How to raise a good writer



The true alchemists do not change lead into gold;
they change the world into words. ~ William H. Gass

This is my tried and true approach to raising a good writer.

1. Make words a fun, happy, safe, communal thing in your home. Play with words (knock-knock jokes, Mad Libs, magnetic poetry, any of dozens of genuinely fun, noninstructional card and board games, etc.). Point out clever phrasing when you notice it. Read great (fun!) novels and interesting (fun!) reference books together. Talk about how ads in magazines and signs on businesses are worded and why it might or might not generate any business. Laugh together over words and about words.
   
2. Love words yourself and let it show.
   
3. Fill your home with paper, notebooks, a large variety of pens and pencils, computers with word-processing software and access to the Internet. These are toys for writers! A trip to the office-supply store is bliss.
   
4. Learn to distinguish between writing (content), handwriting, and adherence to rules for spelling and grammar. They are very different things, and a person can be great at any one of them without having any special talent for the others. Also, real writers have keyboards and editors; your child can rely on that, or get through life with spell-checkers and grammar-checkers like most of the known universe.
   
5. Never, ever, ever point out spelling or grammatical errors in a young person's writing. Some people's passion for writing will stand up to this kind of abuse, but it shouldn't have to. Keep in mind that using creative spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure is a natural phase of early writing. Most of us do eventually learn where the period goes and that "cat" is spelled with a "c." Trust.
   
   And meanwhile, focus on content. Share your natural enthusiasm for that, and be cognizant of the fact that by sharing his writing with you, your child is bestowing an honor. Appreciate it!
   
   Note: There is one time when it's okay to offer yourself up as proofreader and that's when your kid is submitting his writing for consideration in order to meet his own goal: winning a prize, getting published, gaining admittance to college, things like that. Otherwise, wait to be asked.
   
6. Protect your child's creativity from writing curricula and well-meaning friends and relatives. The approved essay format, with its rigid structure and counted sentences and paragraphs, can stifle creativity. And Aunt Martha's kindly meant comments to your seven-year-old about subject-verb agreement might serve only to dampen a budding writer's joy in all that is wondrous about writing. Step up and step in, if for no other reason than to show your child that she has choices.
   
7. Respect every writer's privacy. The things your child writes are his to share or not share as he chooses. In the absence of an invitation—and, no, that paper or journal left in plain sight is not an invitation—do what you have to do to control your urge to peek.
   
8. After creating a home where writing is valued and considered fun, check to see if your kid is a writer right now. She might not be, and that's okay! If she is, you will know it; writers write and nobody has to make us do it.
   
   If she isn't, repeat steps 1 through 7, not with the goal of making her into a writer but because words are a playground you can enjoy as a family.

Writing time

The bulk of yesterday's blog post poured out of me while I was doing my Morning Pages. A couple of days last week, my Morning Pages became work on my God-like novel (it's omnipresent, and believing that it exists takes an act of faith). A new character appeared there, quite out of the blue, as if she had walked onto my notebook determined to introduce herself.

I enjoyed Morning Pages from the get-go, but it is only now, after several weeks of doing them, that I begin to see why they are part of The Artist's Way. They are unlocking my creativity and, more importantly, giving me time every day when I have pen and paper in hand and am ready to receive it.

