John Fitz

Memorable Sentences

    Most of my writing time now is spent trying to convince four classes of 8th grade boys that writing is a cool thing to do--and an even cooler thing to do well. This is tomorrow's missive...

    Memorable sentences are created out of images and actions. Words that create images are like the lumber we use in the shop to build our projects. It is the actual stuff you handle with your five senses—it’s what we feel and smell, and touch, and hold, and hear; it’s nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Everything else: conjunctions, prepositions, transition words, and punctuation are the glue and screws and nails that hold our sentences together. Moreover, (get the transition?) the right words help guide us to the next sentence, or lead us into the next paragraph--and so towards insight!.

    Although it is tempting to play it safe, don’t be afraid to use your whole toolbox and the whole shop when building your sentences. Don’t be afraid to use words in ways you’ve never seen before. There is nothing wrong with trying to have fun with words. It is what makes the written word a continuing miracle of creation. But make sure it helps you before you leave it in your final draft. As “they” say: “Anything worth succeeding in is worth failing in.” Success in writing is in the memory you leave behind for your reader. Memory is alive with images and actions--and so are good and effective sentences.
 

1. Show your reader what you want them to see! If you want to tell us “Freddy was sad” then paint us a sad picture of Freddy. Don’t just use the word sad. Your idea of sad is probably different than my idea of sad. My idea of sad? It’s my hollow, sunken eyes reddened by three nights worrying about how to teach a class full of cargo pants, nose rings and satanic tattoos the beauty of a language they seem bent on destroying. (Sorry, a little teacher nightmare there.)
2. Use rhetorical techniques, i.e., repetition, to help create a dynamic power (think of Martin Luther King) within your paragraphs. But don’t overdue it, unless you’re really really good at it. For instance, (another transition) unless you have studied at the feet of the masters; unless you have spent a season as a Fenn wrestler; unless you think this is working…(get the point?)
3. Go back over everything you write!!! Go back over everything you write!!! This is the fun part, if you have passion, and if you are willing to essaie (to try!). This is where you make sure everything is constructed just the way "you" want it to be constructed. 

Here’s a simple checklist. Ask yourself these questions, and see if your sentence stands tall or small:

a. Is the main idea or image clearly expressed or portrayed early in the paragraph?

b. Does every sentence say something clearly in a voice that is clearly your own?

c. Does every sentence make sense? Really! Read it out loud.

d. Is every sentence grammatically effective (oooh, notice I didn’t say correct?)

e. Is there a rhyme or reason to the order of your sentences?

f. Does every sentence have a direct road back to your topic sentence? Make sure there are no random or distracting sentences.

g. Does the last sentence restate, re-affirm or add to the main idea of the paragraph? Does it leave the reader expecting and anticipating the next paragraph?

All of writing is the crafting of sentences and then the ordering and rearranging of those sentences. A good sentence rings out like a morning bell across a quiet valley. Writing effectively is not rocket science, but it requires more than casual effort.

Make the effort!

    Most of my writing time now is spent trying to convince four classes of 8th grade boys that writing is a cool thing to do--and an even cooler thing to do well. This is tomorrow's missive...

    Memorable sentences are created out of images and actions. Words that create images are like the lumber we use in the shop to build our projects. It is the actual stuff you handle with your five senses—it’s what we feel and smell, and touch, and hold, and hear; it’s nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Everything else: conjunctions, prepositions, transition words, and punctuation are the glue and screws and nails that hold our sentences together. Moreover, (get the transition?) the right words help guide us to the next sentence, or lead us into the next paragraph--and so towards insight!.

    Although it is tempting to play it safe, don’t be afraid to use your whole toolbox and the whole shop when building your sentences. Don’t be afraid to use words in ways you’ve never seen before. There is nothing wrong with trying to have fun with words. It is what makes the written word a continuing miracle of creation. But make sure it helps you before you leave it in your final draft. As “they” say: “Anything worth succeeding in is worth failing in.” Success in writing is in the memory you leave behind for your reader. Memory is alive with images and actions--and so are good and effective sentences.
 

1. Show your reader what you want them to see! If you want to tell us “Freddy was sad” then paint us a sad picture of Freddy. Don’t just use the word sad. Your idea of sad is probably different than my idea of sad. My idea of sad? It’s my hollow, sunken eyes reddened by three nights worrying about how to teach a class full of cargo pants, nose rings and satanic tattoos the beauty of a language they seem bent on destroying. (Sorry, a little teacher nightmare there.)
2. Use rhetorical techniques, i.e., repetition, to help create a dynamic power (think of Martin Luther King) within your paragraphs. But don’t overdue it, unless you’re really really good at it. For instance, (another transition) unless you have studied at the feet of the masters; unless you have spent a season as a Fenn wrestler; unless you think this is working…(get the point?)
3. Go back over everything you write!!! Go back over everything you write!!! This is the fun part, if you have passion, and if you are willing to essaie (to try!). This is where you make sure everything is constructed just the way "you" want it to be constructed. 

Here’s a simple checklist. Ask yourself these questions, and see if your sentence stands tall or small:

a. Is the main idea or image clearly expressed or portrayed early in the paragraph?

b. Does every sentence say something clearly in a voice that is clearly your own?

c. Does every sentence make sense? Really! Read it out loud.

d. Is every sentence grammatically effective (oooh, notice I didn’t say correct?)

e. Is there a rhyme or reason to the order of your sentences?

f. Does every sentence have a direct road back to your topic sentence? Make sure there are no random or distracting sentences.

g. Does the last sentence restate, re-affirm or add to the main idea of the paragraph? Does it leave the reader expecting and anticipating the next paragraph?

All of writing is the crafting of sentences and then the ordering and rearranging of those sentences. A good sentence rings out like a morning bell across a quiet valley. Writing effectively is not rocket science, but it requires more than casual effort.

Make the effort!

Opening Day

It is almost fitting that my summer begins with a drenching rain. The surfboard, windsurfer, and assorted beach toys lie wet, washed, and glistening on Nana and Papa’s front lawn. Although the downpour beats down on the roof, weathers the shingles and keeps us in the harbor, it is by no means a dreary Father’s Day on Cape Cod. I got my cards and kisses; I poured out the Special K and spread cream cheese on the bagels; I assured seven kids that it is still going to be a great day. And then Denise made that happen by carting them off with a knowing smile to a heated indoor pool with their aunts and Uncles! And so in this uncharacteristic quiet, I made my coffee and “found the time” (the most precious gift for any writer) and now put my first words to our shared summer writing experience.

First, I want to thank all of you for signing up for  a summer writing community. The summer blogs allow me to work through the summer doing something that I truly love doing--and that is sharing the joys and challenges of writing with a great group of people who are willing (and I hope, eager) to share that journey with each other. Please read the few posts that come before this entry--especially The Crafted Word Guidelines--and let’s begin the summer.

