How Writing is Like Setting Up a First Grade Classroom

I haven't been able to write for a couple of weeks now because my daughter, a first grade teacher, got "surplused" (it may not be in the dictionary, but Utah teachers know the term) just 3 and a half weeks into the school year. To be brief, it meant there was one too many teachers at her school and not enough at another, so... since she was the last hired, she got shifted.

That meant another trip to Utah to help her set up her classroom for the second time. I've now helped set up three different classrooms and I began to see certain parallels between this process and the process of writing.

First, in this day and age, much as you may like to write by hand, in the end you can't avoid the technical. Manuscripts must be typed in the end and most submissions are now done online or by email. School is no different. Even though these are only First Graders, this was a Title 1 school and so one whole wall was devoted to computers.

You can't see it from here, but that's a Math bulletin board above the computers. While writers tend toward right brain activities, we can't neglect the business side of our profession if we want to be successful. We have to count sales, deal with sales tax, etc.

Happily, though, our main concern is with words. And words are most important to First Graders as they are trying to master reading and writing. This bulletin board or Word Wall at the back reminded me of my need to avoid repetition of certain words and, instead, search for new ways to express common ideas.

But we don't ask these young kids to read without also encouraging them to take their first real steps in writing. My daughter's classroom has a theme of "Sailing Toward Knowledge," and like these inexperienced first graders, we can sometimes feel "Under the Sea" when it comes to taking our pencils or keyboards in hand and pounding out that first draft.

I might point out, as well, the names of the months above the entire back bulletin board--a reminder that we must write day in and day out, week after week, and month after month if we expect to get better at our craft.

Next is our continual need for resources and research material. She has a whole side of her room devoted to math manipulatives, books, and other educational tools. Likewise, we writers need ready access to the kinds of resources that will enhance our finished product...beginning with a good dictionary and grammar book.

At the same time, both writers and teachers need to establish certain boundaries or rules for themselves and those with whom they are engaged. A teacher needs to outline class rules and consequences for misbehavior, as well as inspire both the children and herself/himself. A writer needs to outline his/her own rules (such as no social media until your writing is done for the day) both for self and loved ones who may share the same roof. After all, though both occupations can be time consuming, teaching or writing is not, in the end, the sole purpose of our existence.

I interview other writers a lot for my own blog and I invariably ask about their "writing space." I'm always intrigued to know what works for other writers and what it may reveal about them. For me, I need some kind of view, something that sends my mind beyond myself. In the same way, First Grade teachers need to set up a happy, colorful environment that will pull in these young minds.

Neither of these women is my daughter. The one on the right is her full-time aide, though...another benefit of a Title 1 school. Sometimes, as a writer, I wish I had a full-time aide and that's where critique groups and writing groups come in. They can help us see the weak links in our work and inspire us to forge ahead. We like to think of our profession as a solitary kind of occupation, but I think we all relish the opportunity we get at writers conferences and retreats to mingle with other like-minded individuals. In the same way, teachers now work as teams more often than not. And my daughter has a terrific team.

In the end, though, it's you facing a blank screen and making a decision about what to put on it. You've got all the letters, numbers, words, and ideas running around in your head. But which ones will you use and when and how?

That's where a clean, orderly work station comes in. Granted, every few months or so I find I have to reorganize and clear away the clutter, but I always write better (and I'm sure teachers always teach better) when the "house" is in order.

When all else fails, turn to a good book. You can't write well if you don't read a lot. And there are times (like after you've just finished one manuscript) when you need to relax and hibernate a bit. Do it with a good book or two. Teachers do the same thing. If a lesson has failed that day, First Grade teachers can always count on an entertaining read to pull the kids' attention back and make everyone (especially the teacher) feel better. "Piggie Pie" will do it every time!

Finally, one thing continues to provide the necessary fuel, whether I'm writing or helping to set up a classroom: chocolate. Let's just say I ate a lot of M&Ms this past week. :D

The Love is Gone

I need to preface this post by saying that I love my romance writing friends. Many of them own their craft, and write compelling works full of engaging characters and dynamic plots. You are awesome. You know who you are.

But personally. . . I’m over it. Maybe I am getting old, or I’ve reached some kind of personality crisis, but I can’t stand romance in the books I read. I’ve never been the sort of girl that looked for romance in my life, I’m too practical for that, but as a teenager and a twenty something I could lose myself quite easily in the make believe love story on the page. I loved a well written scene of the tension built by anticipation, the sentimental descriptions of that first kiss after chapters of waiting. Not anymore. Now when we get to the mushy love stuff, I skim. I sound like the Savage kid from the Princess Bride, “Do we have to read the kissing part?! Skip on to the fire-swamp; that sounded good.”

