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Monday, July 14, 2014

Teachers Write: Mary, Anna, Laura and Jo are right here with me

I'm writing this summer.
In fact, in the last week I think I might have written more than ever before in my life!
I'm also thinking, a lot, about what Judy Blume wrote in some autobiographical text I use almost every year, She said that when she is in the middle of a book, the characters are really at the dinner table with her! Pieces of the setting would start to appear in her window or perhaps in her mind.   I never really "got" what she meant until the end of last week, when fresh off some curriculum writing and full of the vim and vigor you feel when you accomplish something in spite of the odds, I really started to take my TWO summer writing groups seriously!
Rather than rewrite the same old stories again this summer, I took Kate Messinger's words to heart and started writing the story that really was churning inside me.  I decided not to worry about the parts of the story I did not know the answers to and decided to just put fingers to the keyboard.
Now, Mary, Anna, Lora and Jo are sitting right here in the office with me.  They are wearing house dresses and peeling potatoes but pretty soon Lora will head off to Normal School.  Pretty soon, they will all leave the farm.
Truth be told, some characters in this story are true, but others are figments of my mind.
Truth be told, some events are true and others are realistic, historical fiction.
Truth be told, the setting, the 1920's were a pretty interesting time and I've spent quite a bit of energy thinking about them due to another project that will launch this winter! (It's pretty neat when the pieces of you life fit together, even if only for a moment in time!)
So when the link below popped into my browser this morning, I gasped softly and then went right back to writing.  


When some day (in my dreams) I am writing my own story about my own writing for kids, I will have to share with them that it really is pretty neat when the project you are working on pops into your browser.  

1 comment:

Julie Johnson said...

I've always wondered what that would be like. I've never tried writing fiction before. I think it's so very cool that you experienced this. It made me smile while I read it. :)