Knowing When to Quit & Move On

by Pamela Ehrenberg

There's a character in Camus' novel The Plague who spends several hundred pages writing a novel.  He writes the first sentence . . . then writes the first sentence again . . .then writes the first sentence again.  Hundreds of pages later, he's still working on the first sentence of his novel.

Contrast this character with Gary Larson and Bill Watterson, who in 1995 each announced that they were retiring their popular comic strips The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes, respectively, both wanting to go out on top before their life's work became stale and predictable.

How do you know when it's the right time to quit writing something and move onto something new?  Here are some things that don't tend to serve as reliable barometers for me:

--length of the work

--length of time I've spent on it

--number of people whose feedback I've incorporated

--how hard the writing is, though this comes closer than the others

But if those measures don't work reliably, how do we teach students to listen to their intuition and say "when" on a particular project?

For some students, it's a matter of accepting writing as an imperfect medium: the story on the page might never live up to the story in their head, but it has the immutable advantage that it can now live in others' heads too.  The science fiction writer Holly Lisle says (in her One-Pass Manuscript Revision: http://hollylisle.com/one-pass-manuscript-revision-from-first-draft-to-last-in-one-cycle/):  "the definition of a writing career is: Write a book. Write another book. Write another book.  Nowhere in that description is included: Take one story and make it a monument to every idea you ever had or ever will."

With that in mind, I have two suggestions for how to help students say "when" on a project and move into something else:

1) Celebrating what they've accomplished, to help them say farewell to their former project in style.  Food helps--even Goldfish crackers and fancy grape juice can elevate a "sharing our work" session to a real celebration.  Published writers have book launch parties for lots of reasons, including selling books of course.  But book launch parties also feel something like graduation parties or bar mitzvah celebrations, marking a transition from a "before" to an "after."  They're all rites of passage, and food helps to emphasize the "rite."

2) And jumping right into the next project celebrates the "passage."  It's a fine line, of course: if students are too excited about whatever's coming next, there might be some who refuse to finish the current project at all--but with no inkling of what's on the horizon, some might be understandably reluctant to leave the comfort zone of their current work-in-progress.  Introducing just a hint of the next project around the edges of the current work can help students--and us, as teachers--to know when to say "when."

Personal Note:

On the topic of leaving one's comfort zone, I've had some big transitions this year as a writer and teacher of writing.  Now that my daughter is six and my son is about to turn three, I've gone back to full-time work in a non-teaching arena in order to support my writing (and family).  While I look forward to working with schools and presenting at conferences and workshops, I'm planning to shift my writing energies away from regular blogging in the coming months.  I have so much gratitude to my fellow bloggers for the opportunity to participate in Pencil Tips, and to all of the Pencil Tips readers who gave me something to participate in.  I look forward to continuing this learning and these relationships long after saying "when." I hope you will join me in welcoming Alison Hart, a teacher and author of over 20 books for children and teens who will be joining the Pencil Tips bloggers in six weeks. To learn more about Alison, please visit http://www.alisonhartbooks.com/

Best,

Pamela Ehrenberg 

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CRAFTING STORIES TOGETHER

by Pamela Ehrenberg

We're all social creatures—even, or maybe especially, writers.  I remember this each time I see the other Pencil Tips bloggers and a few dozen other "book people" at meetings of the

Children's Book Guild of Washington, DC.  The social hour at the beginning of each meeting looks something like a bee hive: dozens of authors, illustrators, and librarians, otherwise content to putter away on their own, are suddenly set free in a room buzzing with social energy, and we need to absorb enough to last through the coming weeks of solitary creation.

For young writers, various types of group story exercises can channel some of that social buzz, directing it in a way that's productive for writing and helping writers build enough trust to feel comfortable giving and receiving feedback.  Writopia workshops, with three to six participants each, use this form of the group story exercise to create fiction stories:

First, participants brainstorm several possible settings and several possible problems for the story, selecting one of each. Together, they flesh out the characters, making sure to choose the same number of characters as there are workshop participants.  They think through what each character looks like, what each character wants, and what the characters are likely to do to try to get what they want.  The students determine an outline of the plot, along with beginning and ending lines for each section—then each person writes a section of the story, from one character's point of view.

Hilarity often ensues.  Surprisingly strong writing often ensues too.  But most importantly, kids who didn't even know each other an hour earlier have now shared the intimate process of crafting a story—giving them courage to support each other as they move forward with their own work.

