We live our lives inside of stories. Memories are faulty, events from one decade can be confused with events from another, things that seemed very important at the time can be forgotten. Stories can help us keep the essential pieces together, the meaning of the event, without focusing too much on the “facts.” I learned a lot about European history from stories and novels, that allowed me to remember the relationships between the players. I listened to my family’s stories about times and people past as well.
Stories have been used since humans had speech to convey values, hopes and fears, and ideas about how the world works. The oral tradition allowed for stories to be modified to meet the needs of each audience, each teller, each time.
When I wrote A Letter to My Children as part of a college class a few years ago, it was a chance to give my children my perspective of why we chose to live where we do. I am still proud of my effort on that piece of writing. It was long, laborious work, telling that story, but it was worth it. And it is in writing. Many of our stories now are written, not spoken.
I teach writing now, sometimes as a volunteer in the classroom leading a workshop and sometimes as a teacher working on a unit or project. I talk to children about what my process is, and that their own process might be different — and that it’s okay to have a different approach. I talk to them about how to generate ideas, select the best ideas to play with, develop the chosen ideas and follow through with revisions. I talk to students (a lot, it turns out) about poetry and how the imagery of poetry helps us become better prose writers. I talk to students, I share examples of writing, I encourage them to write and share with each other, I try to help them create a final product that they are proud to present.
We talk about “voice” and “audience” in writing, but don’t often help the students see the connection between this writing and the long storytelling tradition they are joining. Voice and Audience become abstractions to memorize and attempt to use, rather than the natural outcome of telling someone something. When we talk about voice and audience in my classes, I try to talk about how it’s about recognizing your own ideas in the process of making them useful to someone else. The way a child describes the school day to a grandparent would have to be different from the way a teacher describes the school day to another adult… it’s “style” as well as perspective.
All storytellers have their own styles, their own favorite subjects and techniques. You see it with oral traditions, movies and television, manga/comic books, novels, news writers. Once students understand that they don’t have to give up who they are in order to communicate effectively with different types of people, they seem to make progress and relax into styles that suit both purpose and audience.
I started writing this post in order to talk about why I tell stories — my own style, my own process. I write. My “pre-writes,” when they are necessary, consist of anything and everything from taking notes during research (on 3×5 cards, on the computer, by hand), lists, pictures, time in the garden daydreaming while I work, talking to myself (or others), and writing in free-association style. Many of my posts read like that last item.
My process once I have done the prewrite is often to think about the “flow” of the piece. When it is informational I look first at the main point I want to highlight, then how I want to introduce the piece and then an outline of the body. When it is purely fiction I generally just start writing, knowing that the revision process will tighten up my work. When it is an opinion or reflection piece, as this post, I often turn my prewrite into my first draft, revising as I go, re-ordering as I re-read and re-think my work. My process for research has generally been to take notes while reading, consider how the various pieces of research connect or contrast, and then follow the informational writing path above.
The revision process varies, depending on my purpose and audience, timeframe/deadline and how much I care about the topic… blog posts generally get a quick once-over, as they are written for an audience that generally already knows me, an audience that I anticipate will be pretty forgiving if I repeat myself or leave something out. If I am writing for a wider audience I will go over the piece once or twice as the first draft is complete, then set it aside if time allows, and come back to it at least one more time.
I “should” and often do ask others to review my work if it is for publication of some sort — Tom is a great person to review my work on educational topics because he an excellent writer but doesn’t have the content area knowledge I do; this means that he catches me on gaps in definitions and background that should be included. My mother does have the content area knowledge, so she is wonderful for catching mis-statements. Both of them are extraordinary editors and proofreaders. I have others I will occasionally ask for help — my children have been good readers for me and ask important questions when they review my writing.
Proofreading is an area that is often left out in this age of computers. People assume that spellcheck will catch any errors. The truth is that partial words (generally the root or a word lacking the appropriate affix), homophones, mis-used terminology, mis-placed words and gaps in syntax don’t show up in spellcheck. Grammar checkers use algorithms that are still developing and assume a particular (business-oriented) purpose and audience which will mistakenly mark as incorrect many acceptable phrases. Both spellcheck and grammar checks are good to use for a quick once-over, but a solid writer also looks over their work and has another person check as well.
Once all these other phases are complete, the publication process begins. In this part, I select images (if I want illustrations), consider formatting (typeface, spacing, presentation), and re-copy everything from the final revised and proofread draft. If I am using a word-processing program, as I do for this blog and other online writing, the publication is simpler. When I am doing work by hand I recopy everything, taking care with lettering in a way that reflects old-time scribes’ work. Children, especially in the intermediate grades (4-7), and especially when they are not able to use computers, balk at this final step. People who are perfectionists and have tried to have perfect work all along particularly dislike this step, as I often chide them for taking too much time during the prewrite and revision processes when spelling/spacing and other visual conventions can be pretty much ignored. Their reasoning, which is not entirely incorrect, is that if they do a very good job to begin with they won’t need to do the extra work at the end.
Publication is for me the best part — when I can let my imagination and creative energy show to its fullest — when I can relax and let the story take over. A serious story requires a serious font and no-nonsense formatting, as if I were speaking in solemn tones. A light-hearted or comical story can take a creative font and looser formatting. A personal story, that would be told in a folksy, conversational style, takes a font that is easy to read and formatting that doesn’t shock. Pictures/imagery/photos that fill in gaps or draw attention to ideas and information are placed in-line or to one side, as if I were gesturing toward a prop or item in the environment.
Ultimately, the focus shifts off the writer or storyteller and back onto the material that is being communicated. Ultimately, when my voice is clear in my writing and the audience’s needs are being met “I” fade out and the information takes center stage.
The medium of storytelling may change, but the end result is constant: sharing ideas between people.
If I can convey that to my students when we discuss productive literary efforts, then my job as a teacher will be successful — and so will my students’ writing/reporting/blogging…