National Day on Writing: Hoping for the Unexpected

If you're one of our regular followers, you know we're currently featuring a series of posts in honor of the Third Annual National Day on Writing, which will be celebrated here in the United States tomorrow, October 20. Here's an excerpt from the official website explaining why the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) founded this event:

"In light of the significance of writing in our national life, to draw attention to the remarkable variety of writing we engage in, and to help writers from all walks of life recognize how important writing is to their lives, NCTE established October 20 as The National Day on Writing."

Last year, when I posted on the actual day of the Second Annual National Day on Writing, I blogged on the topic of "Why I Write." My answer then had to do with having an inner calling to write, as Padgett Powell says, "in the closet of my soul." But that's not the only reason I write. The April 2011 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, included a quote from former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins that captures another of my reasons. Collins says:

"The hope for the unexpected is so essential to my process. I wouldn't start a poem if I already knew the ending. The pen is not just a recording device; it can also be an instrument of discovery."

I share Collins' "hope for the unexpected." For me, writing, especially fiction writing, is an adventure. I never know where a story will lead me. But I always learn something in the process. Even when I've plotted out a story and know the ending, I often encounter surprises along the way. And when I'm struggling with a piece and don't know where it's going, hoping for the unexpected is what keeps me at it.

After this post goes live, I plan to also publish it to the National Gallery of Writing. I encourage all of you readers out there to also celebrate by submitting a piece of your own writing. If you need help finding a topic, see the Writing Workout below. And if you're looking for other ways to celebrate tomorrow, visit NCTE's page on getting involved in the celebration.

Speaking of celebrations, I'd like to acknowledge a couple of milestones here on our blog: Welcome to our 400th Google follower: Soma Mohapatra! She happened to join us the day after our 400th post, which was Jeanne Marie's kick-off of this series about the National Day on Writing. A HUGE THANK YOU today to all our readers!      

Writing Workout:
In Honor of the National Day on Writing  

For this Writing Workout, you will create something to contribute to the National Gallery of Writing. The gallery accepts all sorts of submissions, including "electronic presentations, blog posts, documentary clips, poetry readings, 'how to' directions, short stories, memos, audio and video clips."

Need a topic? Here are four ideas for you:

1. Read Jeanne Marie's post about her young daughter's love of writing, and then write your own blog post (aka "essay") on the topic "Why I Write."
2. Read Esther's post on writing a "thanku," and JoAnn's response, then write your own "thanku."
3. Read Mary Ann's post about how she misses receiving handwritten letters. Then write a handwritten letter (or if your handwriting is as bad as mine, type and print the letter, then sign it) to someone you've fallen out of touch with. Be sure to send it the low-tech way, via snail mail.
4. Reflect on the above quote from Billy Collins, then write about a time when your own writing has led to "the unexpected."

When you're done, submit your piece to the National Gallery of Writing, then come back and share a comment here about your experience.

Have a happy National Day on Writing tomorrow!

And happy writing every day!
Carmela

Here's to the Pen and Postage Stamp

    Notice:  I wrote this last week, knowing I would be out of town over the weekend. How was I to know that Ben Stein would do a commentary on this very topic on CBS Sunday Morning this week?  It's the first time that Mr. Stein and I have been on the same page (pun intended) on a topic, although we didn't say exactly the same thing.  I just wanted to mention this in case you also are a fan of Sunday Morning.

    Now, on with the blog.

    I heard recently that the average American receives one piece of actual written mail every six weeks. Obviously, someone else is getting my one letter. My mailbox is filled with bills, junk mail and catalogs.

     This is opposed to my email box which is filled with messages from friends, relatives and former students( most of whom found me through Facebook), bills, spam and scams. Don't get me wrong. I am have reconnected with more old friends and students than I can count, to say nothing of dozens of cousins. This is all good, because I am a real phonophobe. I will do anything to avoid speaking on the phone. (I consider a cell phone an emergency tool, not a means of basic communication.) Before email, I would literally write notes to friends who lived in the same town, to avoid the phone. Now I can shoot off an email to my next door neighbor (or editors) without being thought weird.

