Now under the leadership of English teacher David Simms, the Young Writers’ Club has new plans and ideas for the upcoming year, including giving the club more structure, events, and opportunities.

“It was very freeform [last year], but now we just want to make it more planned,” said Simms.

The club intends to have published authors come to meetings or to Skype with the group’s members to talk about their experiences as writers. While no authors have visited with the Young Writers’ Club yet, hopefully some will in the near future.

The Young Writers’ Club was not extremely active last year; it only had 10 members, did not meet often, and had less than five regular attendants. However, Simms hopes that the appeal of meeting authors, as well as the efforts to publish student works, will prompt more students to attend the meetings.

“Last year there weren’t many opportunities for them to actually get to work out there, whereas this year, we’re actually going to get their work published, so that is a big draw,” said Simms.

The club is trying to get student works published in Teen Ink and other online databases. This factor, along the possibility getting advice for their potential writing careers, attracts students to the club.

“One of my goals is to become published before I go to college, and Young Writers’ Club has presented me with that opportunity,” said junior Josh Henson.

The club provides an outlet for students to write outside of class and helps them strive to reach their goals as writers.

“I always read a lot, and I just really wanted to be a writer. I found out about the club and just really wanted to join,” said sophomore Jacob Feldman. “I really like the writing itself, but we also try and get in contact with outside authors to talk to us.”

The Young Writers’ Club meets on Thursdays at 7:45 a.m. in room 111.