Of Silver Linings and the Suffix "er"

Meteorologically-speaking, 2012 will go down in the Record Books as The Year of the Drought.

And metaphorically-speaking, as this series of TeachingAuthors posts affirms, writers too face droughts at some point in their writing lives.

But Bridget Doyle’s article in the August 18 Chicago Tribune last week emboldened me, the “Non-stop Finder of Life’s Silver Linings,” (according to my Six-word Memoir), to

share my seemingly-simple prescription for anyone suffering the pain and heartache of Writer’s Drought.
 

The Tribune headline read,
"GARDENS THRIVING IN DROUGHT – JUST ADD WATER."

Stacey Wescott's newspaper photo showed an Arlington Heights gardener Kathy Wolan harvesting tomatoes.  Wolan shared the secret to her bumper crop of basil and fabulous green beans. "We couldn't control the sunlight or heat this year, but we could control the water."

 

So, my Rx for writers wishing to thrive during their particular droughts?

Just WRITE!
Yes, write.

Maybe not that Great American Novel you know lives inside of you; maybe not that poetry collection you believe with all your heart you were put on Earth to write.

But think about it, or rather, think about that suffix “er.”

er
1.
a suffix used in forming nouns designating persons from the object of their occupation or labor ( hatter; tiler; tinner; moonshiner ), or from their place of origin or abode ( Icelander; southerner; villager ), or designating either persons or things from some special characteristic or circumstance ( six-footer; three-master; teetotaler; fiver; tenner ).
2.
a suffix serving as the regular English formative of agent nouns, being attached to verbs of any origin ( bearer; creeper; employer; harvester; teacher; theorizer ).
(www.dictionary.com)

A writer is - simply - “a person who writes.” 

A writer is - simply - a person who chooses and orders words to (fill in the blank) – tell a story, communicate information, cause a giggle, soothe a hurt, help remember, help remind, share an experience, define a purpose, amuse, entertain, encourage, inspire, copy, imitate, and on-and-on (see The Writing Workout).

                                                                    (courtesy of www.etc.usf.edu/clipart)

Here’s my partial list of some of what I’ve written during this Summer’s meteorological Drought here in the Midwest:

• Several poems, two of which, “The Writer’s Drill” and “Super Key Man,” were chosen to be published in THE POETRYFRIDAY ANTHOLOGY!
• Numerous comprehensive manuscript critiques and narratives for the writers I coach
• Four TeachingAuthors blog posts (which  I’ve surprisingly come to love)
• Three Program Proposals
• My CV        
• My website updates
• Two Letters of Recommendation for students seeking their MFA’s
• A book blurb for a friend’s upcoming novel        
• Postcards to my grandson!
• Letters – the kind that require a U.S. Postage stamp! – to family, friends and RCN Cable        
• Thank You Notes
• Condolences        
• Celebratory salutations
• Grocery Lists
• To Do Lists
• A Key Lime Pie Recipe
• Weekly letters to my middle grade novel’s character (Just what IS the internal issue you continue to confront as obstacles force you to turn away from realizing your dream of surprising the world?)
• And finally, emails, lots an’ lots of emails! – encouraging, supporting, apprising, affirming, praising, extolling, questioning, answering, clarifying, contributing, recommending, suggesting, explaining, teaching, pontificating, apologizing, empathizing, sympathizing and sometimes, just out-and-out catching up.

Writing and reading the above list does indeed remind me:  this summer  I was not fingers-on-keyboard, pen-on-paper physically revising my Great American Middle Grade Novel. :(

But...

I did spend my summer, despite the drought, purposefully and creatively choosing and ordering a whole lot of words  :)

I sure hope you did too!

Esther Hershenhorn, Writer

Writing  Workout: A Writer’s List Poem

Surprise yourself!  See how much YOU wrote this summer!

For starters, revisit this Summer’s days and nights, noting your Writerly Behaviors.

Next create a list of Everything You Wrote This Summer.  And I mean everything!  Contracts, excuse notes, RSVP’s, contest jokes, directions, songs, tweets, poems, conference notes, book blurbs, questions for your doctor, a letter to the editor, a magazine article, letters to your campers, report cards, you-name-it.

Or, create a list of Everything You Wanted to Write This Summer, but Didn’t – or - Couldn’t – or - Wouldn’t – or - Shouldn’t.

Think about writing at your keyboard, in your Writer’s Notebook, on your calendar pages, in the margins of your cookbook, even on your sidewalk!

Writing in Your Head – i.e. Wandering and Wondering – counts too. 

Think conversations you so wished you’d had; words you wish you’d spoken; words you wish you’d heard.

