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| Well done, M. |
When I was a preschool kid, I drew. I loved to draw maps: houses and roads and streets and rivers and ponds and trees all from a bird's eye view. I believe my grandparents had an atlas which introduced this concept. So I drew my maps and told stories about the people who lived there. I'd say that's early writing too, or as it's sometimes called in the education field, "dwriting." One might call it simple imaginative play too, but it's also a solid form of therapy.
When I did begin writing with letters, you might think I wrote the stories conjured from my maps. Nope. I wrote lists. When our family traveled, I would list the name of every town and city and roadside attraction we encountered as well as the odometer reading at each location. (Call me early google maps, ha.) When my parents discussed those trips with company later, they would use my list to recall details. I finally had an audience. This thrilled me. Always the odd kid out, I suddenly had an identity in my family.
Eventually, my lists became more complex and—thanks to TV and Stephen King's books—typically morbid. There was no audience for this phase. I would write a list of character’s names then cut them in strips to prepare for a random draw to discover which one would be disfigured in a terrible accident or who would lose his mind (or hand) and be sent to an institution for the criminally insane or join a circus. I recall being completely rapt by these lists and stories. Time dissolved. I once wrote an entire lifetime of a set of characters in a point form list.
You might think I really enjoyed all the writing assigned in school. I did enjoy it; I didn’t take it seriously though. They didn’t want lists. And I wasn’t a particularly skilled writer either. My teachers constantly pointed out that I would often leave the “y” off the word “they.” Here’s a sample sentence: “The enjoyed the trip the took to the Rocky Mountains.” Not so smooth, eh?
Eventually, I studied writing in both my undergrad and graduate degrees. I love teaching writing strategies to kids, and yes, they typically involve drawing, and other easy-access approaches. I want to assist them in unlocking and sorting their thoughts, ideas, and feelings. I now know that writing is just one option in the positive psychology toolbox.
Most of my writing now is (once again) therapeutic. For an overthinker like me, it's seeking solace, and like those maps, helps make my journey more meaningful than melancholy.
Dear blogger friends, when did you begin writing? Why? For what purpose?
4 comments:
Good Morning! I'm off to walk ...but will be thinking about my love of and need for writing, and very much enjoyed this glimpse of you.
I always loved writing, but until I learned to type, didn't write nearly as much or as often. My poor typing teacher when I was a junior in high school... well, I came to class two weeks into term, everyone else was way ahead of me. I never learned how to look at what I was typing instead of the keyboard and although I didn't get a failing grade, I was painfully slow. Once I got on the internet and found chat rooms, I suddenly began typing better and better and now don't look at the keyboard at all. Unless it's to clean off cookie crumbs. lol
Sorry, what was the question??? ;)
Thanks for the kid writings, always makes me smile. I encourage 'my' kids to write and illustrate. Some of them are already very good at both.
I wrote in journals/diaries from a young age, 10 maybe. I always liked to keep them hidden because I had a younger brother who was kind of an asshole. I have spent a lifetime of writing, to remember who I feel and trying to understand why I feel the way I feel.
When we were kids, my brother and I, our brother in law bought a Christmas present for the family, not something he had ever done in the past. My brother and I thought it might be candy but it was even better, is was an Almanac. It was filled with the kinds of facts I loved learning, useless facts:)
I imagine your students loved taking your class.
"Dwrite"" is a new term to me, but ya gotta love it. I am not a story teller at all, but in uni I discovered that I am an adequate essay writer. Blogging is now my writing vehicle. As prosaic as it is, I find that even recording a few words and mundane thoughts feels good. And so, I blather-on almost daily.
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