I’m excited about this writing module. I think it will provide an opportunity for me to objectify facets of writing that I already know deeply but have never been able to articulate. But I’m also worried that this excitement may lead to anticlimactic disappointment: maybe teaching writing won’t be fun.
I love how the Lucy Calkins article* captures elements of a writer’s mind, methods and motivation. It got me to thinking more about the role writing plays in my life, how writing can enrich students’ lives, and why I’m hoping it will be fun to teach.
Ever since I began the epic, “The Changing-Colored Monster That Didn’t Change Colors Very Much” when I was seven, I have thought of myself as a writer. I’ve always loved to write, a passion diminished only when certain people, who have decided I’m a good writer, have hired me to write things I don’t care about. That’s grist for an exploration in itself: in an ideal world, we need to write what is important to us.
Though I’ve written creatively since my early twenties, recent technology has made me more of a writer than before. As soon as my programmer friend Jill set up my blog, three important things happened:
- I gained an easy way to stash (and access) my writing. Journals from days of yore live in dusty boxes with old negatives and cassette tapes, where human eye is unlikely ever to look at them again. But having an easy way to store my writing motivates me to write. Knowing that others can see it compels me to write with more care and imagination than I used to.
- Friends (and the occasional stranger) can read what I’ve written — often only hours or even minutes after I’ve written it. The knowledge that someone is reading what I’m writing also makes me want to write more. Readers’ comments and praise add to that desire.
- Artists can be antisocial. I am. My writing on the blog speaks for me when I want to hide.
By observing the world as a writer, I notice things that I would otherwise overlook, from detail to broad storyline. Whenever I stumble upon an experience or person or idea that fascinates me, I document it (in sound and image as well as the written word). Driven by this compulsion to capture what I see, and egged on my the praise of friends who tell me I’m a good writer, I write obsessively. There’s deep joy in knowing that what I’ve written has entertained or touched others.
Writing is the act of creating something tangible from experience. Naturally, it’s not the only way to transform an idea into a vision, but it is a powerful way to create something that can be “held” by people over time and across geography.
In my mind, I am always writing. A field I drive by, a person I meet, a feeling I have: sometimes they turn into words before the experience is even completed. It is annoying, and of course one misses genuine experience when seeing through a writer’s “lens.” Luckily I am able sometimes to tame the relentless writer in me. But other times I’m like the tourist who can’t see the Grand Canyon without framing it with her camera’s viewfinder. (Dad was like that too.) But unlike photography, that act of writing — technically, “pre-writing” — activates a deeper level of observation. One has to observe and envision in order to write.
On the negative side, being a real-time translator (as opposed to “experiencer”) of what one sees is antithetical to “mindfulness,” which is essential for good writing. Without truly experiencing something with analytical mind silent, we risk playing a shallow word game that can provide surface enjoyment but lack truth.
[*] Calkins, Lucy McCormick. “Making Meaning on the Page and in Our Lives.” From The Art of Teaching Writing. Heinemann, 1994.
Elizabeth’s feedback, 12/14/09:
I love reading your thoughts. Where to start in responding? Maybe with your idea of writing what is important, yet having to write what others want you to write either for school or for work. That’s a real challenge for me too. Perhaps your blog allows you the freedom to create with an audience who appreciates your writing and thus encourages you to write more. I’m sure you’ll find it even more important when you are trying to connect with people “over time and across geography” from Mexico. I do agree that the challenge is not to miss the real time experience because you’re always thinking about how to express the experience in written form. But then, as you note, writing “activates a deeper level of observation.” I think it helps us to see better and to experience more clearly. So,don’t stop writing (I think you probably can’t stop) and I look forward to following your blog from Mexico.
I hope you, as a skilled writer, got some new ideas for teaching writing from this module, and I hope that you leave the 4 skills course feeling that teaching writing is fun! Try out your ideas at ABC in Pachuca. I hope your own enthusiasm for writing can influence your students.
-Elizabeth