Initiation: Pretend that you are sitting under a large tree with your back resting on its trunk. On the other side of the tree, a storyteller sits also resting against the tree trunk Tell the storyteller five things you'd like to hear stories about.
1. Real people who have overcome incredible obstacles
2. Love stories with interesting twists and turns that make you laugh and cry and laugh again (and where love wins out in the end)
3. Families (the more dysfunctional the better) just trying to figure out how to be families.
4. Heaven and spirituality
5. The power of education
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Let Yourself Write
"What if there were no such thing as a writer? What if everyone simply wrote? What if there were no 'being a real writer' to aspire to? What if writing were simply about the act of writing?"
If only...
Visions of a writer's utopia now dance and twirl in my head as I set out on the next endeavor, so you will have to forgive my naiveté and optimism and maybe even a few clichés.
Initiation: What are your hidden associations with the term “writer”?
Phew! That wasn’t so bad, and only a few have negative connotations. Even those, though, are open to interpretation. I thought, when she said to write these quickly, that my list would slant more toward the negative. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
If only...
Visions of a writer's utopia now dance and twirl in my head as I set out on the next endeavor, so you will have to forgive my naiveté and optimism and maybe even a few clichés.
Initiation: What are your hidden associations with the term “writer”?
1. Writers are dedicated.
2. Writers are isolated.
3. Writers are misunderstood.
4. Writers are mental.
5. Writers are generative.
6. Writers are insightful.
7. Writers are mythical.
8. Writers are talented.
9. Writers are highbrow.
10. Writers are heard.
Phew! That wasn’t so bad, and only a few have negative connotations. Even those, though, are open to interpretation. I thought, when she said to write these quickly, that my list would slant more toward the negative. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
"Wherever you are is always the right place."
The day began with me driving in the wrong direction and seems to be ending with writing that has no direction at all. I guess that's the point of this first writing initiation. Julia Cameron (author of The Right to Write) is urging us (writers in general) to write...just write. If it ends up being good writing (which seems doubtful), well, that's just gravy.
As I let my mind wander and begin to pick up the pace tapping the keys, I am having trouble choosing a topic. Perhaps, that too is her point. Perhaps rather than choosing a topic (as she suggests we limit our students by forcing them to do), I will just ramble and topic hop. After all, if you can't hop in your own blog, where can you hop?
I didn't run today, and I wish I had. I find that strange. Some days I dread it. Some days I neither dread it nor look forward to it. I just do it to keep the scale steady or to offset...mmmmm...usually something chocolate. When I do it, it hurts, and it's all I can do to finish, but tonight, I miss it and regret not having done it. A sign that I've turned some magical fitness corner? That I may actually achieve that coveted runner's high that hear tale of? Probably not. More likely a sign of just how much I avoid the act that I claim to love...writing. If I were out running I wouldn't have to put words to paper (or computer screen as it is). For the same reason that my house is always so clean when I need to study, tonight I yearn to run.
At the same time, my mind drifts to questions and concerns and the mile long to-do list that all accompany thoughts of my new position. As I work with teachers this week and explore their writing process with them, I wonder how I will feel when school starts and I don't have a classroom to get ready. When I don't have students to meet at the door, and I don't start shaking hands immediately in an attempt to learn the new set of names. How is it all going to feel? And...will I do them justice? The teachers I mean. Will I be able to positively influence their teaching in a meaningful way? Will I have an impact?
See? I told you. No direction. Completely random. She told me to write so I'm writing.
In the first chapter (or Invitation, as she calls them), Cameron asks, "If words give us power, when do we start to lose our power over words?" It's a good question. Why does the possibility that someone might actually read this make me want to break out in hives? Why am I tempted to copy and paste it into Word so that I can run grammar and spell checks over it? Why do I know that when I am finished (or think I am) I will have to force myself not to go back and look for typos? WHO CARES IF THERE ARE TYPOS? We (and I don't really know who I mean by we) really have created a fear of writing and a fear of words in general. Thanks for helping me tackle the fear, Julia.
Here I go: putting it out there...choosing to hit submit.
