Living Life Twice

Personal writing projects provide the inexperienced writer the opportunity to make some genuine, meaningful choices: They become the epitome of the saying-‘Writers make decisions.’ They choose- Their own topic/issue Their own genre Their own purpose Their own process Their target audience They have the opportunity to write in their own way, driven by their own goals and intentions. The chosen project benefits from replicating processes writers enact in the wider world. That way it will be grounded in authentic purposes.   It is important to note that a personal writing project does not equate to the allocation of ‘free writing time,’ where the writer is given a small portion of time to write ‘creatively,’ in the mistaken belief that this provides sufficient investment in supporting and engaging young writers. Such an approach pushes personal writing to the edges of the curriculum in terms of its importance. Such an approach is tokenistic, offering little sense of ...

  Childhood provides a rich source of writing inspiration into which every writer may easily delve. For those teachers unaccustomed to writing, for and with their students, it is a great place to begin exploring a treasury of written words. As a starting point for writing I encourage inexperienced adult writers to recall aspects of their childhood as a great starting point to begin writing. Writing, that can later be shared.  The range of childhood experiences is enormous –ranging from disappointment to elation! The full gamut of human emotions condensed into those special, vividly etched years.  While the world may have changed significantly since your own particular childhood, certain universal elements remain unchanged -matters such as, doubt, fear, discovery, curiosity, and the twin imposters of triumph and defeat, to name but a few. This is where a universal connection can be made. Childhood is a time in our lives when experiences feel quite intensified. We often ret...

  Inexperienced writers don't usually afford titles of their written work much attention, investing little time thinking about or choosing a title. They are often viewed by young writers as labels or unimaginative cliches, rather than titles.   For this reason I would suggest a study of book titles across a range of genres is well worth the investment in time. As a writer, I have come to appreciate the important role titles play in any written piece. The title is a critical part of marketing appeal and for that reason publishers and writers take a lot of care with the choice of their titles.    I once spent almost two months pondering the title for a poetry anthology I had written.  All the poems were in place, but a suitable title was proving somewhat elusive. I rejected many potential titles before eventually choosing one I believed was a bit quirky and had some appeal to a reader's curiosity. I considered this a worthwhile investment in time. Some might ...