There’s no shortage of advice for writers from writers.
In interviews, blogs and newspaper articles we are able to learn from the published and the prize-winning. Sit down, stand up, write propped up in bed, we hear.
Craft sentence by sentence (Andrew Cowan).
Get the words down fast and then revise (Stephen King)
Write what you know (Geraldine Brooks amongst many).
Forget the boring old dictum "write about what you know". Instead, seek out an unknown yet knowable area of experience that's going to enhance your understanding of the world and write about that. (Rose Tremain).
We will take the advice that suits us. But what might we take and apply to our teaching?
I have begun thinking about this more deeply. Most writers are addressing an adult audience, most of whom want to be published. However, each one of us is a writer. Each person we teach should learn how writing works for them. I have been sifting through all this counsel to find the ideas that will inform our practice. We probably don’t need to take up Hilary Mantel’s suggestion that we find ourselves an accountant. Anne Enright’s recommendation of whiskey alongside all her other advice might be an interesting addition to the Year 10 classroom but …
Be kind to yourself, say Roddy Doyle and Kate DiCamillo, as do many other writers in their different ways.
Love what you do, says Jeannette Winterson.
Have fun, says Anne Enright.
Initially, I discounted this advice as irrelevant to the task of teaching writing. The current National Curriculum is unlikely to have much truck with such sentiments as being kind or loving what you do. As for having fun - please be serious. There are criteria to be met. I thought again.
Seriously.
Seriously, having fun, being kind to ourselves, loving what we do, sit at the centre of the writing workshop. We have become dominated by a curriculum overloaded with content and anxious about skills. On-line answers to remote learning emphasise rules and routines. A friend of mine lamented the impossibility of keeping her son focused on the deathly slow progress of a PowerPoint presentation for writing. Yet when she abandoned the prescribed course and went for a walk, weaving writing into the activity, the roles were reversed, her son calling her to wait, while he completed his task.
Let us begin with our writers, whether adult or child. Place them at the centre of our teaching. Writing springs from safe spaces, mutual encouragement, universal celebrations.
When we find the ways in which we love writing, our writing grows. Let us be kind to ourselves and to each other.
Happy new year!