The Writing Teacher – Maintaining a Writing Life

When consciously thinking of our health and possibly how much exercise we are getting we often think of incidental exercise - parking the car a little further from the office or grocery store, walking to the local shops instead of driving, digging out the bike from the garage... when thinking about creative pursuits though, it is evident that many do not have the same strategies for 'incidental writing,' or 'incidental art.' 

I have given some time to thinking about how I can be more tactical in ensuring I spend some time on creative pursuits that bring joy into my life.

1. Paper

Take a journal with you to jot down ideas. An A6 journal will fit into your pocket and so will a little pencil or pen. If you use a paper diary or organiser for work or life perhaps you could pop a few blank pages into the back and these will serve as your 'on the go' place to record ideas.

2. Notes (now, I mean, electronic Notes... don't you love how we name electronic things after their analogue variety?)

If you use Apple devices it is possible to set up a Notes page in your iPhone and attach it to cloud storage and this is when things get a lot easier. Linked Notes accounts allow almost instantaneous syncing between iPhone, iPad, and MacBook, etc. so regardless of what you are doing you can write down a quick note or continue to work on a piece you started at an earlier time. Your limerick will be across all devices before you have even had a chance to finish editing!

3. Shower Notes 

In a media rich world, quiet time to reflect is hard to come by. Many creatives state openly that inspiration comes to them whilst showering but it is not great for your notebook or smart phone to be smashing out ideas whilst dripping wet. My partner bought me Aqua Notes a few years ago and they wait patiently in the shower cubicle until genius strikes. Also handy for grocery lists.

4. Writing Goals

I set a personal challenge this year to write a poem a day (I am having varying degrees of success with this commitment). I figure that even if they are short or remain perpetually in draft form (very draughty draft form) it is still work that I would not have if I didn't set myself a challenge and hey, you can't edit a blank page.

5. Don't Make it into Work

I often set projects that soon become another thing on my to do list and instead of being a source of joy they become work. If time limits, word counts, and other such restrictions make your creative pursuits into work, leave them!

6. Morning Pages

Angela Cameron’s The Artist’s Way is a very well-known text that provides a range of ideas and provocations to nurture and revitalise your creative approach. One of these is Morning Pages – three A4 pages of writing first thing in the morning. I got my husband onto this bandwagon as well and each morning for several months we made cereal and began writing. After about 25 minutes our pages were done, we would file them in an envelope and continue getting ready for work. I attribute the ability to move through some very difficult situations in my life to the catharsis of Cameron’s Morning Pages. I need to tweak my morning routine somewhat to get them back into my life. 

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Writing Strategies for Stages 3 and 4

Corporate life has been quite a change after almost a decade in the classroom and it was quite a steep learning curve for a time. Now, after a year in the role I have learnt a great deal and I am sure this will continue as the role moves and changes to ensure better support for schools.

I have had the opportunity to develop some presentations for conferences and networks and of course with a great deal of presenting, I think I am more confident in delivering material. I worked with a colleague last year to develop a session on Writing Strategies which meant I could draw on strategies I have utilised with my own students but also, it gave me an opportunity to research the teaching of writing and I have uncovered many resources that will guide me when I return to the classroom.

Here is a copy of the Writing Strategies for Stages 3 and 4 slides, participant booklet, and the resources (also found in the participant booklet).

'Through the Woods' by Emily Carroll

Initially it seems like there are monsters lurking in every shadow throughout Emily Carroll’s graphic novel Through the Woods (2014) but in actuality, it is the human capacity to be monstrous that is the most thrilling aspect of this compilation of short stories. The tales begin as all scary stories do, with the possibility of a monster under the bed and the audience knows, by the end, that safety is not to be taken for granted. Carroll plays homage to well-known fairy tales such as ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ but her stories are not nostalgic forays into the delights of childhood, but instead are an amalgamation of gothic tropes and folklore. The stories are presented as a series of comics, with rosy cheeked characters who descend into darkness, the circles around their eyes growing with the turn of every page. Carroll’s gothic leanings are also evident in the faraway settings of forests, isolated farmhouses, lonely old manors, and deep caves harbouring all kinds of terrors. The stories included in Through the Woods range from orphaned children left to fend for themselves, jealous fratricide in the woods, and shapeshifting, supernatural beings. The tales are macabre and hark back to when fairy tales and folklore explored the darker side of humanity. 

'Through the Woods' will keep your heart in your throat and will appeal to those who find dark fairy tales so horrifyingly compelling. 

Here is the Book Trailer I made.

Check out Emily Carroll's website for more information.

Simon and Schuster

Playing With Poetry with A.F. Harrold

I went to the 'Playing With Poetry' session with A.F. Harrold at the Sydney Writers Festival last weekend and had a fabulous morning banging out some poetry in response to the provided prompts. The other joy, of course, was hearing the writing of the other attendees - one of whom was just 17 years old - what a talent!

I happily scooped the hours up for my Maintenance of Accreditation at Proficient (thank you SWF!) and thought some of the activities would be great in the classroom! If you see A.F. Harrold out and about in Australia - try to get your students to his workshops as he writes for young people and runs school workshops, in England.

Nursery Rhyme Lipograms
Writing an entire novel without the letter 'E' as Ernest Vincent Wright did with 'Gadsby,' would be quite a task, but a Nursery Rhyme? Way more feasible! Nursery Rhymes are not exactly common childhood fodder these days, so mind that not every student will be able to recall one - in the session we couldn't either so we did a quick brainstorm and shared ideas. Several of us ended up writing the same Nursery Rhyme but this was fun when it came to reading out our verse.  This got me thinking about why the Nursery Rhyme worked for this activity - they're short, have a simple rhyme scheme, and utilise techniques like repetition. Students could possibly use the chorus from a favourite song.

1. Choose a Nursery Rhyme.
2. Decide which letter or vowel could be removed. Encourage students to challenge themselves - if there is only one 'U' in the entire Nursery Rhyme, for example, well that's no fun!
3. Write the Nursery Rhyme - give students the option of sticking closely to the original in rhyme and rhythm or keep some aspects if possible.

The Proverbial 
Having fun with words can come from engaging with well known proverbs.

1. Choose a proverb.
2. Change one of the words.
3. Consider the impact of this change - perhaps laugh or consider the profoundness of the new 'proverb.'
4. Remember, don't put all of your enemies in the one basket.

'An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in...'
 An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in London is described as part documentary, part poetry, part catalogue recording the events of a weekend in Hackney. The focus of 'An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in London' is to capture the small details of the moment. Recording, memorialising, appreciating what we would probably not notice.

1. Choose a location for a 15-minute writing sprint.
2. Give students the option of writing free verse or perhaps begin with a list poem to locate students in the concrete detail before they move to abstraction. It maybe that they begin with a list, then edit with a focus on adding a simile and a metaphor or another rhetorical device.

The Story of a Button
The last activity in the workshop involved an object. We all closed our eyes and were handed an object. It was amazing just how much story was inspired by a little, tiny button.

1. To begin, hand each student a button. Ask them to consider how it feels, what it looks like, where it may have originated.
2. Zoom in on the button, describe it in one sentence.
3. Where is the button located? Move from concrete to the imagination. Write about what the button is attached to in three sentences.
4. Zoom out again, consider who is wearing the item or where the item is located. Write six sentences.

It was a fabulous morning all in all. It never ceases to amaze me how a blank page becomes a piece of creative work in just moments (first draft, obviously!). If you are interested in seeing A.F. Harrold's wonderful work, visit his website here.