We all come to this table from a different place. We all have our unique reasons for joining our respective writing community.  For some of you, it is simply a time and place to write for the pleasure of writing; for others, it is a time and place to write because you have to because your well intentioned parents signed you up to rob you of your summer:) But for all of us it is an opportunity to “improve the nick of time,” as we are advised to do by Henry David Thoreau. For all of us, the communities need to be a place of respect, affirmation, and support. They need to work for all of us and not just for yourself. The Crafted Word is not simply a name I chose because I like the name--it is an approach to seeing that writing is a ‘craft’ that can be mastered through attentive practice and wise tutelage. We must allow ourselves to be mentored by each other; we need to acknowledge, embrace, and emulate masterful writers and enduring literature.  Do what good writers do, and you will become a great writer.

The writing communities are more than just places to share “almost” every style and genre of writing, for example: daily journals, reflections, short stories, poetry, songs, podcasts, pictures and videos--any blog can do that.  What sets us apart is that we have signed on for a journey on the same ship, and in that sense we are bunkmates on an adventurous voyage to parts of our writing lives as yet unfathomed and unexplored. As part of the crew we need to rely on each other for support, encouragement, and motivation. We have a duty to each other to show up when our watch is called and do our part to the best of our abilities. Come calm or storm, we need to show up on deck and do our duty.  By just doing this, we all broaden and deepen our own skills as writers; we earn the write to call ourselves writers; we gain experience as writers by facing, and then filling, the empty page on a consistent and steady basis. 

The first real step for all of us is to simply begin writing, posting, and commenting. These are the lifeblood of each community.  It may take a few days for everyone to get up and running, but already there are new entries in each group.  The communities are like gardens that grow more fruitful over time, but likewise less fruitful if the garden remains untended. Start by writing about who you are and where you are from.  (Some folks have posted an “About Page” that gives other people an idea of his or her hobbies, interests, activities, accomplishments, and even pictures.) Write about your plans, hopes, and schemes for the summer. Maybe you have a poem or story you want to share. Maybe you read a good book or saw a good movie that deserves mention--or a bad movie or book we should stay away from! The best writers write about what they know, and feel, and have experienced directly--or they recreate experience by using the unlimited power of imagination. The summer writing communities free all of us to pursue our passions as well as providing a safe ad supportive place to try new ways of writing.

Your watch has been called on deck.  Swap the decks with crafted words; hoist the sails with well wrought phrases, and take us along with you on your journey.

Thanks for being here.

-Fitz

A Letter to My Summer Bloggers

Hi,

I just finished grading the last of my exams, logging in grades, and writing summaries for all of my students, and I can now turn some of my attention to the summer blog writing communities. I am in the process of creating my new summer blogs for all of my summer writing communities.  If you were in a summer community last year, please let me know if you would like to continue this summer.  If you do, I will e-mail me the details of your communities new username and password.

All of my blogs are double password protected. You have  unique username and password to create and post entries.

The username and password for the entry writing part of your blog is still the same as last summer.  E-mail me if you don't remember your individual username and password. I will keep last year's blogs until June 15th.  If you do not wish to join, I will remove them from the server.  Until then, you can go to your blog and save the work you wish to save. If you wish to join again, I will set you up right away--and you can start writing!!!

I have maintained the blogs from the last four years, but I wil soon need to remove the blogs that are not in use to free up space on the servers.  There is a separate username and password to view the other blogs in your community. If you had a blog last summer, you can still view your weblog.  E-mail me if you wish to save or keep your old blog active. More information can be found at TheCraftedWord.org.

I hope you are interested in continuing with your summer blogging with me.  It is so rewarding for me to help people in their journey towards being effective, confident, and expressive writers. The blogs are a great way to hone your writing skills, share your summer experiences, and be involved with a great group of people who share your love (I hope!) of the writing process.

This summer, my good friend and fellow Fenn teacher Ben Smith will be helping with the writers in the younger communities.  He was my son EJ's teacher this year, and I've seen firsthand the magic he weaves with all of his students! He is an amazing, inspirational, and talented teacher--and a great guy! Ben will create writing prompts and exercises appropriate for young writers that will help each child develop confidence and joy as real writers.

For the other communities, many of the writing prompts and exercises this summer will be geared towards helping the summer bloggers develop the essay skills and essay portfolios that will help them in both their classroom work and in the secondary and college application process. Additionally, I will guide them through selected essays using adobe pdf's and Markin (another editing and reviewing software) of their best writings.  The documents are shared via e-mail. PDF's and Markin are tools that I use with my own students in school which contains specific feedback on their entire writing piece, including highlighted text with sticky notes, suggested changes, notes on grammar and mechanical errors, links to online quizzes, interactive exercises, and powerpoint presentations to help them with the challenges we all face as writers--and even audio comments.  It is a powerful and effective way to work through the drafting and rewriting process, and it is a valuable accompaniment to the narrative writing on the summer blogs.

If there is enough interest, I will also continue the adult writing communities as well.

I think that about covers it:) Thanks and have a good weekend, and please let me know either way. I appreciate all you have done to make the summer blogs such a fun part of my life.

-Fitz

The Power of Paragraphs

It was weird walking in to my classroom today. My desk is a clutter of memories and not a preparation for an imminent invasion of students. The chairs are neatly placed at their desks--and the desks are right where I put them on Friday. I realize that myy rug won't be strewn with broken pencils, soda stains and cheese-its by lunchtime. My white board won't look like a storyboard for the next episode of "The Simpsons;" I wont have to say, "You don't need to scream to be heard...actually, yes you do!" I won't have to write out excuses for kids who were late to their next class because I let them out late from my class. (In one case, forty minutes late from a forty four minute long class.) I won't think to myself, "Man, I was never this smart, this fun, or this involved." I won't have as much fun. I'll be in a teacher's meeting all day. I won't have any excuse not to be in that meeting. I won't be able to say, "I'm so sorry, but I have recess duty." And I won't be able to shoot three pointers in the old gym, trying to impress fourth graders (who don't know me any better;) I won't be able to say, "Dying ain't much of a living" to any kid who gives me a hard time." I won't be able to whisper to a kid who needs a break, "Don't worry about it," and I won't be able to tell the kid who is slacking off, "There's a lot more to you than you're giving me." I won't have to test the patience of my wife as I tell her one more cool "Fenn Story." But I will be able to say, "What a heck of place to work!"

That last paragraph was just me practicing writing paragraphs. It's the same way I practice chord changes and scales on the guitar. You just do it and hope you get better for when you actually have to perform a song. I practiced adding images, actions and dialogue to help set the tone and amplify my thoughts about being in school without the kids. I used a repeating phrase to add emphasis and rhythm. I tried to use humor to keep it lively and interesting. Whether I succeeded or not is up to you as the reader, but my main point is that you have to practice a set of skills to be good at most everything. Knowing what a paragraph does helps us create good writing.

Paragraphs are like amino acids. They are the building blocks that piece together the mosaic of our thoughts into a real and palpable whole. We naturally speak in paragraphs. We naturally create a rhythm and pattern in our conversations with each other. Out of paragraphs we weave the interactions that make us human; we laugh and cry and rage and dream because we are moved by the rumble of words placed together to create meaning. How we piece together those words is what makes us into effective or ineffective writers.

