Scribbles by ME

I Write to Learn

When did I become a writer? As well as I can remember it was because my mother told me I was a writer and then led me down a path that resulted in my own sports column for the Arkansas Gazette for several years.  Up until then, I never really thought of myself as a writer and am not sure I ever wrote.......Oh, yes, I remember that in 8th grade to pass the time of day in math class, I would write little stories.  THey all had twists at the end...that's what I liked....and all the kids hated them because they wanted them to end happily ever after.

Most of my writing has come from my starting to teach writing in the classroom with Nancie Atwell's writing workshop.  I would have to write right along with my students and they got a kick out of it.

Sometimes I am inspisred from somewhere.....the muses..to write something.  I've thought a lot about why I write lately and I came up with the title to this entry.  I write to learn.  I learn about myself, I re-learn old forgotten family stories, I learn how to write poetry from discovering forms new to me, and sometimes I am so amazed where these journeys take me.

I have learned a bit about Shape Shifting or astral projection from Ruby StandingDEER.  While I am not able to do that, my characters do.  It is so exciting to see where characters will go.  Sometimes they refuse to go where you want them to go.  Unfortunately, I have a really hard time coming up with story ideas, so I am more comfortable with none-fiction and poetry.  But, the idea is the same I think.

I have used writing to get over terrible periods of anger in my life.  I found when I got mad at someone, that writing down everything I felt about him/her and how I felt was very calming.  I always just tore these kinds of letters up because the writing was the therapy and I did not need to add more anger to what already existed.  Sometimes the writing helped me to see where I was wrong.  Anger does not allow us to judge ourselves fairly.

So, I write to learn.  Why do you write?