Creative Writing Summer

Applying to College
1

I’m aiming to use this summer before my senior year to build up my college application while doing activities I enjoy. I plan on studying creative writing and am looking for summer extracurriculars (the majority of my activities cease in the summer, except for my jobs). I applied to some writing camps too, so we’ll see how that goes.
I’ve heard that college research with a professor is something high school students can take part in. Is that something I could do in the English / journalism / creative writing field, or is it limited to scientific fields? I’ve looked up some professors at nearby colleges, but have been confused on whether that’s something I could even pitch to them.
I’m waiting to hear back about an internship at a local writing house, but otherwise haven’t applied anywhere else. I’ve considered doing an internship at a local newspaper, but would prefer to work more with fiction/poetry if possible. Any ideas or tips for asking for internships?

2

I don’t have any tips on internships for you but I wanted to reply because there doesn’t ever seem to be a lot of info on CC for students who are into creative writing. My D is also a writer (she’s a senior now). Early on we made a big list of summer writing camps that I thought she might want to do but ultimately she ended up staying close to home for the summers.

Here is what she did during the summer to enhance her creative writing skills:

  1. She wrote book reviews. It was unpaid work but she got to keep the books they sent her to review. She did this for two places. One was our local bookstore - they had a program where she could go in and grab an advance reader’s copy of a book that was coming out soon (bookstores get a lot of these) and then she would read it, write a review, and bring it in and they would post it with the book to try to generate sales. She was allowed to keep the ARC. You could ask your local store if they are interested in this type of arrangement. She also did this for an online group called Kids Book Buzz. Same idea, except she chose books from a list they sent her, they mailed the book to her, then she submitted her review electronically. Those books were often published copies, not ARCs. I’m not sure if they are still around or not but you could search for them or something similar.

  2. She also enjoys performing arts and often did a few weeks of performing arts camp each summer. In 2020 they went online and had to get even more creative, so they offered a script writing class. She and a friend collaborated on writing a One Act play and the camp liked it so they produced it the next summer and she and her friend were able to direct it. This summer, the two of them will be teaching the script writing class at that camp. They are also working on expanding their One Act so that it could potentially be published for other youth groups to use.

  3. She did a lot of writing. Summer provided her with much-needed down time to write. Are you participating in Scholastic Art & Writing awards? If so, as a senior you can submit individual works for consideration as well as writing portfolios. Summer is a great time to work on completing some works for submission - the writing deadlines are usually in December or January, depending on your region.

I hope that’s helpful. I also think you could reach out to the English faculty that you’ve found and pitch your research idea to them as well. They may have something, or they may not have any research you could help with but they might be able to give you some additional ideas. Or they may not reply at all but then you are no worse off for asking.

Good luck!