Finally, see if you can order your words to create a list that reflects just who you are, how you come at the world, what you find pleasant, what makes you smile. 

Maybe arrange your actions in alphabetical order – or by time of day – or by location or people groups.

Tinkering with the words and how they sound and look is absolutely allowed.

The important thing is, as Christopher Paul Curtis advises,

     “Make sure the writing's got your own natural funk all over it.”

39th annual International SCBWI summer conference! And...ever do affirmations?

Happy Poetry Friday!  Poem and Writing Workout --how do write affirmations--below.

Today I’m continuing the topic of a writer’s conference I’d recommend…and why.

In the first class I ever took in the UCLA Extension Writers Program in about 1984, my teacher, the late Terry Dunahoo (who I call the Johnny Appleseed of Southern California children's book writers), told us to join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrator (SCBWI) and to attend the annual international conference which, luckily for us, was in Los Angeles. 

Like a good solider (or a well-trained little sister), I did what my teacher told us to do, and boy, am I glad I did. I swear that the classes I took through the UCLA Extension Writers Program and my membership in SCBWI made me the writer I am today.  I've been going every summer since then.

From this West Coaster’s point of view, SCBWI’s annual conference in Century City, California is a fabulous trip-to-New-York-in-a-box.  Editors, authors and web gurus that we’d never EVER get an appointment to see if we flew to New York on our own, show up in LA to teach us, inspire us, critique our manuscripts and party with us.

Come if you possibly can.  Really.  But here’s the great news!  If you can’t come to my home state, you can follow conference action on the SCBWI Blog, which has already begun posting preconference interviews.
How cool is that?
Here's a list poem about the conference:

EVERY AUGUST IN LOS ANGELES
by April Halprin Wayland

I join 800, sometimes 900
kith and kin,
blood and family,
clansmen and women
as we sing our
anxious,
frightened,
excited,
inspired,
ways through
this galaxy, this most amazing writing world
in solidarity
in fellowship
in unity...
in hope.

And if you DO come to the conference, please find me and tell me you’re a TeachingAuthors reader!  This will be my eighth year of critiquing picture book manuscripts.  Is that cool or what?

Writing Workout

When I was a marketing manager at Pacific Bell lo, these many long years ago, I was pretty much a round peg in a square hole.  I knew the corporate world wasn't the right one for me....but I wasn’t sure where I belonged. 

Every once in a while managers were sent to seminars on business and leadership topics.  One of these changed my life.

I remember sitting on the floor in this particular one-day workshop taking notes and wearing jeans and shoes that were not high-heels.  My feet felt wonderful. This seminar was about goal setting and specifically about the power of affirmations. 

We were taught to write three to five affirmations on a 3 x 5 card and keep it in our wallets. Affirmations, we were told, are in the present tense, as if whatever our goal is had already come true. We were told to focus on our affirmations every day in three ways:
1.    Say the affirmation aloud.
2.    Visualize it as true.
3.    Feel it to be true viscerally in our bodies.

Every day as I drove east on the Santa Monica (10) Freeway into downtown Los Angeles, I would say them, see them and feel them.

I said: I am the author of a published children’s book.
I pictured a stack of my published books on the passenger side of my car as I drove.
I let myself feel the joy of being published.

Shortly thereafter I left Pac Bell and began to write children's books and poetry.

One day, perhaps five years after that workshop, I was driving east on the 10 freeway to speak at a school when I glanced over at the passenger side of my car.  There sat a stack of my first book , TO RABBITTOWN.

I got chills.

So…what are your hopes, dreams, wishes?

Write out three to five goals—
at least one about your writing or teaching.
At least one about your health.
At least one about adding fun into your life.

Every day, for each affirmation:
1.    Say it aloud.
2.    Visualize it. 
3.    Feel your body sensations as if it were already true: close your eyes and feel the blood flowing in your veins, your heart expanding, your breathing slow with a sense of well-being.

And then write.  With joy.

photo, drawings and poem (c) by April Halprin Wayland

Out and About..... with Illinois Young Authors

Lucky me!

I was one of thirteen guest Illinois children’s books authors, illustrators and storytellers invited to participate in the 36th Annual Illinois Young Authors Conference held May 15 at Illinois State University in Normal.
Co-sponsored each May by the Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois Language and Literacy Council and The Illinois Reading Council, the event celebrates and honors exceptional writing by students in grades K through 8. More than 500 students and their families traveled up and down and across Illinois to participate.

A pre-conference informal Friday night gathering at the Illinois State University Barnes & Noble Bookstore featured a panel discussion and book sale.

Saturday’s sessions are the true treasure.

