started with Julia Kidd,” said English teacher Holly Leach, “She approached me with the idea. She had it all thought out and organized. She asked me if I would sponsor this club, and I said yes, that I had been waiting for something like this to happen.”

“I felt that we needed more creative clubs at our high school for kids to enjoy instead of just beefing up their college resumes,” president of Writers Guild Julia Kidd said, “I thought it would be really fun for authors to be able to share their work, get feedback and get published during high school.”

Besides getting published and perfecting college essays, the club also offers tutoring to students looking for help on homework for English class, essays that need critiquing and writing.

Students who offer this will receive service hours for the time used.

It gives people a place that they can give and get feedback on their works with constructive criticism from all attending students. It gives them a place to think and have fun.

“It gives me the ability to express myself through my writing,” said freshman Kyra Kelly-Fleming.

The club is like home to some people because they feel relaxed and can get their writing done. They like to hang out with their friends, eat the food and have fun.

“Smithson Valley makes me feel at home because I actually went here,” said Leach, “I went to Mountain Valley which was here before Smithson Valley. Growing up around here and being a teacher, I practically live here.”

The Writers Guild is an organization that means something special to many people. They have more than 50 members and it means something different to each one of them.

They get the opportunity and place to express themselves in a variety of ways without having to worry about getting negative reviews or being shy. All they have to worry about is doing what they do best, writing.