#SOL15: March Challenge Day 26 – What kind of writer are you?

What kind of writer are you?

You must read how @terjeakke’s third grade students answered that question here on “Just for a month: A writing playground”

No peeking.

Go read.

Three out of five of the students began with, “I am a ….. writer . . .”

Is that how you would answer the question?

Really?

What kind of writer are you?

Thinking of who I am today I can answer:

I am the kind of writer who likes time to formulate a thoughtful answer that does not wind around like a meandering old stage eroded river but more like a youthful river that flows straight from one point to another point.

I am the kind of writer who likes a clearly defined purpose.  I am going to write a post about “x”.  Those posts seem fairly effortless and seem to “write themselves” without a great deal of wailing and gnashing teeth!

I am the kind of writer who likes to think about my audience and pitch my writing to that audience.  For example, this month when I am “slicing” daily with the March Challenge from The Two Writing Teachers, I know that my audience is my regular readers plus possibilities from the 300+ “slicers”.  That narrows my focus a bunch! (Warning:  some days my audience is myself!)

I am working hard to be the kind of writer who can take a topic and respond to that topic within a reasonable time frame (less than an hour).  This is a huge shift for someone who used to draft every post in Word days in advance of posting them onto WordPress (OCD).  This is also due to “guilt” for all of those weeks that I required special ed. students to think for one minute and then write for three minutes about “….” And then I recorded correct letter sequences, words written, and words written correctly (CLS, WW, WWC). Now I cringe at the thought of recording any of those items after a three minute think time for a student who is struggling with learning.  It’s not about “who” finishes first, but it is about working at multiple rates over time so sometimes I need to write more like the rate of the hare and other days the rate of the tortoise is okay!

I am the kind of writer who likes a challenge.  I love generative writing.  I love to play with sentence development and using a word as different parts of speech or in different locations in a sentence is FUN because my work is unique and not the same as everyone else’s!  I think power writing is also FUN because I like to challenge myself to increase my own writing stamina just as the students are expected to do! I think it’s important to embrace the fact that writing can take many formats and can sometimes focus on the product and sometimes focus on the process.  It’s still the same elephant – our perspective and that point of intersection with the elephant at that specific moment does matter.

I am the kind of writer who loves informational/explanatory writing.  I can now write credible persuasive/arguments and narratives but they are not my “go to” choice of writing.  When they turn out well, it is usually due to time to plan, reflect, collaborate, rehearse and revise long before I put my fingers on the keyboard.

I am a keyboard composer.  Sometimes the music of the keys lulls me into a sense of complacency as sentences follow each other effortlessly across the screen.  At other times, I correct and correct and correct and even pound on the keys until the print has been bled dry of any emotion or remotely interesting trivial source of entertainment!

I am a writer who has written for decades, more than half a century.  But I am not comfortable saying that I am anything above an average writer.  Sometimes I have flashes of “bright spots in writing” and sometimes I have days and days of writing that should not ever be imitated.  Writing still requires thought and even improves over time when my thoughts are either rehearsed or revised during long stretches of driving time.

I am a writer who loves to revise . . .to nitpick my word choice until I believe that I have found the most appropriate word, structure, comparison or even metaphor.  I am an ever-evolving, ever improving, ever stretching writer as I push myself to go beyond initial expectations and find the heart!  I am a teacher of writers who also believes that I must be a writer myself, before I can ever teach writers!

I.am.a.writer.because.I.read.  Writing is one way to process my reading by adding internal thoughts or by sharing it “aloud”.  I am also now a writer who likes to “slice” daily during the month of March and annually on Tuesdays with friends!

What kind of writer are you?

Check out the writers, readers and teachers who are “slicing” here. Thanks to Stacey, Anna, Beth, Tara, Dana and Betsy at “Two Writing Teachers” for creating a place for us to share our work.  So grateful for this entire community of writers who also read, write and support each other!