They Need to Write Fiction

Following my usual Summer Writing Club, a group of high school students came to my house to talk about…you guessed it…writing fiction.  As it turns out, they have little to no chance of writing fiction in their high school classes.  They miss it.  They need it.  So, they came to my lower-level classroom, and we talked.  The plan for this meeting, this focus group, was to find out what I could do for these young people.  They talked.  I took notes.  I found out that many of them were interested in creating an after-school version of Writing Club at the high school.  It would mimic the after-school Writing Club I had sponsored for at least ten years at the middle school.  There are certain protocols that they need to follow to start a new club, so I am waiting to hear from them. 

There was one more necessary part to this meeting.  I asked them, “Do you want to do some writing?”  They all said yes.  One of the boys said to the whole group, “This makes me so happy!”  Me too.  So, I gave each of them a new composition book, and I asked them to select an object from the display in the room.  I asked them over a dozen questions, as I usually do.  We wrote.  It was magical. 

For these former students and for any teachers who read this post, I am including something I wrote a while ago, but never published to my blog.  Here it is.

Writing With Keys (from Shoes and Boxes and Peanuts and Keys)

“Five more minutes!”  “Ten more minutes!”  “We need more time!”

            This is what I hear in my classroom when the timer goes off at the end of seven minutes of writing.  This is what any writing teacher will hear if the writers are engaged.  My response to the request for more time is always, “Yes.”         

            Picture this:  You open the classroom door and turn on the lights.  You see glittering, sparkling objects hanging from the ceiling all over the classroom.  These objects are keys.  There are perhaps thirty-five or forty keys dangling on strings from the ceiling.  Now imagine students walking into the same scene.  Imagine these keys as inspiration for writing fiction.  

            I believe strongly that there is no substitute for physical objects when the goal is writing fiction.  There is something about an object, a physical thing, which helps students write fiction with depth.  I have received writing worth reading inspired by stones, shoes, boxes, acorns, lima beans, keys, and many other things.  Actually, just about any object can inspire writing.  But objects alone cannot cause this magic to happen.  The teacher in the room must lead the students down a path of thinking so that a story eventually emerges.  If the teacher asks a series of questions, timed well, with enough wait time between them to allow for thinking on paper, good writing will happen.  If the room is quiet, allowing each student to think his or her own thoughts without intrusion, good writing will happen.

            Students need time, uninterrupted time, to think and write in class.  By setting a timer once the writing actually begins, it lets the students know that they have a specific chunk of time, and no one is allowed to interrupt it.  No one.

            In addition to giving the students time, the teacher must write with the students until the timer goes off.  If everyone in the room is involved in the same work, the work is given importance.  If all heads are bent over notebooks, it is clear to everyone involved that this is a place where writing occurs.

            Soft music plays.  The sounds of pens or pencils scratching on paper is relaxing, soothing.  The energy in the room is palpable.  The focus is intense.

            Writers are engaged.