Young writers from similar grade levels meet in small groups facilitated by parent and teacher volunteers. The students read aloud their manuscripts, share their writing process, then connect, writer-to-writer, with their assigned children’s book author.

Beth Vest of Lacon and Andrea Miracle of Edwardsville proved invaluable during my three sessions with third and fourth graders, overseeing my materials, clocking my talk and furiously copying the quickly-crafted original wording of each session’s group-written List Poem verse that appears, complete, at the end of this posting.

The day ended with an Awards Ceremony during which each participating Young Author received a certificate and autographed book from his or her session author.

Hats off (stove-pipe style) to Jan Dundon who once again so generously gave of her time to organize and oversee this singular annual Illinois event, and to her hard-working ILLC and IRC volunteers..

And hats off, too, to the talented Young Authors honored at this year's 36th Illinois Young Authors celebration! Another talented Illinois author, known especially for his oration, would be stroking his beard and popping his black vest buttons.

Out and About with My Illinois Young Authors

On a terrific May day in 2010
I worked (writer-to-writer) with
         forty-three
         talented
         Illinois Young Authors
                       from
                                    Chatham
                                    Chicago
                                    Durand and Elgin            
                                    Granite City
                                    Leland
                                    Morris
                                    Pekin
                                    Peoria
                                    Waukegan,
                                    and so it goes.
                       The Land of Lincoln grows some mighty fine writers!

My writers had written
                       Fiction,
                       such as Storybooks
                       (tales of friendship and adventure)
                       And Non-fiction too, such as
                       Skits and Poems
                       No one, it turns out, wrote a memoir.
                       But Gillian wrote about her brother in the service.
                       All agreed: each wrote something unique.

I had to ask,
since I’m a Young-at-Heart Author,
one who so wished she'd grown up in Illinois,
"What does each of you love MOST about writing?”

              Michael loved the drawing and the coloring.
              Ryan loved thinking about something, then simply just writing.
                      Amanda liked expressing herself.
                      Ethan liked imagining.
             Aziz liked sharing thoughts and Life experiences.
         
             “You can redo writing if you want to,” said Hunter.
             “I can write whatever I want to,” Jayce said
             Jack Timbo likes writing a lot of stuff on paper.
            
             Carson had the Very Last Word:
             “Writing," he declared, "is a Miracle!”

Amen.
(I could not have said it better.)

--Esther Hershenhorn

Earth Day + National Poetry Month = Earth Day Poem

My husband and I walked through a nearby park along the Milwaukee River one beautiful spring morning in early April. We were appalled by the amount of trash we saw on the banks and in the water. We picked up garbage as we walked, and I listed in my notebook some of the things we carried to nearby trash containers. As we walked, I began to hear the poem below forming in my mind. Every item included in the poem is something we picked up that morning. I went back a few days later with my camera to record the heartbreaking scene.

Spring Awakening

Dainty speckled dog’s tooth violet
leaves poke up from warming soil
through a six-foot strip of muddy
shredded plastic bag,
     plastic straws, a root beer can,

     caution tape, a bottle top,
     a lip gloss tube, old newspapers,
     a spray paint can, and one flip-flop.

Two red-bellied woodpeckers
shriek and tap above our heads
as we survey the rushing river
and the garbage on its banks:
     plastic lighter, cigarette butts,
     chunks of broken Styrofoam,
     coffee cups with plastic lids,
     a bandage strip, a plastic comb.

Mama goose sits on her nest
amid the evidence of thoughtless
picnickers and fishermen,
hikers, joggers, families:
     McDonald’s ketchup packet, wrappers
     (Kit-Kat, Slim Jim, Power Shot™,
     Cheetos®), plastic bait container,
     broken plastic flower pot.

Multicolored shopping bags
     flutter from just-budding trees.
Ducks glide past a bobbing bottle,
     half a pound of plain cream cheese.

Fish swim under plastic buckets.
Water bottles tip on top
     of water bottles ten feet from
          a trash container—this must stop!

On and on, the river
     carries everything we toss it,
          and we toss too much to bear.

Wake up, people!
Don’t you care
     what happens to this rushing river,
          Mama goose,
          the gliding ducks,
          the fish,
          red bellied woodpeckers?

Wake up and smell the dog tooth violets,
     poking through
          the shredded
               plastic bags.

Writing Workout: List Poem

I believe that as teachers, we have not only the opportunity but the responsibility to impress upon our students the importance—and the urgency—of taking care of our environment—not only on Earth Day, but throughout the year. We can study the effects of pollution, we can participate in cleanup efforts, and we can write!

