The first session of the “Writer’s Workshop” will take place at the Flanagan Research Center at 43 Rexford St. in Norwich, located next to the Chenango County Historical Society Museum. (Photo by Lilli Iannella)

NORWICH– The Chenango County Historical Society (CCHS) is launching its Author’s Hour “Writer’s Workshop” Series on Thursday, a three-session program spotlighting the process of writing stories related to the county.

Each session of the series is set to take place on the first Thursday of July, August and September at 1 p.m., said Operations Manager Joseph Fryc, and those interested can drop in to the sessions. The first session will take place at the Flanagan Research Center at 43 Rexford St. in Norwich, according to the event flyer.

Brian Kamsoke, a Norwich High School graduate and editor with 30 years of experience, will lead the program, the Chenango County Historical Society said in an emailed statement. In the first session, he will provide strategies to help writers jumpstart their stories, overcome apprehension and further explore their ideas through research, Kamsoke said in the statement.

Subsequent sessions will cover storytelling techniques to help streamline the writing process and organize writing, Kamsoke said, and ultimately prepare the writer’s work for publication.

The society invites people of all ages and levels of writing to participate in all or some of its sessions. Jessica Moquin, the society’s executive director, said the program provides an opportunity for people to cover any Chenango County topic and develop it into a story that can be featured in the society’s annual journal, which features numerous stories related to the county’s history and culture.

“There are so many stories out there, and anyone can be a historian,” Moquin said. “And we want to democratize the process of writing for the journal and encourage everybody and kind of remove those factors of intimidation or remove any barriers and let folks know what repositories are available locally.”

Participants can also write about personal experiences, Fryc said, but the society prefers ideas supported by historical research. He urged writers that even if a story idea cannot sustain a whole book of its own, it can still be a part of a larger collection of the county's history that others can learn from and appreciate.

“They're still worth being told,” he said, “and it's a good way to kind of collect all those smaller pieces of county history together to make people aware of some of the cool little gems that are hidden all over the place.”

Historical writing is based on the work of others, Kamsoke said. Over time, other writers may access preserved writing, like those produced in the workshop, to further expand the deep history of the county, he said.

Kamsoke urged county community members to embrace the experience of the writing process among the work of other participants.

“To be clear, writing is a very solitary experience,” Kamsoke said. “It’s just you, your sources, and the words on the page, but at our ‘Writer’s Workshop’ Series, you have the opportunity to collaborate and share your work with fellow writers as we help each other develop our writing for publication in the CCHS Journal.”