Writing Essentials!

Consider the writing essentials listed on page 13. What is your response to these, as a writer and as a teacher? Which do you think are easy, and which are challenging? Does one strike you as being particularly powerful or problematic?

I enjoyed this list of things to work on - they seemed like such universal ideas to good writing - at any age or level of writing. Writing does not come easy to me. I know, technically, how to write - I just don't do a lot of it nor do I feel I am proficient at it - so I tend to avoid writing. It was difficult to read this section about how teachers must write - in real time! Not to have a prepared writing piece and just copy it - but to let the students see the process of the writing. This is very intimidating for me!

Luckily I am a voracious reader - I love to read. And most any genre - mostly fiction and historical biographies. But, I must admit don't consiously think during my reading "with a writer's perspective". This is something I can certainly change. And as I say that I don't do that - I am often the one at book club that will ask the question "I wonder what the writer meant when they wrote that" or some such question - so maybe I do read that way more than I think!

Another concept I wanted to touch on was "Elaborate on ideas". I like the idea of details - so important. I read one time to think about engaging all five senses when writing - and thought that was great advice. I think this is important in adding in details. Again, an area that I need to improve to make my writing more interesting and alive!

Embrace language! What great advice. I still find I discover new words every day - and new ways to use old words. I remember a teacher in high school who just loved alliteration. It was so important to her for our writing to use this technique. And I remember reading one of Shakespeare's plays that year (sadly, I don't remember which one) and one of the lines was "black and deep desires". I remember clearly 'correcting' Shakespeare (sorry - I realize this may be somewhat "sacreligious" to a real literature lover) to rewrite this phrase as "dark and deep desires". This is something I need to work on - just making my writing more interesting from a pure language perspective.

I will close with the idea that I think I might have been a much better writer if I had been brought up in the age of PC's (I am dating myself!). I am such a believer in getting all the ideas down on paper and then organizing and finalizing the writing from there. This allows me to 'reread, rethink and revise while composing' in a very 'non-linear' fashion! I really liked how Anne Lamott really emphasized the most important part of writing - was just writing down the words - get them started. Then the right ones will speak to you - and you can chose to keep those and discard the rest!