Making a paragraph is like cutting wood (this from an old woodshop teacher!). You always start your cut by pointing the blade of the saw in the direction of the line you intend to cut (always cut along the line!); and then stay on that line for as wide or as long as the board--and don't keep cutting after the board drops to the floor, or you'll look and sound foolish. For those of us who are metaphorically challenged, I am simply saying to start each paragraph by telling, showing or implying exactly what you are going to be talking about in your paragraph. Almost all of us have a friend (or friends) who just randomly begin a conversation completely off the track from the rest of your conversation. I didn't start this paragraph by saying, "I really love meatball subs," and I'm not going to end it by asking how you feel about Barry Bonds and steroid use. Your frst line can be creative, expressive, wacky, funny, provoking and different, or it can be logical, clear and precise. It all depends on the content, intentions and tone of your paragraph, but in every case it needs to prepare the reader for what is coming. You can then go on for as long as you need or want to go on. There is no set scale for how long a paragraph should or must be. It just shouldn't (notice I didn't say "can't") be about anything other than what you prepared your reader to hear or read; and until you can safely rest on your laurels as one of the worlds great writers, you shouldn't make your paragraphs too terribly long, or that's just what they'll be: "terribly" long. The only consistently good thing about really long paragraphs is that your reader is happy when it ends because, well, it finally ended; it's kind of the way you feel after someone finishes telling you an incredibly tedious story about painting their bookshelf. End your paragraph before you start repeating and re-phrasing everything you've already said. In real life your boss is never going to say, "Kilgore, write me a five hundred word essay on how to start a lawnmower," so don't be afraid to keep it simple. In brevity is beauty. Using paragraphs to sculpt that beauty into a polished gem is the lonely craft of a true writer.

Phew! I somehow got out of that last paragraph without saying: in conclusion, finally, as a summary or moreover. Yes, we want our paragraphs to connect and flow together in resonant harmony, but no, we don't want to lose the amazing quality of our practiced language or the meaningful quality of a good conversation. If you don't have the means, the vocabulary, the courage or the arrogance to say something a certain way, then don't write it that way either. Without realizing it, we practice our language skills everyday. (Though, some obviously practice more than others.) Well-crafted paragraphs reflect the best and most natural parts of your spoken language. Listen to yourself speak as you write, and you will write some pretty darn good paragraphs! Writing is more difficult than speaking, and you need to give it more attention than you would a conversation. It needs to be more expressive and precise because as a writer you are recreating and refining the power of the spoken word. As a reader, we will lean forward to hear what you have to say.

Memories in a Bus

Tommy just walked by and stuck a cup of dirt, twigs and leaves in my face, and with the irrepressible enthusiasm of a four year old, he said, “I put the whole world in this cup, and now I'm going to fill it and make mud!” You can almost taste the joy and excitement at his latest discovery. It's not a bad analogy for writing: Take a few things you can see and feel and taste, mix it up in a cup, and there's your world in a rich muddy broth that you can carry around and show your friends. Most of us need more than a cup, or so we think. Our experience of the summer often reads like an elongating list, a catalogue of separate events without a common connection to each other. How does my watching a sunset on the Vineyard connect to the stock portfolio I managed this morning (not me speaking, of course:)? What do the drills I went through at football camp have to do with a game of flashlight tag with the cousins? We are so often afraid to mix the profound with the mundane, but the reality is that one can't exist without the other.

The art of writing an extended narrative on something as broad as “My Summer,”and one that holds together for the reader, is to make sure there is a single theme that “pervades” your writing piece--one that you can recite by heart in one breath. Often that is enough to hold the many strands together. But sometimes that is not enough. In this case, use a recurring motif to help keep your reader following you on your literary journey. If a theme is an idea, then a motif (at least to me) is a real place or thing that you return to when you feel the strands untangling. It grounds the reader in a recurring image of a special time and place in your life. The motif is that part of the original setting that pops up again and again as you write.

For my summer, it is our now antique motor home, the places it takes us, and the thoughts it sparks in my mind.

With the fuel tank hovering precariously close to empty, I back the bus into its home beneath the towering pines in our side yard. Only one breakdown this summer, and that easily fixed with a new bank of batteries. Not bad for a thirty-year-old icon of steel, chrome and spots of rust. The old Cat diesel running just a little rough; the generator well past the 5000 hour mark; the tires slightly scuffed and worn, all remind me of where we've been and how we've returned. While the kids erect a monstrous fort out of soccer nets and a massive blue tarp, I top off the oil, flush the tanks, and scrape the dried dirt off the mudflaps: some fine sand from the National seashore fresh with the minke whale swimming just offshore beyond the reach of our skipping stones; heavy clay from the mountain pass in Thetford Vermont that we just barely managed to get over while the engine steamed and smoked in disbelief at our audacity; the specks of field grass from Windsor Mountain in New Hampshire--flashes of the Perseieds showers raining out of the night sky while we laid on our backs in wet dew heavy with mosquitoes and fireflies; crushed blueberries and wild grape leaves from the spot we carved under the power lines at Nana and Papa's house in Brewster; the parking lot gravel of every ice cream stand, town fair, and festival we happened by on side roads off of side roads; the shells, bottom paint and turpentine of the boatyard on Pleasant bay where the kids in oversized life jackets spun dinghies comically trying to reach the mooring and our plain and barnacled ketch.

Inside, I pull the countless sleeping bags out of the overhead bins and stretch them over the fence between ours and our neighbor's yard. They are musty from the massive storm in late July that caught the kids unaware in their pop up tent and soaked them all clean through to the bone. Denise and I listened to them laughing, comparing, and wringing out pillow cases in the wind freshened morning. As I shake out each bag, long lost crocks and sandals and flip-flops fall out like they won the final game of hide and seek, along with the wet jeans and bathing suits reappearing from the cocoon that for weeks on end was their dressing room, still screaming, “Don't look! Wait for me! I don't need a sweatshirt!” EJ constantly reminding everyone: “If Fitz says it's not going to rain, it will! He can't be trusted”

Everything in the bus reflects the magic disarray of action: Books are shoved into every free corner: Nora Roberts, Hemingway, Dr. Seuss and Jack London piled like comrades in trench warfare: Harry Potter relinquished to sharing a drawer with Reptiles of North America; Thoreau lowered to a conversation with a pile of Spider Man coloring books. Nothing, no one, and nowhere is more important than any other in this egalitarian assemblage of memory. My drawer for tools also holds the missing cinnamon pop tart that caused Emma so much distress on a hungry morning. The registration also makes for a perfect bookmark, and my coffee cup holds a universe of broken crayons, screws, and a pack of old maid playing cards. Only the keys--the majestic and untouchable single set of keys--remains in its pristine reserve set in the dashboard. Who could or would ever try and steal our bus? It is as unthinkable as joy.

