Mostly Unfinished

I have started and stopped many stories--from picture books to middle grade, from stories in verse to stories in prose, from historical fiction to memoir. This is part of the practice of becoming--the unseen hours of writing and sketching inside of the cracks of life.

This is a story I roughed-out after attending an SCBWI conference. Obviously, I left the conference inspired. But I am left asking myself why I stopped. Why did I set it aside for several years? Why are some projects set aside in the vault? Partially, my mind gets distracted and I move on to the next idea, the next line, the next sketch...so much of work remains mostly unfinished.

Encouraging Young Writers

Teaching with Writing by Toby Fulwiler ranks high among the seminal writing texts in my professional library. Often, I flip back through my notebook to these sketches as a reminder of the teacher I want to be. Moreover, I can't help but see the parallels between the experiences adolescents and teenagers have online versus encounters with writing in school.

Over the past three years, I have recorded dozens of engaged students in conferences who shared that they frequently ask other adolescents how to improve their digital writing--captions on Instagram, YouTube videos, fan-fiction, and blogging comprise some of the topics in which adolescents support one another online.

Attitude regarding writing weighs heavily on one's growth as a writer.

Like a gnarled hand

I tried nature journaling with 8th-grade students several times over the years. It doesn't quite work. When we emerge from the building, into the sunlight, the last thing they want to do is sit quietly to sketch or to write. Some appreciate that intention, but not many. Bringing students outside is like shaking up a bottle of soda pop--they fizz through the doors and across the parking lot into the green grass. They want to talk. They must feel, to a certain degree, that when a teacher takes you outside it is very much like that first ice cream cone at the beach during summer vacation. No rules, just joy. And that is alright too.

This particular page developed over the course of one day. I took each of my five classes outside to write and to sketch. In the end, the students produced little. Some tried, but the distraction of joy is just too great sometimes. Yet, in each class, many were interested in my page. At worst, the experience became an opportunity for me to model the power inside of attributes such as focus, patience, and observation.