A New Definition of Writing
I love a challenge! And the Nerdlution has provided just that. All over the country, book nerds are committing to do different activities over the course of 50 days. I personally committed to read for 30 minutes daily, to write for 15 minutes daily, and to exercise for 30 minutes four times a week.
As I worked on setting my goals, I knew the reading goal would be attainable. We have 15 minutes of DEAR time each morning at school, so I’d already be halfway there just from that. The past few weeks, I’ve been pretty consistent with exercising three times a week. So, I added an extra day to challenge myself. The real issue would be making myself write daily. It’s not that I dislike writing. In fact, I enjoy writing a lot. I am just so hard on myself and am reluctant to get words on paper. I am my own worst critic.
Yesterday, December 2, was the first day of the challenge. I had blown through the thirty minutes of reading before 8 am!! Right after work, I went to Curves (yes, I exercise with the old ladies!) for my thirty-minute workout. I had every intention of sitting down at the computer to write after my youngest child fell asleep. Well, I never made it out of bed until my alarm went off at 4:50 this morning.
While showering, I was beating myself up. I didn’t even make my goal on the first day! But, then I realized that I was being too hard on myself. I needed to take a deeper look at what I’d done during the day. I had actually written many times throughout the day. I’d taken at least six pages of handwritten notes during the workshop I’d attended. I had written numerous emails to people. I’d written in my son’s planner. In fact, I had written much longer than just 15 minutes!
One of the most powerful learning activities I’d go through with my students involved having them document all of the times they’d have to read throughout the day away from school. The purpose and power of this activity was twofold—the students saw that reading was a necessary life skill, and they saw that reading did not just mean sitting down to enjoy a novel. Their definitions of what constituted reading expanded.
Likewise, this is true with writing. We write for many different purposes, and we should look at each of those purposes as valid and worthy to be called “writing.” Just because we may be responding to a friendly email or writing a grocery list, we are still writing, and therefore, are writers.