   While I can keep up with a ton of people via email, I miss real, handwritten letters, even from people with horrible handwriting.  One of my earliest memories of my mother was of her sitting at the kitchen table, once a week, to "write letters to the family." Mom had seven siblings, a mother plus in-laws that expected a weekly letter (and vice versa). At our house, there was Wash Day, Ironing Day, Baking Day...and Letter Writing Day.

    Mom disliked writing, the way she disliked cooking, ironing and sewing. She think she wasn't very good at these things, but they were chores, and chores had to be done. She would write a first draft letter in pencil on cheap tablet paper. She would recopy them on her "good" linen stationary using a fountain pen. (I can still see the blue and yellow box that contained the jar of Scripto ink, that I was never ever allowed to touch.) She wrote so many letters on "writing day" that they didn't fit into our wall mounted mailbox for the mailman to collect. Writing day ended with a trip to the corner mailbox. (Remember them?)

    Opening the mailbox each day was like a surprise treasure chest. Long before I could read script, I recognized my grandfather's beautiful steelplate handwriting, the crabbed scrawl of my arthritic grandmothers. Best of all were the letters of my favorite aunt. She was the only one who typed, so I could actually read what my cousins were doing, as opposed to my mother giving me digest versions.

   Letter writing has a long history in my mother's family. Fortunately, my grandmother was something of a literary packrat and kept everything anyone ever wrote her. The family's letters from World War II formed the basis of Jimmy's Stars. We have her letter of acceptance to Vasser, the letters she wrote as a newlywed to her own grandmother.

    Slighly less highminded are the letters I saved from my college roommates and boyfriends that we wrote over summer vacations. Still, they are so evocative of a time and place in a way that emails are not (even though I do have a file of emails, 10 to 15 years old). The stationary (Holly Hobbie, Ziggy, the Peanuts paper my boyfriend and I favored, neon colored paper with neon colored ink that were almost impossible to read), the nicknames, the concerns, the just day-to-day-ness of what we wrote--"I saw One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and thought of you"--no further elaboration!--speaks to me across time and brings that person back to me.

   Through all the years that rejection letters filled my mailbox in depressing number, I kept writing my books and stories. However, if I wanted to feel real satisfaction, I would write a letter...to a cousin, an
aunt, even my parents. (This was in the days before long distance calling plans.) For one thing, the return letter did not include the words "your work does not meet our needs at this time." A letter always met the recipient's need somehow.

   While I didn't draft letters the way my mother did, I do remember considering, pondering each word before I committed it to my Snoopy paper. Maybe that's the difference. It's easier and faster to write on a computer...without a lot of pondering. Perhaps we are the worse for it.

     There are still things that I feel I have to send by snail mail...condolences and thank yous, letters to children who write me, my very extra special friends and relatives.  And if I ever could find her snail mail address, I want to write to the teacher who made me want to be a teacher.

    So just for today, go Luddite; sit down and handwrite something to a friend, relative or teacher, put it in an envelope, stamp it and mail it. Yes, I know it takes more time. But you know what? Somewhere, someone is getting my "one-handwritten-letter-every-six-weeks." Possibly because I haven't written any lately.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

National Day on Writing, a Family Reunion, and a Thankyu

While we Teaching Authors discuss the NCTE’s National Day on Writing, I’m packing for an annual Weekend on Writing—the SCBWI-Wisconsin fall retreat—and also remembering last weekend’s wonderful family reunion in gorgeous Door County, Wisconsin.

As I thought about a topic for this post, I scanned the NCTE web site, which is full of helpful ideas (Do take a look!), and was reminded that “The act of writing generates ideas.” (See Writing is a tool for thinking.)

I loved Esther’s poetry form invention, the Thankyu, so I decided to try writing one for my cousins:

sharing stories, songs
faces glowing in firelight—
laughter echoes on

Okay, it's a work in progress, but I have to pick someone up from the airport, and her plane is early—can you imagine? Off to the retreat!

This week's Poetry Friday Roundup is at Fomagrams. Enjoy!

JoAnn Early Macken

Celebrate October 20th the Write Way: Write a Thanku!

