#SOL2015 17/31 – Building Habits but breaking them

I love this month long writing. I realize how much it gives me. There is so much that happens to a writer in a month of daily writing.

I am building

• stamina – I can sit and write easily each day
• patiences – I know if I wait there is an idea waiting each day to write about
• creativity – I am pushing each day to look at new ways to present ideas or just reading others to help me learn
• trust – I am trusting in my skills to be able to write a short piece that others might like to read – or at least I enjoy writing
• cognitive strength – I am working my brain each day to string words together in a way that makes sense but also reflects my thinking and experiences
• a writing habit – I feel the need to write each day – it builds the more I write

I am sure there is more that I am learning but there is one issue I have with this month long writing fest. I have become good at writing short pieces. I am feeling confident about finding a slice of life I can write about daily. I use to get to this point and be writing the slice that says I don’t know what to write. I have not found that true this year. This year for the first time I always have several ideas to write from. Writing be gets writing! So what is the issue?

It is the short write – I am struggling to write a story, a non fiction piece, anything that is more that 300 to 800 words. I seem to have mastered the art of short writing but can’t get out of it. This is what I taught my students. They were young and getting a few pages from them was a wonder. They and I mastered the art of writing short pieces.

These short pieces work well for blog posts, or magazine articles and papers for teachers. The problem now is that is my habit. A good habit but one I need to let rest or at least keep to the side.

I need to focus on how to research for information and then move it into story. O.K. – I actual know the how but the doing is another thing. I feel like a need a teacher guiding me through the steps I guided my students through. The structure and accountability of working towards a long piece of writing is what I am lacking. The Slice of Life gives me that accountability for a quick write. I feel the need to write because I told a community of people I would.

Funny how I have a hard time being accountable to myself. This is where I wonder about a local writing group and how it can help someone move forward, to stay with a task and to find the order in which to work. Although in my case I seems to be seeking an actual teacher who pushes, no really a teacher of shoves me along. (sorry the word push just seemed to gentle and I think I need a bit more of a shove.)

For now that teacher will need to be my calendar and myself. I need to set up dates for pushing my writing and research to a new level. Maybe using the old lesson plans of a research project I used with my students could help me. It could provide a frame work for learning/doing the steps of a research paper for myself. Then I can take that paper and move it into a story form.

Hmm – I wonder if this will work for me?  I will let you know

Research, non- fiction paper, to fiction story – lets see what happens.

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Thanks for listening to my personal brainstorm. I am finding these slices this year to be more of a personal writing journal to explore my own thinking. The last few years were more a reflection on teaching and children. I guess that is what happens when you are not in the classroom daily. My thoughts move to a more personal level, exploring how to be a writer instead of how to teach writing. Interesting!  They can be the same and yet very different I think – teaching writing and writing.