Writing is Rewriting! Day 3 at Laval Senior Academy

For me, the real work of writing isn’t coming up with ideas or even writing the early drafts of a new manuscript. It’s the rewriting. Today was my last of three days of writing workshops at Laval Senior Academy, where we worked on rewrites.  Ms. Gosdanian and Ms. Lambropoulos’s students are writing memoir pieces – and many of them brought in draft work to share with me. YAY!

I say YAY for two reasons. Number one: the students shared some amazing stories. Number two: I think the pointers I offered were useful. (So YAY for all of us!)

Some of the amazing stories:

A student named Mustafa wrote about his memory of being 12, his grandmother was close to death and too weak to move around on her own: “she was too tired to walk upstairs so my dad and uncle put her in a chair and carried her upstairs.” So beautiful, no? Mustafa’s memoir is about family, and deep abiding love.

A student named Bianca wrote about her memory of being nine and being told by her parents: “Your great uncle might not stay with us forever.” What I love about that example of dialogue is it shows us how Bianca’s parents found gentle words to help her prepare for her great uncle’s death.

A student named Menelaos (that's him with me in today's pic) came up with a great topic – how his sense of humour got him into trouble, and how that led to a lesson in humility.

And a student named Juliano wrote about sharing his home with his grandma, whom he described as “only 13 steps away.” I so love those four simple words, and how much they tell us about Juliano’s love for his grandma. Only 13 steps away!

Here’s a bit of the advice I offered today. Memoirs – like all writing – need to start strong. The students need to come up with “a hook” – perhaps a strong scene to make their readers want to keep reading. It helps to think in scenes – and not to try to describe too many different scenes in an assignment of about 1,000 words. Use the senses – not all at once, mind you! Writing is sometimes like cooking. Don’t go overboard with the spices! Consider ending your piece with some reflection. Try asking yourselves, “What’s the ‘So what?’ behind what I wrote?” Once you’ve got all that figured out and on the page REWRITE REWRITE REWRITE! Don’t be afraid to move chunks of text around, to delete anything that doesn’t add to your piece, and to get rid of adverbs, such as the words “very” and “extremely.” Also, don’t start by telling us the date! (That’s kind of an inside joke since so many of the pieces I looked at today started with a date.)

I’m in an excellent mood. I think it’s because I like to feel USEFUL. I may not be saving the world, but I like to think I’m helping wonderful young people find their voices, tell their stories, and learn to become better communicators.

Now guess what I’m going to do next?

Get back to my own REWRITING!!

Big thanks to Ms. Gosdanian and Ms. Lambropoulos for bringing me to LSA, and to the kids for making me so happy! I hope there’ll be a lot of A’s on your upcoming memoir assignment!