Struggles

Last week was a bit of a struggle. In the first place, I have to come to terms with the fact that kids don't work at the same speed. While the 11 year old may have a 6 or seven page story, the 8 or 9 year old may only have a two or three page story. If the kids are ok with that, then it has to be ok with me. And by extension, their parents. In an after school program, we can't expect the same output as a school can. Plus, who says that a short story has to be 5,000 words?  Mine aren't.

In fact, on Thursdays, we don't even have a page limit. In Scene Stealers, we have just finished working on a scene that focuses on dialogue, and gives the back story for two characters that the original author doesn't give readers. The difficulty there was trying to convey anger in a character who doesn't really show anger. As my student explained, the character gets angry, but it's a cold anger that simmers underneath the surface. I know from my own writing, that's hard to do. For the last two classes of Scene Stealers, I am having my student explore expository writing. Wait, expository writing you say? Why are you focusing where writers generally dislike to tread, you ask? Writing is no different than any other art. In painting, Picasso started out drawing the human figure "the right way" before he could move on to the works of his later periods. I saw an exhibit at the East Wing of the National gallery of his pencil and charcoal drawings that he did  as a teenager, and they bore no resemblance to his adult work at all. Writing is the same. You can't break the rules until you know how to use them correctly.

Meanwhile, back at the Thursday Short Story Class, as with my last session, I have taken over the writing, as I find that saves time and it allows the student to come up with the ideas faster. But I anly do that if it's one kid. In that class, we have gone on vacation with two cousins to Mexico, and gotten lost in a canoe. I've had to suspend my disbelief a bit as our protagonists have been caught by a major wave, and washed onto a sandbar. Ah, the imagination has been running wild, indeed.

On Fridays, the boys have been positively prolific. The brothers from WIS are going to treat us to two stories a piece, it seems. One has finished both stories and the other may treat us to to a story outline as well as the story that I am going to publish. Here too it has been a struggle. Here, I have been anxious that the boys aren't working at the right pace. But, who am I to judge. As long as they are having fun, I have to come to terms that it's their story and whether they finish it or not is not the issue. I have been assured that I will get the stories this week.

On Saturday, we are going to clean up an oil spill off the coast of Thailand and fix the damage from an earthquake and tsunami. As soon as I figure out how to do that. Ah, Wikipedia, sometimes you are erroneous, but sometimes, you are just the resource to get to the fact of the matter. Well, that's all she wrote. Stay tuned for our next inkreadable installment, where in we wrap up the current session and start the next.

Purple Panic

The boys of Friday, like the boys of summer are turning into a fun bunch. I don't have kids, myself so I am being surprised all the time. This past Friday, the boys walked into my class, and I asked them, as I always do, if they had written. From two of the boys, I got the expected, "I didn't finish, I had too much homework." To my surprise, however, one  of the  two decided to change his story from a train engineer based drama, to a child prodigy Sax player who wins a major music competition and a lot of money. I am a bit concerned that he will not have time to finish the story, but I'm going to try and roll with what happens, and hopefully he will finish on time. Otherwise, I will publish what he's written as is and hope the parents aren't too upset. 

My writer of the zoo story is faithfully plugging along with his story and I am waiting to see the results. In the meantime, I had a surprise guest, Zoo boys four year old brother came and hung out with us for a bit, as their mum had to retrieve my other students. I gave him the washable markers that I keep in case the kids want to illustrate their stories, and some paper. He decided he was going to illustrate some snakes for big bro's story. Which he did with great success. They look like my sister's Taty's attempts at drawing a bit, so maybe I'll start a class for little ones called Scribble Stories. After a bit, instead of using paper he started to draw all over is hand. Here's what I learned from that:

WASHABLE MARKERS ARE A LIE. THEY DON'T WASH OFF SKIN WITH SOAP AND WATER ALONE.

I don't know what they wash off with because mum came back and took him home so I could start the class. She SAID she could get washable marker of skin, but I am not convinced. I think he's spent the last five days running around with faded purple all over his hands. Still, I made a new friend.

My biggest surprise of the day was my third student, he walked into class and announced "I.m finished with my story." 

"Finished? What do you mean finished?"I asked. "What are you going to do for the next two classes."

Picture me very calmly speaking while inwardly panicking. At this point I am nervous that none of the kids are going to finish on time and that I will have some very irate parents on my hands. But again, I am dealing with kids so I have to expect the unexpected. So we decided that he would write another story, this one to publish, but he was very secretive about the details, so I'll have to let you know as soon as I do, what that's about.

Well, that brings us to the end of another incredible installment. Stay tuned, as always more to come.

So Much Fun

I am amazed at how much I am learning by teaching these classes. In my second Scene Stealers class, writing a scene for a two and a half year time period that the original author doesn't deal with is proving a challenge. For both student and teacher.  For my student, it isn't a matter of not having something to imagine, it's more that there is too much that she can imagine and she is having a tough time picking something. So it falls to me to guide her through the continuity of the story. It is a challenge for any writer not to introduce too much. It is for most of my adult writers, from the poets whose images don't quite coalesce to a novel writer who is writing a series of books and has a spreadsheet to keep her characters straight, even if they don't ultimately make it into the books at all. It causes a problem for readers because the unseen characters are portentous, they weigh down the story. It's also difficult, because I haven't read the series of books that this scene is based on. Thus I am finding that I can only advise in generalities. Even with all these challenges, I must be doing something right teaching-wise because my student kept muttering "This is so much fun". Complete with gleeful squeal and everything.

