The Just Write team, a first year club at Northview, competed at the state competition on May 11 at Findlay University. The team had a successful performance at regionals led by junior captain Noah Andres, with sophomores Rebekah Repp and Charlie Quick placing third and fourth in division one respectively, which is a division including freshmen and sophomores, and Joshua Repp placing 15th in division two for upperclassmen, as well as poetry awards earned by Livia Ford, Joshua Repp, and Rebekah Repp, a great number of NV writers moved on to states.

“I had a lot of fun at the tournament and my favorite part was definitely finishing every story with the best line I could think of and fitting all of the pieces into place,” junior Ford said.

At the competition, three underclassmen and all upperclassmen were present, as well as their coach English teacher Elizabeth Rauscher. In addition to competing, participants got the chance to attend a writers’ workshop and met and talked to a successful author that changes every year. This year’s author that writers got to meet was Kit Frick.

Writers left at 5am and joined Southview on a bus to Findlay University. They arrived one hour later, checked in, and headed to the university’s auditorium where a small introduction was given by executive director of the Ohio division, Michael Nelson. Then, students moved on to the individual rounds which took place in two different buildings depending on the division. The genres given to division two students to write about were science fiction, fantasy, and horror. The genres for division one were realistic fiction, historical fiction, and mystery; each section took about 45 minutes with a 15 minute break in between stories, so the entire process took about three hours.

After the hard part was over, students had the opportunity to go to various workshops run by writers skilled in a specific craft. For example, Andres and senior Courtney Spencer attended a workshop on how to make art from words where they made book pages into art pieces and origami. 

Other workshops included an evolution of creating writing workshop that detailed how to write beyond high school, as well as other specific poetry-focused workshops.

 “I went to a lecture that they offered there and learned about the importance of finding your purpose in writing, because it allowed me to figure out a goal I’d like to achieve in my life: publishing my own book,”  Ford said.

Following a short lunch break, student writers then headed to a mobile book stand to meet mystery writer Kit Frick, who signed and sold her books. Additionally, students had the chance to buy JustWrite merchandise at this time. Frick gave a speech to aspiring writers about how to effectively incorporate mystery into their writing and how every good book always includes a mysterious element.

Finally, the long-awaited awards took place. Although NV didn’t place on the state level due to not enough points received, they were awarded three first-place stories and numerous second-place stories for their engaging stories. 

“It went very well. I’m very proud of how everyone did,” Andres said. “With more time we’ll only get better, so I’m hopeful for next year.”