Teachers Write

As if you teachers didn't have enough to do over the summer, here's another thought.

Click on over to KATE MESSNER'S blog and follow along with her fantastic fellow writers.

No, wait. This is fun! It's not another chore. You will love this.

And hey, you don't have to be a teacher. You can write for the fun of it and learn so much.

Start with JO KNOWLES'S Monday Warm-ups. CLICK HERE for the first prompt.

I love the idea of that blank piece of paper. Jo asks her writing readers to fill her comments with their ideas for a work-in-progress. Super idea for a Monday warm-up prompt.

Kate has a whole lineup of writers ready to give great suggestions. So far (and the summer is young), my absolute favorite, and one I hope to put into practice, is THIS. Click to go to Sarah Albee's hilarious post about writing funny.

Here's a small sample from Sarah:

1. Surprise your reader with the unexpected.

Last week I heard Dave Barry on the radio. Terry Gross was interviewing him about his new book. He was talking about the good old days when he was a kid, in the pre-helicopter-parenting days when parents basically ignored their kids. “On a summer morning we’d leave the house,” he said, “and my mom would say, ‘Be sure you’re back by September.’” It’s funny because your brain is expecting “by dinner” of course, and he jolts you with the unexpected.

Funny is crucial, even in serious stories. Especially in those. And Sarah writes true stories. Not necessarily humorous non-fiction. And yet it is.
We can all learn a lesson, teachers, students, just plain writers.

Thanks, Kate Messner, for this summer fun. 

A Poem to End Poetry Month

Just because April has ended, we don't have to stop reading poetry. And because I like the poems of Wallace Stevens, and because talented kids' book writer Jo Knowles wrote such a thoughtful blogpost about this one, I'll share it here, putting an exclamation point at the end of Poetry Month. Vowing to read more, all year round.



The House Was Quiet And The World Was Calm
By Wallace Stevens

The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The reader became the book; and summer night

Was like the conscious being of the book.
The house was quiet and the world was calm.

The words were spoken as if there was no book,
Except that the reader leaned above the page,

Wanted to lean, wanted much to be
The scholar to whom his book is true, to whom

The summer night is like a perfection of thought.
The house was quiet because it had to be.

The quiet was part of the meaning, part of the mind:
The access of perfection to the page.

And the world was calm. The truth in a calm world,
In which there is no other meaning, itself

Is calm, itself is summer and night, itself
Is the reader leaning late and reading there.

First Drafting

Although I've put aside starting anything longer than 1000 words while I dive into revamping and editing something old, I like this post by writer Heather Vogel Frederick about starting brand new drafts, how difficult putting your toe into the water can be.

Thanks to Jo Knowles for the Facebook heads up on it. Jo's favorite has to do with making hollandaise. Kind of.

Writing a first draft always reminds me of starting a new project with third graders, in my school librarianship days:
How long does it have to be? Can I copy this picture now? Do we need note cards? Can I use a pen? A pencil? Colored markers?

That's how I feel about early drafts. A million questions, with at least that many right answers. And a few very wrong ones you won't know about until you are halfway down the path.

How do you feel about starting something new? Putting that proverbial toe into uncharted waters?

Writing about Voting?

If you need inspiration for your writing on any given Monday morning, head on over to Jo Knowles' blog (click here for the link). Today she asks writers to describe  what it's like to vote, wherever they are. So far, the reports from my county say people are waiting in line for 3 hours... 

But tomorrow's the real day so I'm hoping when I show up at my little polling place, all will be well.