There is a balance and a linkage between the material and the immaterial. Our family is carried towards and away from our dreams in a ponderous conveyance built by union men and women working long days in another time and existence. They made a thing in which we are transported and recreated by the renewing power of experience. There are times on the open road when I find myself quietly thanking them for their efforts. I wonder if they knew what kind of life they were enabling as they constructed our bus back in 1977. Did someone say a prayer as they packed the grease into the bearings? Is there an initial scratched into some impossible to find crevice of the frame? Back then it was top of the line, a toy for the rich to see America. Now it is like a vestige of an old folk tune that anyone can sing--but few do. I wonder how our summers would be different if Denise hadn't spotted it sitting in the back yard of a Mack Truck repair lot amongst the dump trucks and semi's just a row or two away from the junkyard. All I really know is that we took a chance at creating a new opportunity--something which, regrettably, I am less and less inclined to do. But the bus sits here waiting for its tanks to be drained and reminds me that I should create those opportunities and that I shouldn't be intimidated.

Here's a couple of practical ideas to get you started:

Sights, Sounds, and Sensations

Every writing teacher will tell you that writing rich in the five senses makes for better writing--especially personal narrative writing!

• Create a list of images and actions from your summer that includes as many sights, sounds and sensations as possible. Be sure to include names, places, dialogue you remember, things you smelled, touched, avoided. Include the good, the bad, and the ugly. Make your list impossibly long and detailed. I'd say fifty separate sentences at minimum.
• Find a theme that captures a good chunk of your list, such as: Trying new things, meeting new people, going to different places, trying to do too much, nor doing enough, etc.. Write that theme down as the title of your piece.
• If there is something or place that happens in a lot of your list, use that as your motif. If you post your list in your blog, I will be glad to help you find a theme and a motif.
• Start your writing piece by first creating a setting-- a place where you re writing from. It doesn't have to be the actual place, but rather the place from which your memories flow.
• Balance the size of your paragraphs. It is an effective way of keeping to your theme. If the paragraph doesn't have anything to do with your theme or motif, get rid of it or rewrite it so it does.
• Have your last paragraph be a reflection on how you “think” about your summer. It is a nice way to create an ending.

Give this writing piece the time it deserves. Three or four hours at least.

Write with the intensity that you will die tomorrow, but with the patience of someone who has a thousand years to live.

Thanks for doing this! I hope your summer is “still” going well.

Fitz

The Cannonball Express

I stood in a long line waiting with Pipo for his first ever ride on a roller coaster.  Things that move in strange ways are a big deal to him.  When he first came to live with us, he was eight years old and had never even been in a two story house.  On his second day here, we took him to Floating Hospital in Boston and strode into the elevator with an insouciance, which, in retrospect, reflected an utter lack of cultural awareness for a young boy in a strange land. The door shut, the elevator moved, and Pipo screamed and clutched me in his fear. Now, eighteeen months later, he stood wringing his hands, intermittently laughing and grimacing at the thought of the “Cannonball Express.”

“Will it be scary?”
“Yes”
“Will I scream?”
“Probably.”
“Will I throw up?”
“I don't know. I might.”
“You better not!”
“We really don't have to go.”
“Yeah, we do.”

I could see his head racing a hundred miles an hour.  I distracted him by yelling at some high school kids who were swearing at each other.

“Don't do that.”
“Why? They shouldn't be swearing.”
“What if they beat you up?”
“I'll hide behind you.”
“Mama will beat them up if they beat you up.”
“She better. Comb your hair up so you're forty eight inches tall.”
“Oh, man!”

Leaning on his toes he was just the right height.  Squeezing into the car the single safety bar held me in a crushing gut squeeze while leaving Pipo astonishingly free to squiggle and squirm.

“Do people ever fall out?”
“Rarely.”
“What does 'rarely' mean?”
“It means that only kids who ask a million questions fall out.”
“Whoo hooo.” The cars slid toward the first hill and were grabbed by the chain. He held the hand grip, smiled, and raised his eyebrows in mock fear.

“There's the bus! I wish I was on the bus.”
“I like the bus.”
“I like the bus, too.”
“I know.”

The first hill caught us both by surprise.

“Oh, man.”
“Oh, man”

I couldn't stop laughing.  Pipo squinted his eyes and held the bar in front of him.  I think he held his breath for ninety seconds.  The girl behind us used every form of the F-word ever created.

“Was it fun?”
“No.”
“Want to go again?”
“No.  Never again.”

We found the rest of the family in the water park.  Dripping and shivering, they all ran up to Pipo and asked if he really went on the Cannonball Express.

“Yup, but never again. No way, jose. Who wants to go on the bumper cars?” Denise looked at me like I was a bad father forcing his son to be a man.

“He wanted to go.”
“Yeah, right. Was he even tall enough?”
“With a micron to spare. It was another one of those things he just had to do.”

Denise and I both understand that part of Pipo.  When he decides to do something, he'll do it, no matter how much angst it causes him--or us. He is not so much interested in overcoming fear as he is in facing his fears. He embraces fear as an experience and not merely as an emotion.  It is a lesson in courage from which we can all draw inspiration.

The Cannonball Express is a perfect metaphor for the written word. The empty page looms in front of us like the rickety roller coaster. We can't call ourselves writers if we refuse to get in the car and go. We can't call ourselves writers if we don't tell the whole story, replete with every dip and turn of our inner and outer experience.  We can't give in to the temptation to leap from the car at the first sign of fear, and we can't tell the story from a distance. But that is exactly what so many writers do. They mistakenly believe that the cold reality of fact is more important than the multi-dimensional dynamic of experience. It is much safer to have opinions than to question assumptions. We want facts, and we want a sense of assuredness that we are making wise decisions in our lives, but are we always willing to take that ride with Pipo through the hairpin turns of experience? Are we willing to distill our facts through the directness of experience? Without the parable there can be no sermon.

Our lives our full of the parables upon which we can contribute an enduring legacy to the world. Those legacies are the journal entries, poems, songs, stories, novels, and essays that capture people's imaginations and fires their passion, or simply stirs the embers of a world that needs pondering. I have no problem with the well-wrought essay that presents an impeccable line of reasoning and logical argument, but if I sense a fallacy, a hypocrisy, or a lack of magnanimity, I quickly create a distance between myself and the writer who is simply out to set me straight. Seek out the writers who know of what they speak, and you will be rewarded with a truth you can cherish and turn in your mind for years to come.  To become that writer you need to return to the source of your own wisdom and chip away at the stone of memory until it takes a shape--the infinite and varied shapes of literature and writing--that can be held in our eyes and opened in our hearts, and our minds.

For years  I have had an idea for a novel, but I never actually sat down to begin writing it.  The idea was too complicated, the characters to diffuse, the length too daunting in the face of a busy lifestyle, but I thought of Pipo getting on the Cannonball Express in spite of every rational fear he had of roller coasters.  So I began to take an hour or so out of every day and began writing my book.  My car caught the clicking chain and took me to the point where gravity took over.  I am barely down the first hill, but the ride is exhilarating and real.  I see the track laid out before me, and, like Pipo, I'm not sure what every turn and twist will bring, but I do know there is an end to the ride, and that is where I draw my strength. Maybe I will walk away woozy and say “never again.” But at least I will know.

Think of what you “really” want to write.  And begin writing.