It can be a challenge for us as teachers, and writers, to break down our ideas of writing as a universally solitary activity.  But exercises like group story can help students get their first tastes of what it's like to be part of a writing community.  Now there's something worth buzzing about.

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ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS

by Pamela Ehrenberg

Last week I led a teen writing workshop in which participants--and the grownups who paid their registration--were promised that each writer would finish the workshop with a completed short story.  The experience of looking over their shoulders all week (literally and virtually, using the document-sharing feature of Google docs) has me thinking a lot about endings--and about the helpful piece that Jacqueline Jules wrote about endings this spring.

One writer in my group stared at her screen for long periods of time between sentences, without apparent frustration but also without adding much to her story some days.  Another writer began typing the minute she walked in the room, never stuck for ideas--but with each new character, nuance, and plot twist, I worried whether she would finish in time for the celebratory reading at the end of the workshop.

Teachers of reluctant writers face one set of challenges in helping their students complete a piece.  But teachers of dedicated, lifelong, even gifted writers face a different set of challenges.  These writers have so many ideas for their characters, and such high ideals for what they want to accomplish, that their story grows richer and more elaborate, in their mind or on the screen, without finding its way to an end. 

To help the group along, I found myself gaining inspiration not from famous writers or notable teachers, but rather from my friend Holly who recently helped me plan and implement a kitchen renovation.  We began by brainstorming from the big wide universe of possibilities, but to narrow down our ideas we had to look at what we could realistically accomplish in this particular space, on this particular budget, with this particular two-year-old living in the house.  Limitations forced us to make choices, and choices helped us to break past indecision toward a soon-to-be realized goal.

So, did those two students finish their stories?  I vote "yes," though both say they want to edit and polish more before their work appears in the workshop's online publication.  As I think of the blinds and seat cushions yet to arrive in the kitchen--but more importantly, as I think of my novels, especially the ones already published--I can identify with the urge to tinker just a little more, and a little more, off into the sunset.  But as another Holly, science fiction writer Holly Lisle , describes in her One-Pass Manuscript Revision, "Your career lies in writing a book, and writing another book, and writing a book after that. " For our students and for us, it's time to get finished so we can really get started.

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ENCOURAGING CRITIQUES

by Pamela Ehrenberg

"I liked it."

"It's good."

Or, if you're lucky, "It's funny."

Such well-meaning but unspecific and ultimately unhelpful comments can leave writers feel like no one really read their work after all; perhaps their friends and critique partners were just trying to be nice?  And writing teachers can feel equally frustrated when "critique sessions" are really just sharing sessions.  Surely there are ways to point out the strengths in students' writing, and encourage them to do more of what's working.

In my first creative writing class in college, we began each critique session by having each person in our 15-or-so-person workshop identify something positive in the piece of writing.  This worked well on a number of levels:

1) It helped us to become closer readers.  If you were one of the final people to comment, all of the obvious strengths had already been identified.  It forced us to read line by line, word by word, to find gems that the writer might not have recognized.  (Depending on the age of the students, the length of the work, and the size of the critique groups, teachers might try having each critiquer identify two strengths--no repeats!--before moving on to suggestions.)

2) It helped us to become kinder human beings.  Some people in the class wrote in genres I didn't usually read.  Not every piece in freshman creative writing (certainly nothing I submitted) was worthy of major awards.  But knowing that I would be called upon to identify something positive in this piece of writing shaped my development as a critique partner and writing instructor--not to mention commenter on other people's Facebook statuses and blog posts.

3) Of course, it encouraged us to keep writing.  Each writer heard 14 specific, positive things about his or her work before hearing even one suggestion for improvement.  That helped to foster an "I can do it!" attitude that made us (me) eager to work on the next piece.

4) And it helped us to become better writers.  Some of this was the "keep writing" effect described above.  Some was a greater willingness to address the critiquers' concerns and suggestions, fostered by the environment of trust.  And some was that the ubiquitous, specific positive feedback helped us tune in to our individual strengths--"They seem to like my dialogue!" "Those sensory details really worked!"--and build upon our successes.

How do you help students to encourage and support one another?  What successes and challenges have you encountered?  Let us know in the comments below!

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Twenty Percent Off

by Pamela Ehrenberg

In ninth grade, I had big puffy hair, braces, and stirrup pants.  I read Stephen King and Sweet Valley High, dissected a frog, and really dissected the nuances of youth group dances.  And I tried the 20 percent challenge.

