Student editors

The small novel, The Boat Builder's Secret, is now in the hands of a 7th grade class and a 9th grade class. I was pleasantly surprised by their reactions to being asked to edit my story. They were rather shocked that an adult writer would want their opinion and were quite pleased to be the only classes chosen for the project. One freshman young man asked if he could say it "sucked?" I told him he surely could, but then he had to tell me in detail why it sucked! Everyone laughed and we were off to a great start. As I was finishing up my ideas, I looked around and they were already reading, so I stopped talking and handed the class back to the teacher. It will be quite interesting to see the first comment sheets.

I have started "teaching" more writing in the second grade class. It is amazing what they can do if given some confidence building and a little push. This week we worked on using "juicy" words instead of "blah" words in our writing. They amazed us when they began using words like agitated and disappointed to decribe how a certain situation would make them feel. We were all so proud of their writing at the end of the lesson.

As the weather turns cooler, my writing muse becomes more active. I am being called by a certain dragon to come back to work on his story and the number 10 is whining about having his own book. So on go the smart wool socks, turtlenecks and fleece and may the writing begin!