 

Simple Things

There is a heaviness in this morning heat. From my back porch the half moon hangs in a hot dull blue above the soft green of the trees lining my yard. On the street, the trash truck is beeping incessantly in reverse. (Why, I don't know.) The muffled traffic on 117 seems more distant than ever before. The yard is as the kids left it: the mower parked in front of the soccer net, trucks scattered in the sandbox, towels hanging on the porch rail; and the balls--footballs, baseballs, basketballs, whiffleballs--grow like fungus around an abandoned lawn gone feral. They'll return next week. I can already hear them screaming as they jump out of the bus. They will disperse like a flock of startled grackles into every corner of the yard; they will try to catch up on everything at once. Every ball will be chucked to a new home; the swings and the slide will be tested; the blackberries will be gorged; the cats will be chased under the shed; the sprinkler will go on--and so will life as we know it as the beautiful panoply of seven kids return to another eden.

It is strange to be here alone. Denise and the kids are up in their other paradise at Windsor Mountain. I came home yesterday to do a couple of shows and pad the bank account before I head back up later today. From there, we'll load everyone on the bus and keep going north for a weekend in Vermont with cousins and friends on Pete's mountain tree farm. We'll climb the mossy waterfall and fish for bass in the pond, and roast and sing around a massive campfire. We'll flip pancakes and make challenges and boasts for 'capture the flag', and we'll climb the small peak and look south and lie about how about far we see. “There, past the far mountain, I see Maynard, and I see Gramma Mary knitting on the porch--and there's Soren knocking on our door. He's yelling, “Where are you? Are you ever coming home?'” In the mid century of my life, every memory becomes a blessing--a host offered to a loving and waiting deity. In every moment there is nothing more that can be done. We simply are what we need to be.

Summer for us is a time to live and relive every moment. It becomes a tapestry that we hold like a child's blanket throughout the rest of the year. It is the promise that we repeat to ourselves when dragged back into the rituals of our other life. We wait in expectation of the returning dawn. We gather our scrapbooks and laugh at the memories. We go back to the pond. Tommy paddling around on a surfboard singing, “Merry Christmas, I can swim.” EJ caught in mid air trying to back flip off the rope swing, his body a tattoo of bug bites, scrapes, sunburn and muscle; Margaret celebrating her first headfirst dive, the wet jangles of bracelets she wove glistening on her ankles, wrists and neck; Emma squatting at the edge of the dive tower peering in her intensity into the waiting abyss of joy; Pipo neck deep in the pond counting out the seconds he can tread water: “One- two-threefourfive six!” Kaleigh bedraggled and smiling after two weeks of paddling and climbing and becoming a young woman, surrounded by friends who think she's the coolest kid on the planet--and Charlie--everything to Charlie is joy; Seven years old, his long blond hair in dreadlocks, soaring higher and spinning wildly over the pond as if gravity only applies to the timid. Always near, always one clutch away, Denise leads them everywhere, cheering, brokering, warning, and loving--and loving every second of every summer day.

Nothing we do is grand. No place we go is uncommon. But in the steady flow of simple actions we flow into the greater sea of common, ordinary joy. And that is all we need. It is all anyone needs.

As you write this week, try and celebrate the common and the ordinary. Don't wait for inspiration. Don't wait for something extraordinary to write about. Simply look around you and within you. Weave your own tapestry out of the life you live. If what you see gives you joy, it will give others joy to read about it. If what you do is hard and moiling, let your writing capture that toil, and we will live more fully and think more deeply through your efforts. Oftentimes, we travel too far to see too little. Let your own backyard--the life that you know best--be the place where you begin. In the end, we can only write well what we truly know. Start there.

A Calm Sea Never a Captain Makes

Sometimes I hate my boat. Hating a needy pile of wood, sail and line is less distressing than what it teaches me about myself.  Trying to remove the encrusted fossils of marine life from the hull after eight months in drydock is a harsh reminder that ten minutes of a simple power-washing on Labor Day would have negated the hours of cursing, scraping and crawling on the back-stabbing scree of a New England boatyard that occupied my day yesterday. Years ago I blithely and absent-mindedly watched as a friend showed me how to make a wire splice.  Tomorrow I am paying some old salt two hundred dollars to splice some wire needed to haul my halyard.  Damn me! I should be that old salt by now, not some humble yuppie with a romantic notion of the sea, willing to pay twice just to learn once.  The list could go on, but so would my self-loathing.

Sometimes too, we hate what we write because we know that we did not listen to the old curmudgeon or Sister Jean Beatrice droning in front of us in English class.  We write and ineffectually remember that there is something missing from our repertoire of skills--skills that we learned once but cast off as detritus from a bygone age. In my youth I learned a lot about sailing and boatbuilding, but I never really went to sea on my own, and so my skills were not reinforced by the granite memory of experience. The dream remained alive, while the lost knowledge now looms like an apparition in the distance, like the ghost of an early death, haunting and enchanting in the same breath. I am relearning and re-remembering because I have to regain the footing of my nautical dream and make that first new turn out of the harbor. 

As a writer, don't neglect the small details--the placing of commas, the quotes within quotes, the run-ons, the introductory phrases, conjunctions and pronouns, colons and semi-colons--that help you construct, repair and clarify your thoughts and ideas, and somehow keep together the sweeping power of great poetry and literature. They are the bolts and screws and planks that hold the boat together. Everything you've learned about writing is important and useful to the crafting of your words. It was, after all, a simple wire splice keeping me in port! If you are young, cling to what you learn and keep it close to your heart. If you are old, unearth and restore the memories you need to face the day and the empty page with confidence and courage. Build upon what you already know and sail towards your own dreams.  Ultimately, a Captain is only made at sea, not on land.

As an English teacher, I drive my students crazy by writing long preambles to my assignments; I hide the details of what is due tomorrow in a labyrinth of reflections, observations and admonitions. They beg me to just highlight in bold what they need to do.  I get away with it because I can. The reality is more difficult with The Crafted Word writing communities.  No one is forcing you to read or write anything. I just assume you want to become a better writer. I write because I love to write, but I too have a long way to go before I can call myself a captain. The few knots I know won't serve me in every situation I will face.  My hope is that you are willing to learn as well--and learn more than I can possibly ever teach you! The simple act of sustained and attentive writing will make you a better writer, but to combine the act of writing with the focused study of the craft of writing can make you a great writer--a writer who is truly ready to face the open sea!

Too much of education separates the bird from the wing, and this is especially true in our more common ways of teaching writing.  My children spend hours of homework time circling prepositional phrases and adverbial clauses in remarkably generic workbooks. I appreciate that they are learning the elemental nature and grammar of language, but, in my cynical moments, I marvel at how lucky their teachers are that the whole class needs work on the same mechanics. I wonder if those teachers are aware that they are creating a flock of awkward, flightless birds dawdling around on barren dung heaps because the skills they are taught are not tested out in the moiling waters of an angry ocean. There is often nothing to show for all of their labor but a grade and a potentially higher MCAS score. The skills we teach our students must be useful in real situations, and those students need to see how those skills have practical value in their personal odyssey as real writers. The poems, songs, stories, reflections, essays and narratives that I am asking you to write in your Crafted Word community are my attempts to let you go to sea on your own and discover both your greatness and your limitations. Without an adventurous journey, it is all too easy to lose the incentive to understand the workings of the viscera that keeps our writing alive.

