Saturday, June 20, 2015

Persevering through Writer's Block

   
Today I have writer's block.  I have no idea what to blog about.  I'm day seven into the blog challenge, and I'm at a loss for words.  I have a list of topics that I can write from, but nothing is speaking to me.  All I really want to write about is how I don't know what to write.
     When I was a classroom teacher, I always had my students spend the first 15 minutes of class writing in their journals.  I has a laundry list of ideas for them to write about on the wall including: 1) what they did over the weekend, 2) the most unusual food they ate, 3) the biggest surprise they ever got etc.  And just like I'm experiencing now, my students would tell me, "Ms. Swi, I don't know what to write about!"  And my response would be, "Then write about that.  Write about how you don't know what to write, why you don't know what to write, and what would inspire you to write."  Usually their entries would look something like this....

"I don't know what to write.  I don't know what to write.   I don't know why I don't know what to write, I just don't know what to write.  Nothing would inspire me.  Why are you making me do this???"

And right now, that is how I'm feeling!  So, I'll give myself my response that I would give to them:
     "I know how you feel.  I've been there.  But by writing the five sentences you just wrote you got to practice.  You reinforced your writing skills of spelling and sentence structure.  You voiced your feelings.  You explored what the point of this 15 minute exercise is all about.  You got through a rough patch.  You persevered.  I'm proud of you!"

Yes, I got through this!  I persevered and I'm proud of myself!

1 comment:

  1. High five! Looks like we had similar challenges today! :D

    ReplyDelete

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