Once again, we six Teaching Authors join writers everywhere in celebrating NCTE’s October 20th National Day on Writing.

Which prompts this Teaching Author to invite writers of all ages to celebrate, too – by contributing an original piece of writing to NCTE’s digitally archived National Gallery of Writing.

You could try writing something easy, like, say, a Thank You note.
The writer of a Thank You note knows his audience; he knows the purpose of his words; writing in first person allows his voice to ring true.
Also noteworthy: according to a recent study at Kent State University, people who composed short letters of gratitude reported a significant increase in their overall happiness.

Or, you could try writing something short, like, say, a haiku.
The three-line poetic form is so very doable. The first line has 5 syllables, the second 7, the third 5. Together the three lines paint a picture often associated with nature, but not always
Bob Raczka wrote Guykus.
Andrew Clements wrote Dogkus.
Last April, the American Library Association created Twaikus, or twittered haikus.

Even better, though?  You could write something easy and short.

You could write an original Thanku!

(I know, I know: it’s not even Friday! I apologize sincerely to my fellow TeachingAuthors and stellar poets, April and JoAnn.)

Googling “gratitude-themed haikus that go by the name Thanku” revealed none exist…

’til now, that is.

And the Good News is: a heartfelt Thanku can make (at least) two people happy – the writer and the reader.

Here’s the Thanku I wrote for My Writers - those I teach, those I coach and those who visit our TeachingAuthors blog.

             My teacher’s heart kvells*
             like any Jewish Mother’s.
             Such storied treasures!
            
                *rejoices

Why not try your hand at writing this original poetic form, then post your three appreciative lines at NCTE’s Gallery of Writing.

Happy National Day on Writing!

Esther Hershenhorn

The National Day on Writing: Why I Write

We Teaching Authors are kicking off a series of posts to celebrate The National Day on Writing on October 20th.

The event's official website includes a section of famous authors' testimnials on the subject of  "Why I Write."
Because we as teachers spend an inordinate amount of time trying to motivate our students to do the same, this is an important question for most of us.

My daughter is in first grade, and her class is starting a school newspaper (!).  The teacher recently had a guest photographer and journalist from our local paper talk to them about the process.  Everyone in Kate's class signed up to be either a photographer or a writer.  Kate said, "Most kids wanted to be photographers.  But I picked writer.  Because I love to write!"  But when asked why, the best she could articulate was, "Because it's fun!" 

Indeed, I have observed that the ability to write with some fluency has opened up new worlds for my daughter.  Our house is full of notes and signs and cards and lists -- favorite candies; things I like to do; things my roly poly needs if I keep him in a cup in my house.  Today my four-year-old went to school with a note taped to the front of his shirt.  I want to save every scrap of paper (I've been taking pictures of them) -- such a wonderful snapshot of this precious time in our lives. 

Kate decided the other day to start a science journal.  She was so eager to get home to work on it that she did not want to do anything else after school.  Here is an excerpt:

Of course you will note that her handwriting is atrocious, her spelling is poor, and she seems to have little idea as to where to put a period.  However, I really don't care. Reading this gave me such a clear idea of her hopes and dreams -- from little acorn to tree to tire swing. 

Writing helps us dream -- and dream big.  My daughter, as I have mentioned before, is a worrier.  When someone suggested that she journal about her worries, she was delighted.  Doing so has helped her crystallize her fears and even consider how she might make them go away. 

Writing can be therapeutic for us all.  When we are struggling with problems and we pour them out in a facebook or message board post, an email to a friend -- sometimes just "saying it" is all it takes to unburden ourselves and feel better.

Writing is like talking, only in some ways even better -- because we have the ability to edit, to say EXACTLY what we want the world to hear.  Having others read and respond is the natural and important culmination of the process, which is why a student newspaper or a mash-up or a blog is truly an awesome tool.

I was volunteering in my daughter's classroom the other day, and the teacher had each student make lists of their interests in order to generate writing ideas.  Every time they have an assignment, they look at the list.  (One student had a gem, claiming to be an expert at 'being bored.')  The teacher is working with them on enticing beginnings, interesting conclusions, and good supportive details in the middle -- in other words, exactly what I'm doing with my college students.  

