CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
School Visits and Appearances
Now booking for the 2023--2025 school years!
Vicki is a popular workshop instructor and speaker for national writing conferences and also loves sharing her passion for writing and teaching students and young adults how to write fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry. She also speaks and teaches workshops for public, private and homeschool groups including Christian School's National Prayer Day assemblies. She's written for childrens' magazines and teaches from her books How to Write for Kids' Magazines while working on a debut novel and Writing with Voice. As former Editor-at-Large and Contributing Editor of Southern Writers Magazine and a former columnist for The American Daily Herald, she also teaches interview writing, how to glean the best tidbits of information from an author or songwriter, and how to write newsworthy articles that grab a reader's attention.
Schools may schedule one school assembly (1 hour) and one writing workshop (1 hour) per day. Schools may choose to focus the writing workshop on either creative nonfiction, fiction, or poetry. Or she can touch on all three within her presentation.
Vicki's assembly presentation is titled "Writing with Passion: Storytelling at its Best."
This presentation includes personal stories about her journey to publication and information for students on writing as a career as well as blogging and social media information. To entertain and educate students, Vicki shares about her swimming with the turtles in Hawaii, jumping from an airplane, and riding hunter jumper horses in Ireland, Scotland, and England. She includes students in the presentation by using photos and music to help get their creative juices flowing and also shares about other students who are already experiencing publishing success.
Vicki can streamline her presentations to the following age groups:
Grades K & 1 Presentations - 45 min.
Audience size: Each grade separate.
Everyone has a story to tell and I share about how to take that story from the writer's head to the page. We'll discuss the difference between fiction/make believe and nonfiction/true stories and how they're researched. I discuss the importance of writing, how the publisher/editor matches up their corral of artists with an author. I'll discuss how each child can think up several stories without leaving their bedrooms and also how stories can be written from memories of summer and holiday vacations, drawing the children into brainstorming about vacation ideas of their own. I discuss how a subject as trivial as dirt can make an exciting story and how a subject as creepy as snakes (for me anyway) can be made fun by using rhyme to tell the slithery tale. I bring actual magazines for the children to see and can show the artwork and stories on an overhead projector.
Grades 2 & 3 Presentations - 50 min.
Audience size: Usually both grade levels combined.
The format is the same as K & 1, but on a higher level when I incorporate writing with Voice. I discuss where writers find ideas if they're not writing from their think-tank of personal stories and the total writing process involved in approaching a magazine for publication. I talk about revision, to rhyme or not to rhyme, alliteration, and how to handle rejection. I bring actual magazines for the children to see and can show the artwork and stories on an overhead projector.
Grades 4 & 5 Presentations - 60 Minutes
Audience size: 4th and 5th grades combined.
This presentation is the same as Grades 2 & 3. I also talk about how to keep a good record keeping system for the stories accepted-writers do like to get paid for their stories-and also for stories rejected. I discuss goal setting for writers and the need to experience new and different experiences for additional story ideas and how photos can sell a story while also bringing in more money. I bring actual magazines for the children to see and can show the artwork and stories on an overhead projector.
Students participate in a Q&A session.
A TYPICAL SCHEDULE (4 sessions)
45 minutes: Pre K & Kindergarten
45 minutes: First Grade
40 minutes: AUTHOR LUNCHEON with selected students
50 minutes: Second & Third Grades together
50 or 60 minutes: Fourth & Fifth Grades together
50 or 60 minutes: Sixth Grade can be combined with Fourth and Fifth or I'll consider sixth alone.
GRADES (sometimes 6th Grade )7-9 - 60 minutes
In an auditorium-type setting, I'll discuss all of the above along with my walk to publication and will go into more detail about what stories children's magazines are looking for, how to write a query letter to grab an editor's attention, and who to send it too. I'll focus more on writing serious stories versus funny stories, writing with Voice, and how publishing with magazines can be a step towards publishing a nonfiction book or novel later on, or perhaps even a job with a magazine as a contributing editor or a job with a newspaper as a columnist or pundit, along with being on faculty teaching workshops at writers conferences -all of what transpired in my own life. Q&A to follow. I bring actual magazines and can show the artwork and stories on an overhead projector.
GRADES 10-12 - 60 minutes
Same as for grades 7-9
For grades 7-9 and grades 10-12, a fun thing for teachers to do is have a 200 word flash fiction and nonfiction writing contest using the topic HOPE, to help the students learn how to "write tight." Teachers pick the top five winning stories of both fiction and nonfiction (based on story line and how well it's written). I then choose the winning stories-one fiction and one nonfiction-and the two winners receive a personal critique by me of any of their 600 (or less) word stories (No R rated). For fiction, I will publish the story and author's name on my Web site blog which is visited by over 90 countries. Never know who in Russia or China might get to read a student's work.
Media Photos - let me know if you need 300 DPI
Contact Information
Email to....:vmoss@livingwaterfiction.com
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