It’s all about the writing...
Hello fellow writers,
This is my first post in a blog that I have created to help beginner writers get started in the craft of writing. This is a difficult thing for people to do. Getting started. Many of us have the desire to write, but not the motivation. Or we have the desire to write, but too many other things to do in our busy schedules. Or we have the desire to write, but simply never get around to doing it for any of the other myriad of reasons we (myself included) use as excuses to avoid it. It is one of life’s great ironies. We are often filled with the desire to want to do something and, at the same time, a propensity to procrastinate. We say things like: I’ll take guitar lessons...when I can find the time; I’ll learn to crochet...when I’m not so busy; I’ll get around to reading that novel sitting on my nightstand...when I’m not so tired. Even if we do sit down in front of a notebook or computer screen, the blank page stares back at us menacingly. How could we dare to fill it? Who are we to write anything of substance? This is a defeatist’s mindset, so let’s change it.
Before we begin, however, I feel it is necessary to tell you a bit about myself as both a teacher and a writer — my credentials, my experience, my strengths, my weaknesses, etc. Let me first disclose that I am not a published writer. I do not pretend to know everything about writing, nor do I believe that is even possible. What I am is a person that has a lot of experience in writing and in the teaching of writing. I have a Master’s Degree in English with a focus in Creative Non-Fiction and I have been involved in the field of education (specifically in the field of reading and writing education) for about 18 years now. I started off as a reading and writing tutor in the college that I attended as an undergraduate student. I loved it immediately. Helping students improve their writing or understand a poem or finally figure out proper comma usage was very rewarding. I did that for four years, and moved on to teaching high school English for a few years (which I loved and found even more immensely fulfilling than tutoring, but I had to move on from it when the recession hit in the mid 2000’s and I found myself without a job), did a bit of substitute teaching at the high school level for a few years as school districts across the country were undergoing hiring freezes and massive budget cuts, and finally got back on my feet when I landed my current teaching position of ten years as an adjunct writing professor at a community college.
Throughout this time period, in addition to dedicating myself to the teaching of reading and writing, I have kept a close relationship with my own writing and have been working on various creative projects (albeit, I admit my relationship to writing has been sometimes tenuous, on and off some might say, because of the various things that life throws at us, some planned, some unplanned, some joyous, some debilitating, some expected, and some completely and utterly “out of left field,” as the sports idiom states). In the times that I have taken “break” from writing, teaching and my student’s my writing has kept me connected to my own creativity and my own writing process, and inevitably guided me back to continue writing.
So, hence the reason I have decided to start this blog. I want to help anyone who seeks a way to get into (or back into) writing. Writing can allow us to express ourselves, to share our thoughts and feeling, to partake in the human condition, to record and analyze, to heal from trauma, to provide information, to create, and so much more. Whatever your purpose, I hope to help you find it here. In the coming days, I will begin posting what will be the main focus of this blog: easy, fast writing prompts designed to get you to write now, not later, not in a few days, not when you have time, not when it’s convenient, but now. The prompts will be followed by an example from me as I will join you in doing the same writing exercises. Let’s get to work!
Best,
NL
This is my first post in a blog that I have created to help beginner writers get started in the craft of writing. This is a difficult thing for people to do. Getting started. Many of us have the desire to write, but not the motivation. Or we have the desire to write, but too many other things to do in our busy schedules. Or we have the desire to write, but simply never get around to doing it for any of the other myriad of reasons we (myself included) use as excuses to avoid it. It is one of life’s great ironies. We are often filled with the desire to want to do something and, at the same time, a propensity to procrastinate. We say things like: I’ll take guitar lessons...when I can find the time; I’ll learn to crochet...when I’m not so busy; I’ll get around to reading that novel sitting on my nightstand...when I’m not so tired. Even if we do sit down in front of a notebook or computer screen, the blank page stares back at us menacingly. How could we dare to fill it? Who are we to write anything of substance? This is a defeatist’s mindset, so let’s change it.
Before we begin, however, I feel it is necessary to tell you a bit about myself as both a teacher and a writer — my credentials, my experience, my strengths, my weaknesses, etc. Let me first disclose that I am not a published writer. I do not pretend to know everything about writing, nor do I believe that is even possible. What I am is a person that has a lot of experience in writing and in the teaching of writing. I have a Master’s Degree in English with a focus in Creative Non-Fiction and I have been involved in the field of education (specifically in the field of reading and writing education) for about 18 years now. I started off as a reading and writing tutor in the college that I attended as an undergraduate student. I loved it immediately. Helping students improve their writing or understand a poem or finally figure out proper comma usage was very rewarding. I did that for four years, and moved on to teaching high school English for a few years (which I loved and found even more immensely fulfilling than tutoring, but I had to move on from it when the recession hit in the mid 2000’s and I found myself without a job), did a bit of substitute teaching at the high school level for a few years as school districts across the country were undergoing hiring freezes and massive budget cuts, and finally got back on my feet when I landed my current teaching position of ten years as an adjunct writing professor at a community college.
Throughout this time period, in addition to dedicating myself to the teaching of reading and writing, I have kept a close relationship with my own writing and have been working on various creative projects (albeit, I admit my relationship to writing has been sometimes tenuous, on and off some might say, because of the various things that life throws at us, some planned, some unplanned, some joyous, some debilitating, some expected, and some completely and utterly “out of left field,” as the sports idiom states). In the times that I have taken “break” from writing, teaching and my student’s my writing has kept me connected to my own creativity and my own writing process, and inevitably guided me back to continue writing.
So, hence the reason I have decided to start this blog. I want to help anyone who seeks a way to get into (or back into) writing. Writing can allow us to express ourselves, to share our thoughts and feeling, to partake in the human condition, to record and analyze, to heal from trauma, to provide information, to create, and so much more. Whatever your purpose, I hope to help you find it here. In the coming days, I will begin posting what will be the main focus of this blog: easy, fast writing prompts designed to get you to write now, not later, not in a few days, not when you have time, not when it’s convenient, but now. The prompts will be followed by an example from me as I will join you in doing the same writing exercises. Let’s get to work!
Best,
NL
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