Thank you letters – the post-Christmas commitment on small sheets of notepaper.
Not understanding what other girls did to have their writing praised.
Writing and rejection – short stories that were just too weird.
In many writing workshops over the last twenty years or so, we have asked participants to think of some highlights from their lives as writers. You may have been at one of those workshops. We hand out sticky notes and ask people to write a different memory of writing on each one. We usually ask writers to add their age at the time of the memory, though that isn’t compulsory. We are going to share what we write with others. We suggest areas that you might think about: learning to write; teachers’ influences; the most important pieces of writing you have written; writing at home and away; the travel blog and the letter to an unborn child; the highs and lows; letters and e-mails; writing as the start of something and sometimes its ending; writing for the family, the personal, the academic; the all-important notebook and the momentous graduation to a handwriting pen.
When we share our writing we find that there are always things we have in common and reminders of things we had not thought of. Always there are memories which are the unique and intriguing. In the individual and the collective we find the beginnings of our selves as writers and the experiences which shape us as writing teachers.
The power and pleasure that came from the one thousand word limit.
Writing reports – scrumpling and rewriting and blotting and rewriting.
Writing daily about teaching and the classroom. The revelation of it.
At this point in the summer, as you settle into yourself, as you may already be looking towards the new autumn term, perhaps you could take a moment to reflect on our own history as a writer.
Note down some memories; five to eight would be a good start, more if you want. Perhaps you could draw a timeline. Live with it. More memories will come. When we are writing in a group, we often choose one incident to write about in more detail -you could do that. Or you could add to your headline memories: a potted history of your writing life gathered in brief moments. As we push for more elusive memories, we build a fuller picture. It has a bearing on how we write and how we teach.
Writing into friendship and romance across an ocean.
Reading a poem aloud and listening as others talk about it.
Shaping the SED – writing that hits the buttons and uses the language.
Observing and writing about a classroom – shaping the words to make it live again.
It is good to write your history alone – you have time and space. It is good to write your history amongst others. The talk that weaves between the writing brings different perspectives. It helps us see ourselves and to see the possibilities for our classrooms. More than ever these days, we need the strength of shared understandings. We need to know that we are not the only ones who are listening to those we teach and placing them at the centre. We need to know that we have deep understandings of writing and the confidence to share those understandings.
With that in mind, thank you, to all group leaders, who have kept on writing with others throughout the last few hard years, and a special hurrah, for the Whodunnit Group, who will be meeting, face to face, in London, next Tuesday. Do get in touch if you would like to join them.
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