How to be free
Been a While
First, I have to apologize for anybody out there in the void actually reading this thing. Once August hit, I got a huge burst of stress from the approaching school year. This, combined with my last-ditch efforts to enjoy my summer and my children, led to me not having posted on here in just over a month. I recently finished my second week of the school year with my new class. Plus, my oldest son is now two weeks into Kindergarten. Tomorrow, my three-year-old daughter starts dance class, and my eighteen-month-old boy is learning and growing every day.
So, I’m sorry it’s been so long. I am doing things to get myself closer to my first published piece, slowly but surely.
Freewriting
The topic I wanted to put down today is about how let go, turn off that annoying “Censor” voice in your head, and write freely. It is something I do with my students every year. In fact, this class I have this year seems to be pretty good. Only maybe two students seemed to have trouble “just writing” but I’m working with them.
So, if you are not aware of the term “freewriting,” it basically means you are writing, usually for a given period of time (I gave my students two minutes at first), without any rules except to not stop.
In fact, I did the old “Fight Club” thing and said the first rule of freewriting is “don’t stop.” And the second rule of freewriting is “don’t stop.” I doubt they got the reference, but still…
So, I tell my students that this means that if they can’t think of anything to write, they should literally write “I don’t know what to write…I don’t know what to write…this is dumb….” or something like that. They usually laugh at that, and oddly, very few of them actually write that sort of thing. The idea is that once they begin to write nothing, “something” will pop out of nowhere without them trying.
I also tell my students they should not erase anything or worry in any way about spelling, grammar, handwriting, and clarity. In fact, what they write may not be looked at by anyone ever again, including themselves. If they want to change a word, they can cross out the old one quickly, then move on.
While they write, I am demonstrating the skill while walking around and watching them. My already messy handwriting is made worse by rushing and by not looking at the paper. But they need to see that this is something I want to do and enjoy in order to get my thoughts out of my head.
Benefits in Confidence
The biggest challenge to teaching students how to write, or even for myself as a writer, is that horrible voice in the head, saying what you’re doing is garbage. This voice says that it’s not worth writing anything down until it’s something amazing.
Imagine a young child never picking up a crayon until he “magically” became as talented as Picasso or da Vinci! Do people honestly think masters or art, music, or writing were born that way? That they came out of the womb with a perfected manuscript or painting in hand?
Why is it that with writing, my students have such little confidence and think it is such a chore? I think back to my childhood, writing my own detective and superhero stories on a computer while my parents worked. It was something fun to do, for myself, with no pressure. Why is that not part of everyone’s childhood? Where did this innocence go?
I guess that’s a big part of my job as a teacher, to give this feeling of confidence back to these students who may, in fact, have never had it
I had a small glimmer of this from one student, who on the second day of freewriting, came up to me with her journal. She showed me how much more she had written the second day than the first day. It had nothing to do with her spelling, or how “good” it was. It was only important that she stuck it out for longer the second day. And that’s really how any great work is found. Stick with it, day by day, and you’ll eventually notice how much you’ve improved. We can’t see the forest for the trees until we’ve moved on to another place.
