In this article, the author describes his use of a genre-based writing workshop following the general flow of Nancy Atwell's work (Atwell, 2015). For each unit, the class immerses themselves in samples, focusing first on what Atwell calls the "so what," or the purpose for writing--the idea, emotion, or experience the author wants to share. The students quickwrite extensively to discover possible "so whats" of their own and then loop back to their samples to look at what writer's tools others have used. The author's goal is for the students to think of themselves as writers and, therefore, all the writing workshop projects are as real-life and publishable as possible. The students need to learn that good writing comes from the place that is themselves-- from their own experiences, their own knowledge, their own interpretation of the world. Once they find that they can shape the meaning they find in their own memories and interpret the world around them, they will be in a strong position to begin to shape the world itself.