A friend recently sent me a paper by Vivian Gussin Paley called Listening to What the Children Say,published in the Harvard Educational Review. In it she writes about truly listening to children; about being genuinely curious about what they have to say. As she often does, Paley reflects on her own shortcomings and her sense that … Continue reading Believing
You are a writer! You write notes and letters, poems and diaries. You write on screens and paper, using thumbs or pencils or glorious glitter pens. And that is just great! Hurrah! We hope that you are writing every day. We know that the more you write, the better you become. Lots of your writing … Continue reading Hearing our readers
Sometimes it is hard to hear what other people have to say about our writing. Sometimes we want to say, ‘No, that’s not what I meant at all.’ Sometimes we just say, ‘Well, I like it like that.’ We may well like it like that, and we may, as the writer, decide to keep everything … Continue reading Always Right Always Wrong
This week we have been thinking about sharing our writing and how having a reader can help us become better writers. There are different kinds of reader. You are your own first reader. Part of learning to be a writer is learning to be a good reader of your own work. We’ll write about that … Continue reading Readers
When someone reads their writing to you, we think that the first and best response is, ‘thank you’. When someone reads to you, it is like being given a gift. And perhaps the writer will say ‘thank you’ to you, for listening. Because when you read your writing aloud to someone who is listening carefully, … Continue reading Thank you
Write.Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down. Neil Gaiman in Write edited by Claire Armistead. A writing club needs just a slim structure: some prompts; some reminders; maybe, some tempting resources. These might include a poem, a book, a folded blank book, a square of paper or a set of … Continue reading Shape of a session
Writing Box 