HONESDALE, PA – “There’s a strange old oak door at the bottom of the wine cellar that houses the headmaster’s personal stash of wine but whenever it is approached a blinding flash of light pours through the spaces around it in a house where no one can remember his or her age.”

This snippet of a fantasy piece in progress was written by seventh-grader Blake Rayvid of Manhattan, one of six young writers endeavoring to explore the untapped wellspring of their imaginations in a reality-writing workshop entitled “In Their Own Words,” taught by retired English teacher Constance Moser from June 27 to July 1.

As they sat around a table sharing their experiences about the weighty but fun-filled endeavor of creating characters and setting, establishing conflict, establishing a pattern for a story and using imagery, five middle-schoolers and one high-schooler were wrapping up a week of drawing from their own life experiences to create short stories that involved friends, family, pets and memories of moments fraught with emotion.

Though their experiences varied, one thing that all of these young people discovered is that there are no limits when it comes to the realm of the imagination. That enticement motivated Moser to establish the Eighmy Road Writers’ School. Moser is no novice when it comes to helping young people find their voice in writing. After teaching English for 25 years in Montclair, New Jersey and serving as an adjunct English instructor at Montclair State University, Moser who now resides on Eighmy Road in Honesdale, decided to couple her passion for writing with her love of teaching to establish a summer workshop for young people. Her goal is to free them to write creatively, something they rarely get a chance to do in school, where the emphasis is on the curriculum and preparation for tests.

Moser approached this first-time workshop venture with the understanding that, as is the case with writing, you never know what’s likely to happen. Teaching this course was a great learning experience that is bound to make the next such endeavor more refined. “In retrospect, trying to write a short story in a week was a bit ambitious,” noted Moser. But she was pleased with the outcomes, which may result in some submissions to either The Amphibian or Teen Amphibian this fall.

For Taryn Follmer, a tenth-grade home-schooler, the opportunity to write about a young friend who learns that political activism comes with a price was rewarding and exciting. “Writing comes naturally,” said Follmer. “I like the idea that writing can be allusive but that people can still understand what it is you’re trying to say,” he noted.

For Cora Emmet-Fleury, establishing a character for her story came from her impressions of a friend whom she feels to be very much her opposite. “I talked to the person my character is based on,” noted Emmet-Fleury. Moser reminded the kids that authors like Alice Walker have said that they have had conversations with their fictional characters such as Celie in “The Color Purple.” Another young author in the group, Rebecca Pender, drew inspiration from an upcoming trip to Keller’s Pond, while Caroline Emmet-Fleury was writing about her cousin and her pet dog Kramer, who hail from the Pacific Northwest. “I’m going to see her soon and I hope to share this with her,” said Emmet-Fleury.

Speaking of authors, the students in the writing seminar were treated to visits by Kim Fisch who is currently writing a young adult novel set in Wayne County and Kim Griswell who is an editor at Highlights for Children.

Though the week went by quickly and many of the stories are not quite finished, the young writers all voiced an interest in returning for future workshops including a follow-up gathering in August. Meanwhile, it is likely they will use what they learned this past week to continue the expression of unique thoughts and feelings in their own words.