Somewhere along the way, sadly, so many lose their passion.  I hope my daughter is not one of them.  I hope I'm not one of them.  Thanks to all of you for being part of the nurturing community that keeps us all going.    Happy writing to all!    --Jeanne Marie

Talkin' back to your first draft...and Happy Poetry Friday!

~
Howdy Campers and happy Poetry Friday! Today's poem and Writing Workout--a poetry prompt--are below.

Poetry Friday is hosted this week by Mary Ann Scheuer
over at Great Kid Books.  Thanks, Mary Ann!

Before we begin today's dance around the campfire, I have an exciting announcement: professor and author Sylvia Vardell and poet and author Janet Wong have done it again!  Just in time for Teen Read Week (Oct. 16-22 this year) they've edited another affordable and fabulous ebook anthology called P*Tag, this one for teens--which you can read even if you don't have an ereader!  

While the 30 poems in Poetry Tag Time,
their first anthology, are for young readers,
the 30 photo-illustrated poems in P*Tag,
their newest anthology, are for teens.

~

(Yes, I have poems in both anthologies--but that's not why I'm jumping up and down about these two books--they are brilliant and original and poetry tag is a game you can play with other poets and  your students!)

And now to today's TeachingAuthors topic of the week.  After five terrific posts on First Drafts: Quieting the Internal Critic, it's my turn to wrap up this topic--for now.   Just so you know, my internal critic is going nuts right this very minute because I am writing something that someone is going to actually read.

Like JoAnn, I enjoy first drafts.  Mostly.  First drafts aren't promising anyone anything.  First drafts are splashing around, figuring stuff out. First drafts are swirling paint onto the page to see if I can convey what was dancing in my brain last night.

And like Jeanne Marie, I am good at starting and not so good at finishing.  So I guess one way I quiet the voices in my brain is by ...starting.  Promising nothing to anyone, pouring a little finger paint on the page and ...starting.  So, let me see if I can write the first draft of a poem about first drafts right now...

TO MY FIRST DRAFT
by April Halprin Wayland

Dearest unlicked cub,

darling crude outline,

raw unpolished stone,

clumsy, first design:

don't pick up the phone—

keep writing, we're not home.

Do you think you might need trimming? 

Do you think you may need bulk?

You're just stalled, you're not a slacker—

and I hate it when you sulk.

You're a great extra-word whacker!

Have some warm milk and a cracker.

We are pioneers in this story,

darling sapling, dear first draft,

in a river overflowing

you're a rough-hewn wooden raft.

Yes, it's dreadful, this not knowing...

um...do you know where we're going?

c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

My first step was to look up the term "first draft" in a thesaurus.  The results were rich, including the term unlicked cub which is odd and interesting, so I began with that. Then I wandered into a rhyme scheme: ABCBCC / DEFEFF / GHIHII (each letter stands for a new rhyming sound; slashes indicate a new stanza)--and I was off and...stumbling!

The phone rang while I was frowning into the computer screen and I did not answer it...(I did look at the caller ID), so I stuck that in; I got up to make a snack in the middle of writing it because I was scared that it was so bad, so I offered the poem a snack as well (I gave it milk and a cracker because I couldn't find many words to rhyme with "tortilla with peanut butter and honey.")

And then I wrote and rewrote and rewrote and rewrote--twelve drafts so far.  

It's clearly not done yet. I think I'll delete the first stanza--it'll be stronger. I've just sent it to my friend, Bruce, who critiques my poems every day.  We'll see what suggestions he has.  

When my very smart husband came home, I moaned, "Why am I always so COMPLICATED?  Why can't I write a SIMPLE, CLEAN, SHORT poem?" 

"Did Carl Sandburg say that?  Did Robert Frost?" he asked.  

"Robert Frost wrote clear, clean poems," I whimpered. 

"How do you know what he did in private?" he said.

Sweet man.  Smart man.

So...what do you do in private?  Write poetry?  