We are all at different places as writers.  If Sister Jean Beatrice is no longer around to walk the aisle between the desks with her ever ready ruler, there is the internet with a slew of great places to learn (or relearn) the rules of grammar and essential writing skills--and even to test your progress.  I've included a few websites on the sidebar that can help you get going. The library and bookstores are also full of great books on writing.  Find one that speaks to where you  are at and where you want to get to as a writer. Use your blog to write about your progress.  Let each other know what works and does not work for you! It will be time well spent.

Here are a few places to start:

The Blue Book of Grammar: http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/cnt_gram.asp  hits upon all of the basic grammar skills of Sister Jean.

This site covers almost everything under the planet, and it has a bunch of quizzes to test you along the way: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/ and see what you need to know, (and to test what you think you know).

For the young ones, go to Grammar Blast http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hme/k_5/quizzes/ and see how you score! It's a fun, interactive site.

I hope your summer is going well.  Keep posting and keep commenting!

And have fun, too.

-fitz

Writing Prompt

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights,
governments are instituted among men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any
form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is
the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute
new government,...”

The use of a repeating phrase in prose or poetry is called parallelism. Parallelism is as old as the art of storytelling itself and has been used effectively from the prophets of the old testament to Martin Luther King. Above, you can see it in The Declaration of Independence. How you use parallelism in your own writing is a personal choice. I try and use it in a more subtle way than our forefathers, but, in any case, parallelism is part and parcel of the writers craft, and as such is worth contemplating in your own writing pieces.

For this writing prompt, I want you attempt the tried and true by using parallelism to write a poem or essay where all you have to do is fill in the blanks, (though it is the “blanks” that are the hardest to fill in because I want you to “think before you write”) Each line presents a new possibility for you to express a desire of some sort, so please don't look upon this as an assignment, but rather as a new possibility for thoughtful writing. If you are up for a real challenge, try and write this poem as a song with a repeating rhyme scheme. Another possibility is to write five or six separate paragraphs out of the “wishes” that you are most drawn to emotionally or intellectually. Feel free to change the wording, but not the intent, of each line. Feel free as well to add more and different wishes.

I wish...you would all do this :)

Fitz

Here is the “Wish List.” Have fun!

I wish I had a million... Then I would...
I wish I had one... because
I wish I could be like.... because....
I wish to be a ________ when I grow up. Then I will....
I wish there were a law that said.....because....
I wish I could forget the time I ..... because....
I wish trees could..... because....
I wish I could see...... because.....
I wish I could learn..... because.....
I wish I didn't have to eat...... because.....
I wish everyone would learn to ..... Then everyone would.....
I wish I never......
I wish I had one more chance to..... Then I would.....
I wish there was an electric......
I wish I had enough money to......
I wish everyone loved......
I wish all children would......
I wish everyone had.....
I wish I could touch......
I wish animals could...... If they could, then.....
I wish I looked like.... because......
I wish there were no more.....
I wish I didn't have to.....
I wish I could go to.....
I wish there really was..... If there really was, then.....
I wish I could hear......
I wish I could give......
If all my wishes came true, I would......

Writing Prompt: Responding To Literature in Paragraphs

Brain researchers have discovered that it takes upward of 13,000 repetitions before a “muscle” develops the memory to repeat a certain motion accurately. Any of you who have tried to master a skill in sports knows exactly what I mean—or at least you should! But oftentimes, the same kid who will diligently (and willingly) heave a round ball at a round hoop a hundred times in a row will shudder in anguish when asked to do the same basic action with his or her writing. Writing is a set of skills that are developed through willingly and diligently practicing form and technique until those writing skills are an intuitive and organic response to the situation at hand. Writing literary reflections and formal essays that clearly demonstrate a thoughtful, insightful, and focused response to what you’ve read is one such skill. Developing this skill will help you immeasurably in your academic career—a career that for most of you still has many years to go!

Reading is an amazing action and an even more amazing experience. We relate to the written word on every level of the human makeup. We read and we are energized. We read and we are repulsed. We agree and disagree with what a writer has to say. Sometime we are moved or required to respond to what we read--and so we write an essay that articulates our response to what we have read. The type of literary essay that you write, be it a personal essay, where the reader understands by your style and tone that it is “you” speaking from an individual point of view, (in which the “I” is retained) or a more formal essay, where you argue the merits or shortcomings of a piece of literature based on its essential literary qualities, (never using “I”) depends upon your audience and their demands. Neither approach is intrinsically better than the other, though the formal essay is required by most teachers and publications--and so “formal” it will be. In this type of writing you are trying to prove a point, illustrate an idea, and/or enlighten your readers. There is no reason to use “I“ in this type of writing. No “I think's.“ No “I feel's“ No “What I find interesting's.“ No “I“ period.

The paragraph is the basic building block of almost all writing. An essay is a construct of great paragraphs built around a single guiding statement. The paragraphs need to flow from that single source and take us on a journey towards a greater sea of understanding. Luckily, it is not rocket science. We will save the complete essay for a later time. For now, I am asking you to work on writing “single paragraph” responses to “particular scenes or passages” from a piece of literature you are currently reading. Because we may not know the book or passage you are referring to, write a brief sketch of the scene to help give us a bit of context for your paragraph.

Below is my ten-step approach to writing a great literary paragraph. It is a bit of a “formula,“ but as formulas go, it's a pretty good one. My hope is that it will ultimately help you find an effective voice and technique to use when writing paragraphs for a full-bodied formal literary essay--especially when the clock is ticking on that SAT essay or looming as an editorial deadline.

1. BROAD THEME: Choose a broad one word theme or idea to write about that you have noticed and “marked“ in your book. For example: racism, fear, family, friendship, etc, and type that in bold as the title of your paragraph!
2. SPECIFIC THEME: Narrow down your theme by writing a phrase or sentence that captures how your chosen theme or idea is used in the piece you are reading: “Friends don't let friends read bad books.” Racism lurks in the heart of every culture.” Etc.
3. TOPIC SENTENCE: Write a “clear, concise, and memorable “ topic sentence. (Don't make it a long sentence!) This is the sentence that “steers“ your reader in the direction you want your paragraph to go. This is what your paragraph will be about. Often, this sentence will use some of the same words or will be your “specific theme“.
4. ONE/TWO PUNCH: Follow your topic sentence with one or two more sentences that add detail or explanation to your topic sentence. These sentences can be (and maybe should) longer sentences.
5. TEXT REFERENCE: Write a sentence that leads into a specific quote or scene from the book that “shows“ how the author uses the theme in the book. This is the “smoking gun.“ It proves that you know--or at least have thought about--the book (more specifically, a certain section of the book) in a meaningful way.
6. SHOW YOUR READER YOUR THOUGHTS: Write as many more sentences as you “need“ (but at least two more) to illustrate and elaborate upon whatever you introduced in your topic sentence. The more narrow and focused your topic sentence, the less you need to write to prove your point.
7. GOOD CLOSING SENTENCE: This sentence either wants to close out your thoughts or “transition“ to a potential new paragraph.
8. RULE OF THREE: Go back and reread what you have written. Find three areas or sentences that you can make better. Nine times out of ten you can find a better topic sentence elsewhere in the paragraph. You can almost always find a more clear and effective way to write a sentence than you wrote on your first try.
9. FINAL EDIT: Read your paragraph out loud. Better yet, have someone else or text speech read it back to you. Make sure it sounds like “you “ speaking at your very best. Don't try to sound smarter than you are. Use good, specific, and interesting vocabulary, but make sure it still sounds real and convincing--and not pretentious and flowery. Get rid of any sentence that is not “directly related“ to your topic sentence. When it doubt, cut it out. Your paragraph wants to be as long as it “needs“ to be, but as short as it “can“ be.
10. PUBLISH: Post your paragraph in your blog and then wait for the wonderful comments. Think about what people write in their critiques of your writing. If they make a good point, then change what needs to be changed. Otherwise, pat yourself on the back for a job well done!

