In the summer, I do a lot of reading and writing, but as the school year gets going, I gradually replace my personal literary work for the work of the classroom. I spend more time planning lessons, listening to students, and reading student blogs, and less time nurturing my imagination with books and scripts. Sound familiar?
Teaching is hard. Yes, a day in the classroom is filled with beautiful moments, but at the end of said day, when the seats are empty, and I have time to myself, I am often depleted. Sure, I am alive enough to feel that twinge of imposter syndrome, to hear whispers of students I overlooked, and to sense my hunger and thirst, but I have little left over for my own reading and writing. You, too?
Last April, I hosted a 30Poems blog, and while it was a challenge to keep up at times, I enjoyed writing a poem while sipping coffee before school. I reveled in being observant, listening to my self more carefully, creating something, and playing with language — for me. I think it was “good” for me.
I think students (and our families) deserve our best self. So I thought, perhaps, I would commit to writing once a week — nothing too fancy, just a stanza or little story. And I thought I would invite you to join me because it might be “good” for you, too.
Here’s how it will work:
- Every Sunday morning, I will post a prompt or picture to inspire some creative writing.
- In the comments section, you will write based on the prompt or anything you wish, anything stirring in your mind or heart. Write before you start school stuff or after (when those Sunday blues hit).
- You can write a phrase, a sentence, a stanza, a story, or perhaps each week will be a new installment of some longer piece.
- This can be just for you,or you may invite your spouse, kids, family, and friends to join you. (My husband wrote a few pieces, so did my sister, her husband, and my beloved godmother.)
Let this be a time to swim in the twinges and whispers of our lives and imagine something new, something that was waiting for this invitation to share.
We’ll start next Sunday. Please make your “commitment” and then in the comments share any ideas or topics (so that your idea can inspire others).
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Thanks Sarah for the invitation to write. I have long been wanting to get back to writing creatively and I appreciate the inspiration/motivation!
This summer I have recently been enjoying telling stories through food. I have learned a great deal about my husband’s family through some impromptu Peruvian cooking lessons with his grandmother. Each of her dishes is a story in itself. Perhaps a prompt to write on cooking or food would be fun.
What a beautiful idea, Denise. I am so glad that we’ve stayed in touch since Guatemala and that we’ll be checking in weekly through our writing now.
I am thinking a prompt on the moment you realized that something that had scared you for as long as you can remember, wasn’t so terrifying anymore. Fear. It ebbs and flows just like everything else.
Thanks, Tara!
This is an idea that I am so happy to be invited to participate in. I know I need this opportunity to write and think and share and read for myself, not just for work.
One of the small ways I do get myself to think and sometimes even write creatively during the school year is through people watching. I love to create backstories to the people I see frequently like the lady who hands me my coffee through the drive through window almost every weekday, or the man down the block who leaves in a hurry for work at the same time I do each day. Perhaps a prompt to pick someone out that we each see daily, or regularly, and create a little character study or fictional backstory? Or maybe someone we’ve never seen before who crosses our path that same day.
I love the idea of people watching. I imagine a lot of us are working from coffee shops on Sundays, so I bet there’s plenty of inspiration for a backstory piece.
I am gone for a month but he, it is a writing semester, so I am game.