Perfect--because it's time for a

WRITING WORKOUT!
Today we're writing Apostrophe Poems

I name things.  Do you?  My car is Mortimer, my bike is Neon Leon.  I talk to them, too.   When poets talk to things that can’t answer, they are writing in the voice called apostrophe. In the poem above I talked to my first draft.  Do you talk your pet?  Write an apostrophe poem to your snake or your bike or the toaster or the moon.  And it doesn’t have to rhyme!

Then, brave ones, send us your poems.  Reassure me that I'm not the only one who talks to inanimate objects!

And always, write with joy!

poem and drawing c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

Becoming a "Finisher:" Using a Deadline to Silence the Inner Critic

Knowing I'd be one of the last TeachingAuthors to blog about first draft fears brought its own fears: would I have anything left to share that my brilliant co-bloggers hadn't already discussed? Jeanne Marie kicked off the series by sharing four specific ways she deals with her own tendency to be "a serial starter." Esther gave us a whole slew of ways to get to THE END, along with some inspiring quotes to tack up in our workspace. Joanne talked about her love of first drafts and her sneaky way of getting past her inner critic. And Mary Ann reminded us that first drafts are supposed to "stink." Having low expectations can be a great tool. :-)

I hope my co-bloogers' posts have already given you, our readers, encouragement and inspiration. However, I'm relieved to see that none of them shared one of my tricks for overcoming first draft fears:  A DEADLINE.

I've found that deadlines work best for me when there's some sort of associated accountability and/or consequences for not meeting them. One of the reasons I was so productive during my two years at Vermont College had to do with the monthly deadlines. I might never have finished Rosa, Sola without them. But out here in the real world, it's sometimes difficult to create deadlines with real sting. Fortunately for us novelists, there's a deadline-oriented opportunity just around the corner: National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Every November, writers around the world take on the challenge of completing a 50,000-word first draft in 30 days. NaNoWriMo isn't for everyone; last year I heard some negative buzz about it, everything from "no one can write anything good that way" to "real writers don't need gimmicks." Despite the negative hype, there have been a number of NaNoWriMo success stories, including bestselling novels that started as NaNoWriMo projects. One of the most recent is the adult novel The Night Circus (Doubleday) by Erin Morgenstern. The book was released less than a month ago (on September 13), and according to the NaNoWriMo blog of September 28, it had already made it to the New York Times bestseller list. The Night Circus has also garnered an impressive list of starred reviews, (you can read excerpts of those reviews on the book's Indiebound page) and has sold foreign rights to over 30 countries.

Morgenstern talks a little about her NaNoWriMo experience in an interview at Writers Unboxed, saying:

"I started doing National Novel Writing Month in 2003. I failed miserably that first attempt but reached 50k in 30 days the next year, and it became a really good exercise for me — writing without stopping to be overly self-critical and having the magical pressure of a deadline."

I'm not surprised Morgenstern was helped by NaNoWriMo--it offers lots of structure, feedback, support, and accountability via a website, forums, and live events. However, since November is a bad time for me, I've never actually participated. Instead, I created my own pseudo-NaNoWriMo events, first with a group of my fellow writers, and then later on my own. I blogged about those activities here before. They were key to my finally finishing my young adult historical novel last month.

By the way, if you're a picture book writer, there are some comparable events for you, such as Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo), which, like NaNoWriMo, takes place in November, and National Picture Book Writing Week (NaPiBoWriWee).

I don't have plans for any marathon writing sessions any time soon, but I continue to be inspired by weekly deadlines I set with my writing buddy. If you missed my post about that process, I encourage you to check it out here.

And be assured, this isn't our "final word" on the subject of silencing the inner critic. Last but not least, April will close out the topic on Friday. I'm looking forward to reading what she'll add to the discussion. If you have any tips to share, please post them as comments below or email them to us at: teachingauthors at gmail dot com.

Finally, I just found out that today is World Teacher's Day. Hurray for teachers everywhere!

Happy writing!
Carmela

First Drafts Stink So Just Do It.