Now, on to my second Thursday student. His story is about two smart cousins who go an vacation and travel by canoe. Since in this day and age, unless you live on Lake Titicaca, there are faster ways of traveling, we agreed that the canoe travel would be one of the modes of transportation on the vacation, not the main one. This student wants the kids to decide all the vacation fun, and I've had to explain that people reading the story aren't going to be able to suspend their disbelief to the extent that the kids rule the vacation. (Although, in my other job managing a restaurant, they seem to do exactly that.) In order to write the story, which is set in Mexico, I found a picture of a hotel in Mexico that is super kid friendly, and we are describing it from the picture. I find that will kids, giving them something to look at works wonders. Grounding the story in real time and place, helps with focus and the flow of the story as well. That is true of the adults as well as the kids. And of me. My current project is set in the present in Edinburgh, and I rely heavily on my memories of my time there, but sometimes I need pictures of my time there to remind me of exact details. In this class, the challenge is keeping the student on schedule with the story, and I find it is very easy to fall behind.

Well, that's all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. Stay tuned, as always, there is more to come.

Bring on the Boys...

This session of Inkreadable Kids promises to be very interesting indeed. I have six students, four boys and two of my returning girls from last session. I am offering two different classes this time around. The four boys are taking my short story module, and so is my nine year old girl. The other girl has opted for my Scene Stealer class. 

I've known for a while that the genders write very differently. I've seen it time and again in the adult groups. I saw it, very clearly, in the Friday evening session, where I am teaching three boys. Instead of using the story starters prompt machine from Scholastic, two of them have opted to make up their stories on their own. They are brothers as well, and it makes for an interesting dichotomy. One brother is writing a story that focuses on a young man who invents a new sort of train system. The other brother has opted to blow up the world using warplanes and nuclear bombs. I am a little leery of the violence but am likewise leery of stifling creativity. Apparently, this will come right in the end. I am going to have to seat them separately because they seem to want to copy each other's story, and that simply won't do.

My third young man opted for a Story Starters prompt and is writing a story about a young boy who spends the night in the zoo. What was interesting here is that the prompt asked us to humanize an animal and that proved difficult for this young man. So, I had him switch the animal to a human boy and off he went. While less violent, he promised plenty of danger as the only escape route is  through a cage of snakes. I'm glad it's fiction as I am already shuddering. Snakes, why'd it have to be snakes? As for my last boy, he is doing a story starter prompt, but I can't for the life of me remember what it is. I'll have to get back

to you on that.

In the meantime, my girls are prolific as well. On Thursday, my student has chosen her favorite book, and we are working on creating dailogue. Specifically, we are working on giving them a two and a half year backstory that the author leaves to the imagination. It promises to be an interesting few weeks. Also, this particular student likes my writing, and has asked that I read to her as well. Which I love as it allows me to fix the issues in my novel with my target audience.

Lastly, my other returning student, aka the girl who fixed Haiti, is now writing a series of stories. Her main characters are off to Thailand, and planning on rebuilding tsunami damaged places there. On a ship. I am finding that suspending disbelief is proving difficult. But as always, I will persevere. That's all she wrote. Stay tuned for the next Inkreadable installment.

Girl Power

Thursday and Saturday this week marked the end of the first of my Short Story classes at Inkreadable Kids. I have mixed feelings about the closure of my first session. I am glad that, contrary to a few opinions, I started the sessions in January, instead of waiting until the spring. If I had waited for the perfect time to start this project, I wouldn't have. There is no perfect time. Or rather, it's always the perfect time. I am sad that I am losing, temporarily, I hope, two of my girls, but it's the start of Spring sports. I am ecstatic that my WIS girls are coming back on Thursday afternoons to take my Scene Stealers class. I have decided to make this a bit more focused on the tools of the craft. So while the kids will be writing scenes from well known stories, I am going to ask them to write the scene while concentrating on a particular writing concept. I was excited that everyone's parents showed up to hear their children read the stories. I am sorry that the one person's story got cut off in the scanning process. Luckily, they and their parents are so laid back it ended up being alright.

I learned several things  about myself as well. I read the girls bits of my novel and it was empowering. They were on the edge of their seats wanting to know what happens next. It was gratifying to me that I write with enough panache that kids like it. Since that's the age range I am targeting, it galvanized me to write more. It also put to rest all the mental nay saying that I do with regard to both teaching and writing. I know that I can write. I now know that I can instill love of writing in children. I am amazed at the power of the girl writer. And I know that yes, i can do this.

 In the Thursday class, we saved a mom who was a genie, we dealt with the stress of being a girl who loves science and vanquished that stress, plus we won the science fair, and we got a humble musician to take three risks, and avoid his critical wife, to go to a masquerade. On Saturday, in true WIS style, we wrote a story about a cheerful Captain and two young women, who find a secret waterfall, and in the process rebuild earthquake ravaged Haiti.  The power of these young girls' imaginations was astounding. Their intellects are big, their imaginations are bigger, and their hearts contain immense courage to stand up and bare their souls, to their parents, to me, and most importantly, to each other. I am in awe.

The next Short Story module holds its own appeal. It takes place on Fridays at 5:15, and is "About a boy". Actually, it's about three. Stay tuned for the next inkreadable installment.