Or was it the 30 percent challenge?  The actual number doesn't matter: the point is to shorten a piece of writing by some arbitrary percentage with the goal of making it tighter, making every word work 20 percent (or 30 percent or 15 percent) harder. 

The first time my teacher, Michael Bruner, assigned this challenge, he handed us a piece of writing from a former student and instructed us to shorten it by 20 percent.  That was much less intimidating; it's easy to be ruthless with somebody else's beloved adverbs and meandering descriptions.  Once we had the idea, it was easier to apply the strategy to our own writing, and soon we discovered the particular words and phrases that tended to creep in and weigh down our prose.

Writers coming of age in today's Twitterverse might grasp more instinctively than my generation the value of brevity.  But they'll still be surprised at how even a draft they thought was "finished" can still be trimmed by 20 percent--and how much stronger the resulting prose will appear.

Over the past twenty-five years, I have made progress toward taming the puffy hair, and I have expanded my reading repertoire.  But when I'm stuck on a revision and not sure how to improve a piece of writing, I still fall back on the 20 percent challenge.  Some things, thankfully, are more enduring than stirrup pants.

***Can you shorten this blog post by 20 percent?  Let us know in the comments below!

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Drop Everything and Write

by Pamela Ehrenberg

I fidget.  Put my feet on a chair.  Cross my legs.  Stretch.  Drink tea.  Realize that I'm slouching.  Fidget more.  And write.

Most of my students don't know this, but one group does: the ones from my "Lunchtime Writing Retreats" workshop.  In this experience, we all--students and instructor alike--commit to five or six one- to two-hour retreats where we spend most of our time working on our own individual writing projects.

What does it look like when a writer writes?  I shift back and forth between laptop, notepad, and printed-out draft.  I tap-tap-tap, word after word after word . . . then I stare at the screen, finding it too great an effort even to change a punctuation mark.

This isn't how I imagine it goes for Anne Tyler, or Bobbie Ann Mason, or Allegra Goodman.  I imagine my favorite writers unlocking their words with a magical key that allows everything to flow effortlessly on the page.  I know better, but I imagine anyway.  How do our students imagine it looks when a writer writes?

For years schools have had success with "Drop Everything and Read"--programs that acknowledge school might be the place in a student' s life that is most conducive to reading.  And reading in the company of other readers--seeing what it looks like when a reader reads--gives students the confidence to realize that maybe however they're going about it is OK after all.

How wonderful when we can make time as well for our students to write in each other's company--and in our company as well, and the company of other adults at school.  Perhaps the principal writes puns or the woman who lovingly serves lunch is also penning a murder mystery.  Maybe the same benefits of dropping everything to read--progress made, intimidation shattered--will hold true for your students as they do for mine.  If nothing else, the experience will shed light on what it looks like when a writer writes.  And I'm guessing that we'll like what we see.

*For more information about upcoming sessions of Lunchtime Writing Retreats in the DC/Baltimore area, visit http://www.writer.org/

  

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PENCIL TIPS WRITING WORKSHOP: RITUALS OF PREPARATION

by Pamela Ehrenberg

Begin.

A deep breath.  A certain chair.  A shift of music on an iPod.

For a lot of writers, students and teachers alike, it takes some getting used to the idea that you can't sit around waiting for a Muse to inspire.  We know that we need to begin writing for the Muse to understand she is welcome--but still the blank page stares back at us.

A particular notebook.  A special pen.  A header at the top of the page.

How does one begin without knowing what to say?  In her book The Creative Habit, Twyla Tharp talks about "rituals of preparation," ways to signal to the brain that writing time has begun.

Closing one's eyes.  Rereading the previous day's work.

The idea, says Tharp, is to make the process automatic, to train the mind to understand that a particular action or setting is invariably followed by creative activity, so you don't need to waste time worrying about what you will say.  Set the brain on auto-pilot, and before you can stop to protest, you are already in a creative flow.

Unplugging the telephone.  Sipping hot chocolate from a certain cup.

Students of all ages love ritual, as a means to find order in a seemingly chaotic world.  Rituals need not be elaborate--or even perceptible to an outsider, as when Tharp suggests stomping her foot and shouting, "Begin!"

Teachers have long understood that rituals help in all sorts of classroom activities, from collecting lunch money to lining up for recess.  It only makes sense that rituals can help writing flow more smoothly too.

What kinds of rituals--planned or unplanned--do your students use to prepare their minds for writing?  How will you help them begin?