As I let my mind wander and begin to pick up the pace tapping the keys, I am having trouble choosing a topic. Perhaps, that too is her point. Perhaps rather than choosing a topic (as she suggests we limit our students by forcing them to do), I will just ramble and topic hop. After all, if you can't hop in your own blog, where can you hop?
I didn't run today, and I wish I had. I find that strange. Some days I dread it. Some days I neither dread it nor look forward to it. I just do it to keep the scale steady or to offset...mmmmm...usually something chocolate. When I do it, it hurts, and it's all I can do to finish, but tonight, I miss it and regret not having done it. A sign that I've turned some magical fitness corner? That I may actually achieve that coveted runner's high that hear tale of? Probably not. More likely a sign of just how much I avoid the act that I claim to love...writing. If I were out running I wouldn't have to put words to paper (or computer screen as it is). For the same reason that my house is always so clean when I need to study, tonight I yearn to run.
At the same time, my mind drifts to questions and concerns and the mile long to-do list that all accompany thoughts of my new position. As I work with teachers this week and explore their writing process with them, I wonder how I will feel when school starts and I don't have a classroom to get ready. When I don't have students to meet at the door, and I don't start shaking hands immediately in an attempt to learn the new set of names. How is it all going to feel? And...will I do them justice? The teachers I mean. Will I be able to positively influence their teaching in a meaningful way? Will I have an impact?
See? I told you. No direction. Completely random. She told me to write so I'm writing.
In the first chapter (or Invitation, as she calls them), Cameron asks, "If words give us power, when do we start to lose our power over words?" It's a good question. Why does the possibility that someone might actually read this make me want to break out in hives? Why am I tempted to copy and paste it into Word so that I can run grammar and spell checks over it? Why do I know that when I am finished (or think I am) I will have to force myself not to go back and look for typos? WHO CARES IF THERE ARE TYPOS? We (and I don't really know who I mean by we) really have created a fear of writing and a fear of words in general. Thanks for helping me tackle the fear, Julia.
Here I go: putting it out there...choosing to hit submit.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
And So We Write...Take Two
I started this blog in August of 2010 as part of an assignment for a graduate class. Then the teacher changed the assignment, and as you can see by the lonely, lonely 2010 post, I never came back to it. I did not truly accept my own challenge: the challenge to not only reflect and to write, but to do it regularly. I would like to say that I have been writing away (just not on this blog), but that would be a big, fat lie. I have not, for several years now, set aside time to write. And by write, I mean to truly write for the sake of writing. Not to provide feedback to a student or to fulfill an assignment, but just to write.
Recently, however, there have been a few changes in my life. Over the last year and a half I have bought a new house, lost 170 pounds, and recently accepted a new job. I feel like a whole new me, and I am here today to give myself a reward: The Right to Write.
That is the title of the online book study I start on Monday, and I am excited to begin something I see as more than professional development. I hope that the book and the experience will help rejuvenate the writer inside me, the writer who I have buried under paperwork and baseball games and grad classes and home cooked meals. None of those things are going away (although I hope the grad classes will eventually end), but I am committing here and now to squeeze one more priority into my sometimes chaotic life: I'm going to write...regularly...here...for all to see (and by all I mean the one, maybe two, people who will possibly read this). I'm not promising quality. In fact, I can almost promise its absence, but I am making a pinkie swear with myself. Dang it, I'm going to write!
Recently, however, there have been a few changes in my life. Over the last year and a half I have bought a new house, lost 170 pounds, and recently accepted a new job. I feel like a whole new me, and I am here today to give myself a reward: The Right to Write.
That is the title of the online book study I start on Monday, and I am excited to begin something I see as more than professional development. I hope that the book and the experience will help rejuvenate the writer inside me, the writer who I have buried under paperwork and baseball games and grad classes and home cooked meals. None of those things are going away (although I hope the grad classes will eventually end), but I am committing here and now to squeeze one more priority into my sometimes chaotic life: I'm going to write...regularly...here...for all to see (and by all I mean the one, maybe two, people who will possibly read this). I'm not promising quality. In fact, I can almost promise its absence, but I am making a pinkie swear with myself. Dang it, I'm going to write!
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