The poem I wrote about the river is a list poem. Begin one of your own (or help your students write theirs) by thinking of a subject or a place you are passionate about. Observe it carefully or remember it and list its important details. Include more than just the list—tell the reader why the details are important. I used rhyme because I liked the singsong, careless feel it implied and I wanted to lighten the heavy message, but your poem doesn't have to rhyme. Speak your mind and make your message clear.

 

Out and About

On Saturday, April 17, I'll be at Books & Company in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, at 3 p.m. for a reading and signing with Jacqueline Houtman (The Reinvention of  Edison Thomas) and Kashmira Sheth (Boys without Names). I'll read Waiting Out the Storm and talk about writing, poetry, and maybe Earth Day. Stop by if you're in the neighborhood!

JoAnn Early Macken

One Hundred Eighty Days (And Ways)

September, not January, begins my calendar year.
And it always has, since that long-ago September day in West Philadelphia when I first set foot in Miss Patton’s Kindergarten room at the now-100-years-plus Overbrook Elementary School pictured above. I was newly-shoed, my black bangs cut and even, eager to begin what I’d been playing at for years.

Like Joe Fox in my favorite movie You’ve Got Mail, come September I want to buy school supplies! I bestow the following Back-to-School ideas as a bouquet of newly-sharpened #9 pencils. Sniff (and use) to your heart’s (and students’) content.

What better way to start the school year, and each and every one of its 180 days, than with an original poem by a singular original poet, say, for instance, J. Patrick Lewis.
And Lewis’ Countdown to Summer: A Poem for Every Day of the School Year (Little, Brown, ’09) helps you do just that.
Starting with #180, “A Sixth Grader Sees the Future,” Lewis offers listeners a variety of subjects sure to hit home in a variety of poetic styles ripe for modeling: limericks, haikus, riddles, shape and narrative poems and nonsense verse as only he can write.

Lewis’ final poem - #1, “School’s out!” - provides the perfect exclamation point to this fun and funny collection, illustrated in Ethan Long’s cartoon style.

“School is out and I’m so sad
(That is what I told my dad).
I’ll miss Mrs. Rosenbaum
(That is what I told my mom).”

Of course, J. Patrick Lewis, a former teacher himself, is a prolific writer.
In fact, I’m challenged to pick a favorite title.








He’s the perfect subject for an Author Study, which is the perfect vehicle for coming to know a writer – his life, his writing process, his works and inspiration.

To learn the Who, What, When, Where, How and Why of Author/Illustrator Studies, visit Esme Codell’s PlanetEsme.
Next, visit Lewis’ website to learn everything you want to learn about this former Economics-professor-turned-award-winning-author-and-poet. The section “Scenes from my Life” offers glimpses of Lewis’ childhood, growing-up years and family life.
The “For Teachers” section lists interview links to keep you reading for days.
The “For Kids” section provides answers to Frequently Asked Questions.
“Poems and Riddles” shares a reproducible classroom hand-out.
Finally, the “Books” section is an all-year-and-then-some Reading List of Lewis’ titles that span poetic styles, formats (short story, easy-to-read, picture books), genres (biography, myths, legends, tall tales) and subject matter (Math, Science, Music, Art, History, Language Arts, Geography).

Oh, the learning opportunities (at least 180) from but one singular poet! By the time April (and National Poetry Month) come around, pockets will be stuffed with poems and riddles for reciting.

Writing Workout

Lewis’ poems often appear in collections and anthologies, such as Falling Down the Page, a collection of list poems edited by Georgia Heard (Roaring Brook Press, ’09).

What is Earth?

What is earth, whale?
A sea where I sing.
What is earth, robin?
A thing I call Spring.
What is earth, python?
A space to squeeze in.
What is earth, penguin?
A place to freeze in.

List poems make for instant poets.
How might a Kindergartner, a returning student, the New Kid in Town, a graduate, a teacher, a substitute teacher, a Principal, a Cafeteria Lady, a Building Engineer, the office secretary, a parent, a classroom hamster answer, "What is school?"
Why not create a class poem, asking the question of (and naming) each of your students while showing, not telling, the importance of Viewpoint.

Georgia Heard’s “Recipe for Writing an Autumn Poem" also models a "Recipe for Writing a School Poem."
Heard's recipe includes:

One teaspoon wild geese.

One tablespoon red kite.

One cup wind song.

One pint trembling leaves.

One quart darkening sky.

One gallon north wind.

What weights and measures and ingredients might your students choose?

And which senses respond to each ingredient's describing word?
Brainstorm possible ingredients, webbing the school building, its residents, its happenings, the school year’s 180 days.
Brainstorm measurements, webbing not only liquid and dry measurements and measurements of time and space but original measurements and long-ago units.
And brainstorm those describing words. A poet is a wordsmith.