HOISINGTON — Writing is exciting, and children’s book author Gary Hogg integrates his passion for the written word and fun, which he shared with Hoisington elementary school students last week in a workshop.
“You’re an author,” Hogg said told the students. “Every word I can choose, you can choose.”
Hogg began writing as a child in Burley, Idaho.  Gary wrote his first children’s book when he was nineteen although it took years to get it published. He is now a published author of children’s books and teaches seminars to children on writing. He lives in Huntsville, Utah.  
“Idea’s come from inside,” said Hogg. “Adding more details makes you sound smarter.”
How do you get good at writing? “I practice,” said Hogg. “If the only time you played basketball was at the game, how good would you be? Practice writing when nobody tells you to. Amazing things happen.”
Encouraging kids to enter the author zone, he said, “I’ve noticed the only time kids write is when someone tells them to. You can learn to love to write.”
The next step for writing is frequent revision and adding lots of details.
The kids sat quietly, listening to the comments. “Sometimes I’m at a school and kids tell me they had an aha moment,” said Hogg. During elementary school, “I had an aha moment when I realized I was lazy. I learned how I felt after I did my best was so much better.”
“If you think it, you can write it,” the author said to them. “You never know what is going to inspire you as a writer. You can learn to write.”
“Choose the best and get rid of the rest,” he said.
The students practiced thinking of descriptive words that could be used instead of words like very and big, and adding more details to make sentences interesting.
“It’s time to use smarter words,” he said.
Hogg has visited 3500 schools and held 17,000 writing workshops to share his message of smart writing. He has written a series of books about Charlie Bacon, a boy who has unusual capers. Plus, he wrote the Happy Hawk Series and Spencer’s Adventures. He travels throughout the U.S. teaching workshops, visiting over 100 schools per year.
“I enjoy seeing kids and their aha moments,” said Hogg after his presentation.
Teacher Megan Husted said that the Hoisington Elementary Parents Association paid for Hogg to come to Hoisington.