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PENCIL TIPS WRITING WORKSHOP: SETTING UP WRITING CRITIQUE GROUPS

by Pamela Ehrenberg

Brownies were a point of dissension.

Recently I co-led a workshop for The Writer's Center of Bethesda, Maryland, called HOW2 Create (and Maintain!) a Writing Group.  Critique groups can play a major role in nurturing and guiding our writing, whether within or outside of a classroom setting, but setting them up requires some thought.  Among the topics we talked about:

1) Amount of time.  Workshop participants placed themselves on a busy-ness scale from  "I've got 2 full-time jobs, 11 small children, and a couple of pet llamas--but I'd like the group to keep me in touch with my writing goals," to "I have just retired and am hoping the group will help provide structure for my newfound free time."  In most K-12 classrooms--faced with state standards, high-stakes testing, and countless other demands--the amount of time available for writing groups might fall somewhere around caring for the pet llamas.  For these busy students, writing groups provide a consistent and regular checkpoint to make sure that real writing gets done despite the hurried pace of classroom life.

2) Level of writing skill.  I asked participants to say whether they felt most drawn to workshops labeled "beginner," "intermediate," "advanced/expert," or "all levels."  In my experience, students are more willing to open up and take risks in their writing if they perceive that others in the group are facing similar-level challenges.  Mixed-level grouping can work, however, if everyone feels valued and able to contribute.

3) Meeting logistics.  The workshop included time for a simulated writing group session.  Immediately on receiving the sample piece of writing, participants identified logistical questions they'd need to work out: Would the writer read the piece aloud, or would participants read it before the meeting?  Would readers provide written comments in addition to verbal?  Would the writer be permitted to add clarifying information or raise questions?  Each choice offers advantages and disadvantages for the teacher and/or the groups themselves to consider. 

4) Food.  Here was the brownie dissension.  Some groups are strictly business-only, noting food's potential for distraction and crumbs.  At other groups, food is a major reason that people look forward to coming.  My own writing group falls in between.  As my co-presenter, Farrar Williams, noted, food is a bonding opportunity in many cultures, and interacting over food helps to break down barriers and help people feel more comfortable.

As my writing group enters its ninth year and welcomes its third published book among group members (it's called Echoes of Her, by group member Brooke Kenney), I'm grateful for the time we've put into establishing a group routine that works for us.  What has worked well in writing groups for you--personally or in your classroom?  Please let us know with a comment below!

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PENCIL TIPS: MAKING TIME TO WRITE IN AN IMPOSSIBLY BUSY LIFE

by Pamela Ehrenberg

I order groceries online, reserve library books online, and communicate with friends via email and Facebook.  So the Internet seemed a logical place to offer a writing workshop for people who question whether they really have time to take one. 

My online workshop, "Making Time to Write in an Impossibly Busy Life," is sponsored by the Writer's Center of Bethesda, Maryland, but past participants have hailed from as far away as Chicago and the Ukraine, lending a universality to the plight of being too busy.  Guided by Twyla Tharp's wonderful book The Creative Habit, we explore the relationship between discipline and imagination, how to build the structures and boundaries in our lives that allow our creative minds to do their best work.

Here are some of the things we try:

*Set (and announce) specific goals.  The very first week, all of the participants develop an overall goal of what they hope to accomplish during the eight-week experience.  They also subdivide their goal into assignments for themselves: what they would like to accomplish by the end of each week.  We all post our goals for everyone to see, and each week we each report back on our progress toward that week's goal.

*Become part of a writing community.  I encourage participants to get to know each other and explore how our busy personal lives can both energize and challenge our commitment to writing.  During this most recent session, we celebrated a new apartment, a new pregnancy, and the birth of a new grandchild--all wonderful events with their own complex implications for writing.

*Create rituals.  By tuning in to the rituals of when we write, where we write, and how we begin and end each writing session, we can create sustainable practices that last beyond the final workshop session.  And we also explore mixing it up a bit--using a writing field trip to make sure our rituals don't lead to ruts.

*Pare down.  One of the assignments I most look forward to each session is an exercise from the Tharp book called "Give Me One Week Without."  Each semester, I find myself anticipating my respite from Facebook much like someone preparing for a spa: saying goodbyes, preparing to emerge cleansed.  Even if the newly freed-up time doesn't flow 100% into writing time, my writing benefits from having one fewer thing competing for my attention.

How have you made time to write in your impossibly busy (or just regular-busy) life? Share your thoughts below. I'd love to hear them.

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