Thursday 13

Thirteen Things I'm Glad I Own (or share ownership in) We have some friends who are gearing up to set sail on their catamaran, the s/v Don Quixote. They've been purging belongings, in stages, for several months, realizing with each purge that the things they found essential last time are just not. I lack their perspective. I have many, many essential belongings. Here are 13 of the most essential. My MEBs. 1. My books. I am not one of those people who can read a book and call it done. No sirree, Bob. I read decent books at least twice, and I read good books... well, I haven't found a limit yet. 2. Ten thousand photos. They're jumbled, stacked, piled, stuffed, tucked away, saved to disc, boxed up, packed up, scattered about, and even occasionally framed or put into albums, and every one of them is precious. Especially photos of my babies! (at any age) 3. My bed. Our bed. The marriage bed. Haven, heaven, honeymoon, home. This is where I sleep, enjoy my books, read with my kids, talk with my kids, snuggle with my kids, sleep with my kids (rarely these days), contemplate the universe, and, above all, revel in and renew the force and solace and source that is my precious marriage to Frank. Plus our new bed is damned pretty. 4. The Super Toilet. Yes, it's sheer indulgence. Yes, it was too expensive. But oh how I love our Toto Washlet! Try sitting down on a heated toilet seat in the middle of a cold January night, just once, and then tell me it isn't an essential item! (And our friends like it, too!) 5. The computer. As a kid, with a dad in the industry, I had the privilege of playing with one of the first personal computers ever. I've been hooked ever since and now can't imagine life without one. This is where I WRITE, people! 5b. The wrist brace that lets me use the computer without agony. 6. Our video entertainment paraphernalia. Compared to the more video-oriented members of my family, I barely watch any TV at all, but our TVs and players and library of movies are cherished possessions nonetheless. We have movies to suit any mood, and having them *right there* when I need them is a pleasure. 7. My eyeglasses. The trees have leaves. My daughters have eyelashes. I can proofread billboards. I can see the computer screen without squinting or leaning waaaay forward. My eyeglasses are a wondrous thing. 8. My Crocs. Actually, all my shoes. But especially my Crocs. Hmm, it's about time for a new pair... 9. Certain treasured items of clothing. My Seahawks jersey, my Firefly t-shirt, my LIFE is Good t-shirt, my ancient but comfortably oversized "Windows 2000 Resource Kit" button-down shirt, my plush and racy-red bathrobe that Frank bought for me. Wearing these items never fails to make me feel good. Comfort clothes. 10. Our Sonicare toothbrush. I haven't had a cavity since we went sonic years and years ago. (knock wood) (yes, I know an atheist shouldn't be so superstitious, but I am ever All About the Contradictions) 11. The washer, dryer, dishwasher, microwave, and refrigerator. I lived on a boat without these for a while. (No, the boat refer does not count.) I appreciate them very much now. Very much. 12. The stuff in my hopechest. Mementos, letters, dried wedding flowers, newspaper clippings, baby clothes. It's our accumulative time capsule. 13. The jewelry Frank has given me over the years. Especially my wedding ring. This was one of the easiest TTs I've done. :-) Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Prattle

INTRANSITIVE VERB: To talk or chatter idly or meaninglessly; babble or prate.

When I was in high school, my friends and I—A and B students all—would spend our class time writing multiple-page notes to each other. Since our lives were really not very exciting (however dramatic we found them at the time), there tended to be a lot of passages in these notes that lamented the slow passage of time til the end of the period. "Well, there are 20 minutes of class left now... Well, there are 15 minutes of class left now..."

For twelve pages.

Not very scintillating stuff, and yet we all loved writing and receiving those notes. We were addicted to the writing—full of doodles and hand-lettered fonts and lots of talk of crawlstrokes (our code word for guys' behinds)—and we thrived on that constant connection to each other.

Nowadays for me, there's blogging. I'm hooked. And sometimes I want to blog so badly that I'm tempted to get online and tell you all how many minutes until my next meeting at work or until the clothes can come out of the dryer.

I'll spare you.

But it's been interesting to watch my daughters develop their own outlets for communication. Through blogging, fanfiction, e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging, and MySpace profiles, bulletins, and photo comments, they stretch their creative wings and savor that same feeling of constant connection to their friends. I am lucky enough to get glimpses of this content now and then, just as my mother probably came across the occasional note left in a pocket, but it's not really for me.

And it's not really about the content (although theirs is pretty damned good). It's about that connection. Anyone who can look at what they produce and see "a waste of time" is missing the point.

NaNoWriMo results

Well, another year of NaNoWriMo is complete. Here are our results:

3. Ronnie — I wrote less than 1800 words, but I might have gotten as much out of having one deadline I could blow off as I would have had I finished. :-)

2. MJ — Her wordcount is 37,000+ and climbing. She didn't actually start writing until the 8th or so, so she still has a good shot at doing 50,000 in 30 days.