The Bell Tolls for You

“All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.“
--John Donne

You take a risk. You write something, and then you post it to your blog.  And then you wait to read what other people think of your piece.  In the meantime, I hope you “check out” the other blogs and invoke another opportunity to use your writer's voice by posting comments. Even after years of blogging, I still get the old “eeh ha, I got a new comment” when I return to my post or comment page and see that another set of eyes has joined my literary journey. As a writing community, we need to make the effort to visit all the blogs in our community on a regular basis and post thoughtful, respectful, encouraging, and helpful comments.  It is an amazing affirmation of our efforts when our risks are rewarded by an attentiveness to our shared experience as fellow writers.  It is what makes us a “community” for writers and not simply a display case for our written works.  Commenting is the heart and soul and driving force of all the Crafted Word communities.

Commenting is more than polite acknowledgment of a person's hard wrought efforts; it is an active practice in responding to literature as a writer and a thinker--the life-blood and sustaining energy that sparks our creativity, focuses our imagination, and inspires us all to higher ideals and aspirations.  Commenting is more than an action; it is the completion and renewal of a cycle.  Whenever we write, we are commenting on some aspect of our individual experience of life. Whenever we read--be it Ishmael beseeching the great white whale or Fred recounting his day at the beach--we have the chance before us to experience life in a new, distinct, and powerful way, and from that reading we draw water from a deeper well--and therein lies the expectant hope of inspiration and insight. If we are wise and emboldened by discovery, we find the courage to face the empty page again and renew the magic and miracle of creation.  Only by engaging and entering this cycle can we discover our own greatness as readers and writers. 

I am also part of the cycle. I appreciate it when you comment on my blog, too. (During the school year I actually require my students to post on my blog as a way of checking in with me.)   Checking my blog and leaving a brief comment lets me know that you've read my writing prompts or slogged through one of my rambles on writing.  It is also a great way to post suggestions and ask questions or to give me some honest and respectful feedback on my own writing, or even just to say, “Check out my blog!” We are all a part of each others writing odyssey.  Odysseus was never an “island unto himself;” he never faced his trials alone. He was guided by the gods and refreshed by new and welcoming friends throughout the travails of his journey home from Troy.  We, too, must welcome and guide each other.

The idea for The Crafted Word did not spring from a desire on my part to merely help individuals become better writers.  The Crafted Word is an expression of my belief--a belief bolstered by experience--that writing grows best when writers help each other tend their crops and set their cornerstones. If we think and act like a guild, our crops will grow tall and our houses will stand strong. Our dues are paid to each other by the simple and magnanimous act of commenting. The idea for our writing communities, far from being cutting edge, is as old and timeless as the human desire to discern and distill, and ultimately comprehend, the magnificent commoness and  expressive power of well-crafted words. Commenting on a Crafted Word blog is no different than watching Socrates sit down and wait for his small circle to freely respond. Commenting is more than a responsibility; it is a opportunity.

So, seize the opportunity. If you have not contributed as many comments as you should, take the time to make your way through your community.  I know it is not always easy to step out from behind the anonymity of a web-link,” but I can assure you that reading and commenting on the blogs is an energizing and rewarding part of the writers cycle.  The bell tolls for you.

Write To Your Audience

Imagine you are cooking dinner and your stove catches on fire.  No problem, because you bought a new fire extinguisher the other day, and it's hanging on the wall right next to the stove. You grab the extinguisher and quickly read the instruction label. It reads: “My fascination with fire extinguishers began when I was a young child--early in 1963 as I recall...”  I doubt you will think to yourself, “Wow, this will be really interesting to read!”  You might rather that the instructions read: “Point extinguisher at the fire, pull the metal pin, and squeeze the black handle.” Knowing your audience and the reason you are writing goes a long way towards defining the style, tone, and content of your writing.

Many well-meaning teachers and schools have done a pretty good job of killing the joy of writing by neglecting the natural origin and evolution of writing.  You write a paper, hand it in, get a grade, and, more than likely, it is then buried in a sheave of other papers in the recesses of your backpack.  These written works are handed in to a machine and spit back at us with a reptilian calculus and moral detachment.  But words are meant to be heard and read, not damned with little praise or created in a vacuum. Even the greatest literary works are never finished; they are abandoned to a world where the writer hopes a willing ear will listen.  If our focus is on imperfection, how can we ever look in the mirror? John Updike  gave a lecture at my school one night.  During the question and answer period a parent rose and asked what Mr. Updike thought about how writing is taught in our schools. Mr. Updike responded with a simple and laconic: “Well, I wish there were more yes's than no's.”  The parent sat down with pursed lips and folded arms.  It was obviously not the answer he anticipated. Even the word “essay” is derived from the French word “essai'” which means, “to try.” Let  writers try, and let ourselves-like a respectful audience--listen with active minds and open hearts and offer our responses in the same spirit.

We need to remind ourselves that writing is a conversation from the head and heart to an actual person or persons.  This is your audience! Writing is a new, interactive and exciting human adventure. As much as I love my dog, I seldom send her postcards from my travels.  Moreover, most of us don't carry on a conversation when no one is with us. My wife is an amazing writer.  (She is also refreshingly untainted by living with a writing teacher.)  “I write,” she says, “just like I talk.” This way of thinking is not a bad way to approach writing--plus, when writing, you get to rewind your conversation if you say something stupid. Good writers intuitively understand that writing should flow with the natural rhythm and unique cadence of the spoken word; they understand that rambling and disjointed writing is as unappealing as a rambling and disjointed conversation; moreover, they try with all their mind, and heart, and soul to make their written word aspire to the majesty of the most eloquent spoken word.

The written word is always an extension of the spoken word delivered to a specific audience--an audience that you need to visualize and see what they are willing and capable of understanding  The written word is simply a new way to remember the spoken word. Novelists have taken over where the storytellers left off; newspapers and magazines have supplanted the town crier bellowing from the village square, while essayists now give lasting form and testament to the speeches and harangues that for centuries rallied the troops and urged countrymen to join a cause or crusade.  Our personal reflections and journals capture our quiet meditations and make palpable the fleeting memories of our lives. Temper the steel of your imagination; hone and craft the voice you already have, and your words will ring clear and true through the ages yet to come. Your voice is as real as the acorn sprouting in the waiting earth, and, as the saying goes, “No less than the trees and the stars, you have a right to be here.”

