Teacher Conference: Teaching Writers Share Lessons

When people find out I’m a mom to a bunch, a teacher, and a writer, they often say, “I don’t know how you do it.” Seriously,  me neither. There's coffee and the frequent modification of standards, and yet lots of days I'm pretty sure I'm not quite doing it. Still, there isn’t any part I’d give up. I love teaching, writing, and momming (though they take turns being "the favorite").

Since I’m committed to on-going chaos, I thought I’d call on teaching/writing friends to see how they handle all the hats they wear, and these generous, over-worked souls answered!

The interviewees:

Dawn Callahan: My dear friend, critique partner, and a rockin’ high school high school English teacher. Dawn has the coolest zombie story in the works and has taught me tons about both writing and dedication.

Terri Farley, author of the Phantom Stallion series and Seven Tears Into the Sea, and long-time teacher of middle school, high school, and college students prior to dedicating herself to full-time writing. Terri continues to teach now as a visiting author and mentor to writers. (I had the privilege of working with Terri as my mentor teacher when I did my student teaching 63 eons ago! How lucky am I?)

Sarah McGuire: My beloved fellow monkey –and an up and coming writer of rich tales full of adventure and heart. Sarah teaches high school math and creative writing (I don't think there's anything she can't do).

David Michael Slater, author of 20 books (including picture books, the teen Sacred Books series, and a couple of titles for adults). He’s that prolific, and David teaches full-time for a gifted/talented magnet middle school program.

I asked everyone how teaching helps and hinders their writing. David offered that being among kids all the time helps him stay in tune with the middle grade and young adult mindset. Sarah agrees, and adds that besides the great opportunities for listening in on the worlds of students, teaching helps avoid the "lost in my own head" syndrome writers can be prone to. She says, "life outside writing is the wellspring of our writing." Dawn, too, finds that being in the thick of things, surrounded by kids engaged with reading and writing, keeps her in the mood to write. On the other hand, she points out that all the energy teaching and grading require can leave a person drained. Terri spoke of how, despite intent to grade holistically, she couldn't help but dive in and spend lots of time responding to even simple assignments. She still has nightmares that involve grade books. As much as we all love our chosen profession, all agreed teaching can be utterly consuming with planning, meetings, giving feedback, and record-keeping leaving little time for writing--the writing we'd like to be doing, anyway.

So what can be done?

• David makes use of the snippets of time he does have. He explains, "Even five minutes is worth it. I can't tell you how many times I've found 50 pages of a draft I'd written, only to have no idea when the heck I'd written them." He also suggests trying not to have to reinvent your job each year, but he followed it with "Good luck with that!" so I suspect he's been as successful in that capacity as I have.
• Sarah brings up some sage and comforting advice from our own Turbo Monkey (and former teacher!) Ellen Jellison. Ellen, she says, "essentially gave me permission to not write during the week. (Sometimes I do, though, because my fingers are just itching to get a scene down. I just don't feel guilty if I can't.) She suggested I make notes about all the ideas I have during the week and then write on the weekend."
• Dawn suggests setting boundaries, as difficult as that is. She dedicates a set amount of time to grading essays, for example, and then puts them away for the day, and she makes every effort to use prep time at school efficiently so home time is free (well, freer). Papers can wait "a little longer," especially if the reward is a happy, productive writing teacher.
• Terri offers perspective gleaned from years of writing, teaching, and parenting (experience she conveys so well in her workshops--don't miss a chance to see her!). She urges writers to "compartmentalize your writing as much as you can. Let others know when you will be writing and then follow through. Don't watch TV. Don't do Facebook. If you have to research something for your writing, make a list and do it later. Keep your flow!!! Don't take phone calls unless they're urgent. Don't listen to make sure your kids are doing their assigned chores (you'll know soon enough)." She encourages writers to not allow family or friends to guilt them into losing focus and reminds them that "your work is only as important to your family/friends as it is to you!"

The pay-off to taking those stolen moments dedicated to our own writing is the chance to have our stories be part of the lives of even more of those so-worth-it young people we care about. This dawned on me as I read in Terri's response how a favorite part of being a writer is reader mail, because it reminds her that she hasn't really left teaching, but just has "a larger classroom."

I got so many great thoughts and tips from my writing and teaching pals--I'm saving some of them up to fuel future blogs! But before I head off to set guilt-free boundaries and compartmentalize writing time with a little help from noise-cancelling headphones:

Do you have any tips for eeking out more writing time despite job/life demands, or maybe a story about a teacher who made a difference to you? You know teachers live for those stories. :)