Living Life Twice

In recent days I have been pondering the art of storytelling... A continuing narrative of my work in schools is to promote the idea of writers as storytellers. I have always been a person who has enjoyed sharing stories and jokes, whether from first hand experience, or relating stories gifted across a lifetime. I always encourage developing writers to tell their stories too. It is a rehearsal tool for the inexperienced writer. Telling their stories before they write not only eliminates the notion of cold starts' it frequently results in a much enhanced end product. Often a writer's story may be told many times before it emerges as written words. I often tell my stories many times before I commit them to the pages of my notebook.  It is in the telling that the story and the words are refined. The reader benefits from the repeated tellings. Each of us has stories unique to our experience. It is folly not to see value in sharing them. I once had a student comment a...

In recent weeks I have been working with a group of young writers and their teachers at Crib Point Primary School. Writers in their first year of primary school in fact. They are taking important first steps on a long and hopefully, fulfilling journey as writers.  These young writers choose their own ideas, decide what will go on each page, make changes, reread the text and ultimately decides when the writing is finished and is ready for sharing. They are making books that look and sound like the books teachers are reading to them every day. Books written by trusted authors. The multiple pages created during writing workshop help these inexperienced writer build stamina for the act of writing. How good is that? It has been most instructive to watch them embrace this learning opportunity. Their boundless enthusiasm for the task of creating their own books has been a revelation not just for me, but more importantly, their teachers. Each visit they greet me with news of the...