1. Chloe — Goal reached! She got way behind—so much so that I certainly thought she sh/would simply give up. Instead, she started fresh, dug in her heels, and cranked out some words, baby! She was surprised to find herself starting her last chapter two days ago, still a bit shy of her wordcount. So, she's including in her total wordcount the 5,000 words she put in on her first attempt at the beginning of the month. Seems fair to me.

And a note about responsibility
One of the oft-heard criticisms of unschooling is that our kids will never learn responsibility if they are never expected to do anything. To that, I simply say, "Ppppbbbbbllllttt!"

"Neat"

Here's an entertaining blog for my fellow wordsmiths:

The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks

A new Favorite for you

MJ has started blogging!

http://www.awesomerandomosity.blogspot.com/

I've added a link to this and many other Favorites in the updated sidebar at right. And in other blog news, I've added a new label: non-con. Now LIFE is Good and Non-Con posts are separately grouped. Grouped separately? You know what I mean.

What I want to write

I'm home with my cold today, sniffling and coughing in private. This means I could be working on my NaNoWriMo novel. Instead, in true champion procrastinator form, I'm posting to my blog.

Part of the problem is that I don't know what I want to write. Chris Baty says, "No Plot? No Problem!" and his kickoff e-mail certainly has me tempted to indulge my inner goofball. But there are a couple of dusty works in progress that I should work on instead.

Aha! Did you see what I said?! I said "should." I owe myself a quarter.

And I think I just unblocked myself. Bye!

NaNoWriMo starts TOMORROW!

Greetings, potential writing buddies!

Are you ready? Well, you'd better be, because the NaNoWriMo fun starts tomorrow!!

If you want to add us as your writing buddies, go here:
Ronnie - hmsdragonfly - http://www.nanowrimo.org/user/203795
Chloe - C.B.Pierce - http://www.nanowrimo.org/user/201352
MJ - coming soon! Check back later.

Still debating? Here's an excerpt from founder Chris Baty's kickoff e-mail. It might just bump you over into Yes.

For those of you who are new to NaNo, I want to quickly run through the noveling schedule for the month ahead.

Step 1: Keep reading this email; learn the secret of NaNoWriMo.
Step 2: Wait for 12:01 AM local time on November 1.
Step 3: Write a novel.

No problem.

Okay, back to Step 1. The secret of NaNoWriMo. Which is this: There is a door in your brain. The door has been there your whole life. You may not have noticed it before because it blends in with everything else in your brain. Weird art. Mismatched furniture. Squishy gray bits clinging to everything.

So what does this door have to do with your novel?

Your job this month is not so much writing a book (which is intimidating) as it is finding that door (which is easy). It's easy because you'll have guides in November who will take you right to it.

These guides are also known as your characters. They're kind of an abstract notion now, but you'll meet them in all their glory in Week One of NaNoWriMo. They'll be a strange lot. Insecure warlocks. Stamp-collecting squirrels. Teenage detectives. Whoever shows up, go with them. And go quickly. You may have a general sense of where you're going together; you may not. It doesn’t matter. Just write your allotment of 1667 words (or more) on November 1. Don't edit any of it. Editing is for December. Then come back and write another 1667 words the next day. And the next. And the next.

By Week Two, you'll be at the door. A few words later, you'll be through it. You'll know you're there because the writing will feel different. Less like work, and more like watching a gloriously imperfect movie with cringe-worthy dialogue, heaps of confusing tangents, and moments of brilliance so delightful that you'll want to scream. Once you've stepped through that door into the vast reaches of your imagination, you'll be able to return there as often as you like. It's an enchanted, intoxicating place, and there are other great things besides novels in there.

Writing for success

I flattened my deadline at work and rolled right into the next project. Ah, the exciting life of a tech writer....

"The next project" is a couple of articles for the Web. I really enjoy writing these, since the product they are for is not documented well and we have never been given time to fix that. These articles help to fill some of the gaps. If you're really short on stuff to do, you can read the "Inventory Management Series" on the Web site that I maintain.

Write of passage

Chloe completed her novel—more than 50,000 words in less than 30 days—about a week ago. She was very pleased and still wears the pride in her own accomplishment gaily. We had a little quickie party to celebrate, complete with champagne—the good stuff!

