Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it." -Madeleine L'Engle
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Today I was working with a 6th grade class. The teacher wanted them to do some creative writing, so we came up with a lesson that followed up the 9 minute sea creature assignment from the day before. We pretended that each student was an intreped explorer, and in their explorations they had discovered a new species of sea creature. They could chose to write a detailed description of the creature, or write a detailed description of the first encounter with that creature. I used examples derived from my Black Dragon novel. Man, oh man! If I had even half their imagination!
The cool thing was sharing my love of writing and imagining with them. We all got pretty fired up. Of course, I'm not quite so sure that they will love Monday's revision lesson, but hey, good writing takes work, not just imagination. They might as well learn that lesson early.
Meanwhile, I have to say how wonderful it is to be writing new stuff again! My brain gets going and I come up with more and more ideas. Of course, I don't have time to deal with all of them, but it is just a lot of fun!
The cool thing was sharing my love of writing and imagining with them. We all got pretty fired up. Of course, I'm not quite so sure that they will love Monday's revision lesson, but hey, good writing takes work, not just imagination. They might as well learn that lesson early.
Meanwhile, I have to say how wonderful it is to be writing new stuff again! My brain gets going and I come up with more and more ideas. Of course, I don't have time to deal with all of them, but it is just a lot of fun!
3 comments:
Sarah,
I have to agree with the joy of writing. After a long drought I've just started writing a piece that is intended to be a chapter in a book about therapy. After a long time of not being sure whether I had anything fresh to say, I just started writing. If nothing else comes from it, I'm really enjoying the process, and it seems to be helping to really clarify my thinking. And it is the act of writing itself that is informing my thinking, not the other way around. Too cool.
Mike
Mike,
Maybe it is a finishing a novel thing. I mean, I've spent so much time lately, querying, revising, sending out that I hardly feel like I know how to write something new anymore. I started this new Mary Monologue and I was almost...nervous. I forget that rough drafts are supposed to be, well, rough! And that I can, by writing, learn what it is I am trying to say. But I have to write in order to find that out. Just thinking about it doesn't work.
"it is the act of writing itself that is informing my thinking, not the other way around."
Perfect way to put it!
Mike;
Thanks for sharing. I sometimes feel I'm in a writing drought too. Nice to know I am not alone. Sometimes, there just doesn't seem to be enough time in a day. We all have responsibilities and deadlines. I get up early every morning, but by the time I get the dogs out to their respective kennels, answer blogs and e-mails, it's time to get around for work. I'm lucky if I get a few lines on the screen.
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