     One of my big "Ah ha" moments in my never-ending quest of "learning to write," was reading Anne Lamott's book, Bird by Bird.  I know I have invoked Bird by Bird many times in this blog, but I can't help it.  When I am discouraged, bogged-down, or, as I mentioned in my last post, just plain "done" (as opposed to "finished") I call on Anne to get me out of whatever funk I am in.  Whatever it is, she's been there and done that a zillion times. Anne is a right-to-the-point kind of writer who isn't afraid to use four letter words and a little political rhetoric to get her ideas across. I know this bothers some people, so I mention it in recommending her book. If you skip past those occasional references, Anne is my right-hand-in-print-writing-guru.
    Anne was the one who gave me "permission" to write lousy first drafts (Anne uses a somewhat different word than lousy.) First drafts are for getting down the story, getting to know your characters and setting. When I sit down to a first draft, I don't agonize over word choices, character names or other details that don't come to mind immediately. Whatever doesn't come to mind immediately, I leave out by typing in XXXX. When I am revising, it alerts me that I know something is missing here, and hopefully, I now know what it is. If I still don't know, I leave it in until I do know. If that XXX is still around in the final draft it's usually a sign that I didn't need whatever it was in the first place.
    Unlike Jo Ann, I hate writing first drafts. Sometimes I feel like Moses wandering in the wilderness. Very often there are huge holes in my plot (like Jeanne Marie, plotting is my weakness). Right now I am going to break Esther's very sensible rule about not talking about what you are writing (the more time you spend time talking about it, the less energy you have to write it.) However, I am pushing my fiction envelope and writing a verse novel. For the record, I am not writing a verse novel because I am a poet ( I most definitely am not) or because verse novels are hot stuff right now. I just think it is the best and possibly the only way I can write this particular story, which is in three voices and so intense and occasionally gruesome, that it is too heavy to write as straight prose.
     The best thing about writing this first draft is that the verse format works really well with my particular way of writing. I don't write in sequence. I don't start with chapter one and then proceed to chapters two, three, etc. When I sit down to write, I write whatever is clearest in my mind that day. When I go back to write again, maybe I will continue with that scene, character, episode (pick one) or it sparks a chapter that I know will come before or after what I have already written. I don't worry where it will come. I just write. Backward, forwards, occasionally upside down (kidding). The only consistent thing is that whatever I think is going to be the last chapter, never is.
      When I go back for revision (the part of writing I love) I put my work into a preliminary order, sometimes shuffling chapter positions, but always discovering where there is a hole, or where I need a transition. Sometimes I find characters hanging around the edges of the story, not pulling their load. (They are fired.)
      This might not work for anyone but me. (I am ADD, and not the most organized person...at least not by organized person standards.) The point is to do what it takes to get out that first draft. This morning I've been writing a poem that I have no idea where it is going to fit in the book's trajectory. Maybe it will get the old heave ho in the final draft. But for right now, I feel pretty good about it. (I actually got the idea sitting in the skating rink parking lot last week, and wrote the notes for it on the deposit slips of my checkbook..I didn't have any paper.) I have also written on McDonald's napkins, air-sickness bags (empty ones) and of course, the writer's notebook I sometimes remember to carry with me. Right now I have two full notebooks, plus napkins, church bulletins, playbills and Wal-Mart receipts that I am transcribing into a first draft.
     I hate gathering all this stuff together (this is the first book I've ever written by hand first), but unless I want to lose some deathless piece of genius written on the back of a hockey schedule, I have to (excuse me Nike) just do it. 
    One more thing. Don't think too hard this first time around. Thinking turns into premature self-criticism which results in no drafts, first, second or final.
    Today I will remember to take my notebook to the skating rink.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

Announcing the Winner of Our Planet Middle School Book Giveaway!

~
Congratulations to Sandy Brehl, the winner of our latest TeachingAuthors book giveaway! Sandy will receive an autographed copy of Nikki Grime's book Planet Middle School (hot off the press!)

Enjoy your prize, Sandy! Thanks again to Nikki (read her interview here), thanks to everyone who entered the contest and especially to those who gave us suggestions on what you'd like to see more of in this blog.We're always open to hear what our readers' favorite kinds of posts are ~

Watch for more book giveaways coming up! ... and now, read JoAnn's terrific post on first drafts and early risers...