MJ wanted to know why we hadn't had a party when she finished her novel. Our answer was rather unsatisfactory ("Umm, because we didn't think of it...?"), so we now owe MJ one quickie party.

Both girls and I are still planning to take part in the official National Novel Writing Month starting next week. Join us!

Home alone

While Frank and MJ were gone, Chloe and I had a pretty idyllic stretch of mom-and-daughter time. I was (and am) working a LOT, but we still connected to a delightful degree. When I got home from work in the evenings, we both made a point of settling down to be together. It was great!

She made good use of her days at home alone. She is still working on her NaNoWriMo practice swing and put in some 5000-word days last week. Her total wordcount now is up over 44,000, with four days remaining in her 30.

I made good use of my days, too, putting in a whopping 65 hours of work last week. But enough of that! I'll still have some OT this week, but nothing like that.

One of our bonding experiences was reading Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me aloud together. We LOVED this book, although Chloe—being firmly in writer mode—did perfectly anticipate many of the best jokes.

What unschooling looked like today

I'm a little late with my mid-month look at unschooling...

We had a lazy morning, with MJ the only one to do much more than lounge and read. She listened to music, spent some time writing in her journal, and hung out on MySpace for a while. Later, Frank and I watched the Seahawks. Chloe—who has cycled back into a swing-shift sort of schedule after several camp-inspired weeks as a day-tripper—finally appeared and fixed herself some breakfast. She ate, then settled down with her laptop. She is doing a practice run at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), getting herself psyched up for their November sprint. (The goal is to write 50,000 words in those 30 days, and the reward is satisfaction and a certificate that says you did it.)

At 2:30, we tore ourselves away from the game to head down to Seattle (listening to radio coverage of the game all the way, of course). We went to Matthews Park on Lake Washington where we helped our friend Aeron celebrate her 7th birthday. We met several new kids and adults, frosted cupcakes, did some arts and crafts, destroyed a piñata (way to go, MJ!), blew bubbles, and tormented the local wildlife, then some of us settled down to chat and listen to Frank play guitar. The rest played at the playground.

From there, we headed up to Capitol Hill to the Baptist church where Frank plays volleyball every Sunday night. We were early, so we stopped in at Tacos Guaymas for a bite to eat. I introduced MJ to their little open-faced tacos—a great excuse for eating pico de gallo—and MJ introduced us to horchata, a sweet, milky beverage made from rice and flavored with cinnamon. We mostly preferred Frank's Jarritos Mandarina, but it was fun to try something new.

At the church, the girls and I settled in to entertain ourselves while Frank played v-ball. MJ plays there sometimes, but she elected to protect her nose today, so the three of us alternated between watching the action and hanging out in the rec room. I listened to a book on CD briefly, then kept Chloe company while she made some Halloween art. We fiddled on the piano. MJ listened to her iPod.

Then one of the regulars (a church member) suggested we go try out the bowling alley. Turns out the church has its own, two old-fashioned lanes where human hands have to do a lot of the resetting of pins. This was a fascinating experience, and a lot of hard work! The "pit" at the end of the lane was surprisingly spacious once we'd crawled under the (nonfunctioning) pin setter. There's a long, elevated bench back there where the pin boys can sit, taking care to keep their feet out of the way of flying pins, and there's a nifty force-of-gravity ball-return ramp that was fun to play with. (ZP bonus: a fascinating article about bowling that mentions pin boys and one just about pin boys)

We finished up the evening back in the rec room having some carrot cake and chatting with the players. They're a friendly bunch and only ribbed MJ a little about her nose ring.

Now, we're settled in back at home, spread to the four corners of the house. Frank is watching TV in the basement, MJ is going through her photo collection in her room, Chloe is back at work on her novel in the homeschool room (formerly our diningroom), and I'm upstairs blogging.

I'm supposed to do an academic translation of our day now, but I'm tuckered out and not feeling very interested in that. Maybe my readers would like to help me out by taking a stab at it in the comments...?

Work items

Some terribly exciting additions to my work portfolio:

Using matrix items
August newsletter for RMS: The Register