I recently started reading a YA Steampunk series which shall remain nameless. It had all manner of potential. It was intriguing and visceral. Lots of action and mystery, and then what happens? The second book in the series becomes this endless string of internal he-loves-me, he-loves-me-nots. Teenagers getting all twitter-pated over each other, adults navigating the waters of a new relationship just doesn’t have the pull and the thrill for me that it used to. And when I come across it, I see it as an obstacle to what I really want to be reading, the plot.

So I guess this is my plea: fellow writers, please don’t tease me with amazing, intriguing plot and then make me spend the middle books of your series slogging through some romantic drivel that doesn’t move the story forward. I understand that relationships between characters are important. I get that sometimes they fall in love. But the kissing, do we have to hear about it all the time? And how many times can two people really be excited about proximity to each other? After a bit it should be normal, not worthy of six sentences of description that I have to graze over once a chapter.

I recognize that this is partly my fault for picking up YA books. Yes, the target audience is hormone saturated teenagers, but even they will admit that the best parts are the humor and the action. And if I wanted the main plot line to be the mushy love stuff, I would have picked up a romance.

Perhaps this rant is brought to you by my becoming a fuddy-duddy, or perhaps it is that my first published story, Sense and Cyborgs, is a prime example of the kinds of stories I want to be reading. I know it can be done. I did it. Lots of action, interesting character dynamics, there’s even a bit of that mushy love stuff, but it never trips up the plot. It never draws you out of the bigger story. We can be the change we want to see in the literary world. I’m hoping my name will someday be synonymous with character driven books that don’t stop moving and never get caught in romantic mire. Until then, to each their own, and no romance for me.

Of all the books. . .

Our fearless leader has suggested that we spend this month’s blog post discussing our recent reading adventures. In years past I have been a voracious reader, consuming anywhere from 50-80 books a year. You can imagine with numbers like that there would be a fair few stinkers in that group, a hefty number of average reads, and a handful of delicious and worthy stories that I simply had to add to my bookshelves to be consumed again later. Unfortunately those numbers are things of days past. My Goodreads account is woefully inaccurate and neglected. But this last year has been a whirlwind of adjusting, stretching, and growing to meet the changing needs of my family and my career.

Yes, I can now say career because Xychler publishing has picked up a short story of mine for publication in their spring anthology (look for it April 30^th). I am an author!! It is the biggest baby step I have ever taken; putting myself out on the limbs where the published leap about. It feels effervescently good, and totally unnerving at the same time.

All this new territory, and I’m mostly talking about the changes in my family not my writing, has hampered my reading time. I’m lucky if I get through my book club selection every month. When I am unlucky I manage to find the time to pick up something I have been looking at for a while, only to find it lackluster at best. Of the last five books I’ve read, only two where worth their ink, and one of them was Charles Dicken’s, A Christmas Carol.  To own the truth, I think all the writing, reading about writing, learning about writing I have done in the last few years has made me a finicky reader.

It used to be that even when I found something that wasn’t great I could still read through it and embrace the bits that were good while acknowledging that it wasn’t high literature. Now if there are more than two typographical errors anywhere in the first five chapters I have to walk away. I am hyper aware of anything that feels stilted, muddle, or contrived, and more often than not I end up putting the books aside rather than getting angry at the authors for wasting the English language.

I genuinely hope that this is a phase, because I miss reading with that naïve bliss of just following the story where it takes me. Of course, there are a few benefits to my new palette. In my pickiness I am no longer spending time finishing books that just aren’t worth the read. And though this is a new phenomenon, I have found myself being more judicious about what I even pick up, what I put on my computer’s kindle app, what I suggest for my book club’s reading list. I’m not saying everything I read needs to be high literature, certainly what I write wouldn’t be considered such, but it does need to have worth. It needs to show awareness of its craft. It needs to have something to say.

I’m not sure that everything I write meets all or most of those qualifications, but I hope that my evolution as a reader will continue to bring those elements into focus with each new WIP. And maybe next time I pick up a tome to pass the time with I can say something better than, “Of all the books I’ve ever read, this was one of them.”

So what are y’all reading these days? Anything good?