Indie 500

Writing is hard. This blog is living (or virtual) proof. Some people write every day, publish volumes of books, become millionaires off of the practice, and still aren't that good. Writing takes time and patience and perseverance. Writing can be painful.

So I ask my students to write every day. To develop a writing practice. To become Writers. Every last bloody one of them.

Today, for a moment, it felt like this might be possible. There was a moment, maybe a two-minute stretch, when everyone was engaged in some part of their writing process. Some were developing ideas in their notebooks, some were drafting leads, some were crafting timelines, some were publishing. Even James was typing away on my computer, editing his draft on his "Trip to Vagina." (James is a crappy speller. I had casually crossed out every Vagina in the story and written Virginia clearly above. He was going through his draft and changing each one, with no comment. Either he didn't seem to realize what he had actually done... or was so mortified that he didn't want me to know that he knew.) Every day is not like this. But today was, and I am thankful.

The toughest part has been getting them to see writing as a process, a never ending cycle. Yesterday I told them that it's not a race. You don't want to rush to finish a piece "first" because then you are just at the start again, developing ideas, the hardest part. If I haven't edited your draft yet, you don't wait, you keep going, start another piece. On and on. "Until June, then it's over!" offered Katherine optimistically. I thought for a moment, "Well, I guess for a while, until next September... And then you could end up like me, just writing and writing and writing." I exaggerated here for effect. Little do they know how little I write. "Hey," chimed in Gus. "It's like that race car race where they do laps!"

The Indie 500. I like the metaphor.