Thanks for listening.

Fitz

Writing Prompt: Specific Image and Action + Cool Twist= Vivid and Fun Haiku

A haiku is a poem of 20 syllables or less constructed in three lines using an image, an action, and a cutting element (Usually a punctuation mark)  that separates the  haiku into two sections.  That might not be the definition you know, but it is the one we will use for this exercise.  It is not a bad idea to stay close to the traditional 5-7-5 syllable scheme, but it is certainly not the end all be all of effective haiku.  Only a pedant is going to sit there and count syllables on you.  Good haiku has neither too little or too much.  Let's leave it at that.

The term haiku is derived from the word “Hai” which means “insightful,”  and the term “Ku,” which means “fun.” (Or something very close to that.) So let's just try and have some insightful fun!

First off, let's create a series of images and actions and make the first two lines of a “potential” haiku.

    •    Nature, and especially the seasons, is the best raw material for haiku.  Go outside and watch nature.  (Yes, move away from your computer and grab a notebook and a pencil!) Find a place where you can just sit and observe what is happening around you. Whenever you “see” something happening, write down that image and action using only nouns and verbs--and occasionally a necessary adjective, and rarely an adverb! The most common sights often make for the best haiku.

For example:   

In her nest of grass
The robin sleeps all day

A single earthworm
Inches across the wet pavement

Three painted monarchs
Dance around a single flower

Lightening flashes
And distant rumbling

Keep doing this until you have at least ten separate images and actions in more or less  five syllable and seven syllable lines.

Now, we will take those images and actions and create a haiku by adding a short thought, question, or statement. 

    ▪    In traditional haiku this is called the “cutting.”  The cutting puts a twist into the poem and lets your reader experience the image and action in a new (and often profound--and sometimes funny) way.  A good way to set off this cutting is by adding a semi-colon, double dash or colon at the end of the first section. I generally use a semi-colon in place of a comma and conjunction (so, yet, and, or, nor, for, but).  I use a colon to introduce a statement or a list.  I use the double dash when I want to add a cool thought or sudden insight to complete the haiku.  Try to keep this line between four and seven syllables.

In her nest of grass
The robin sleeps all day;
It must be Sunday.

A single earthworm
Inches across the wet pavement:
Stop the speeding car?

Three painted monarchs
Dance around a single flower--
Sweet waiting nectar!

Lightening flashes
And vague distant rumbling:
Somebody's getting wet.

These may not be the greatest haiku in the world, but I hope you get the basic idea of what I want you to try to do.  The important part of this exercise is to practice creating images and actions using nouns and verbs and essential adjectives,  By adding the cutting I want you to see that even the most common of experiences can have profound and unique meaning.

Writing Prompt: Telling a Dramatic Story

This started out as a writing prompt for the younger communities, but I think it is a worthwhile adventure for all of us to undertake! This is not meant to be a complete explanation of short story writing.  It is simply another way to try different ways of writing. Do try and start this writing prompt as soon as you can.  Let me now how it goes by giving us updates in your blog. I know that I am having  hard time coming up with an idea for my story:)

Writers tell stories.  A writer takes what they know, think, feel, imagine or wonder and they craft words into the shape of a story.  These stories are told in many different ways.  There are adventure stories, funny stories, ghost stories, fairy tales, mysteries, romances, fantasies, science fiction, myths, parables, horror stories, true stories, historical stories, short stories and epic tales, and they all have the same thing in common—they want to entertain us and keep our attention. Good stories are called “page turners” because they make the reader keep turning the pages until the end.  Sometimes it’s hard to know why you like a story so much, because you just do.

Paragraphing

“Just because no one understands you, it doesn’t mean you’re an artist.”
--Bumper Sticker

We were on our way to see Nana and Papa in Brewster and Margaret finally seemed to get it. She finally grasped that our ride to Cape Cod is broken up into a series of highways: Route 117 takes us to 128; 128 takes us to route 24; 124 leads right into 495, which brings us to 25, and 25 takes us to route 6, which leads us into the heart of Cape Cod. It is the same with our writing: paragraphs are like highways—they “lead us and guide us on our literary journeys. Paragraphs are the routes you choose that take us where you want us (your readers) to go. All that is truly essential is that you—as the writer—understand what you want your readers to experience. Your journey might be a series of meandering country roads, or it might be a straight shot down the Mass Pike. If you were riding in an ambulance with a broken leg, it would be disconcerting to hear the driver say he is going to take you on the “scenic route to the hospital.  By the same token, three thousand miles on I-70 hardly qualifies as a driving tour of the United States! My golden rule for a paragraph is, “As short as they can be, and as long as they have to be.”

Suggested Writing Genres for The Crafted Word

The wrestling team I coach will look at me sideways if I ask them to practice cartwheels.  Some professional football teams bring in dance instructors to teach their behemoths the art of ballet nd foxtrot. My point is that practicing any athletic sport will usually enhance your skill in your preferred sport. The same is true in writing: by practicing the skills and techniques used in different genres of writing, we enhance the overall quality and effectiveness of the writing we love to do or are required to do because of schoolwork or employment.  By practicing different styles and genres of writing, we learn to avoid the rut of developing a formulaic, predictable, and downright dull writing style—plus, you might even discover a new love and energy for writing.

As part of a Crafted Word Community I strongly encourage (which is just a hair’s breadth below required) to write in each of the following genres:

Writing a Personal Narrative

So much depends
on the red wheelbarrow
glazed with rain water
beside the white chickens.

-William Carlos Williams

It was funny to be swimming and clambering around with my kids yesterday in a remote stream in the Berkshires and thinking: "This would be a cool experience to blog about!" People ask me sometimes if encouraging people to get on the computer is a "good thing." As with anything in life, it is only a bad thing when it is used un-wisely or at the expense of living your life to the fullest. As I write this on my back porch, Charlie is swinging on a rope swing: EJ is collecting ants for his ant farm while Tommy investigates and shouts with joy at every caterpillar he can find.  I am eager to pack up the bus and head to the Cape and get my old sailboat in the water, so I can spend longs days (and some nights) cruising around Pleasant Bay and Vineyard Sound.   After years of teaching writing, I can say with confidence that personal narrative writing is the number one BEST way to improve the overall quality of your writing. You have to have experience before you can recreate that experience.

The Crafted Word Communities

I am just about finished creating all of the blogs for the different summer writing communities. I just have to go through and make sure they are all set up correctly with the right usernames and passwords.  If you have joined a community already, you will receive an e-mail early next week with the details to help you log in to your personal weblog and create your first posts.  It is simple and fun.  I can't wait to get started.

If your are interested in joining a community, or are just curious as to what a Crafted Word Community is all about, go to TheCraftedWord.org and see for yourself!

Thanks for joining!

Writing Is Like a Bicycle

                              

I came to school early this morning to get some work done, but instead I picked up the small book I always keep on or in my desk, Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style." It is a small ninety page book that spells out the basics of being a good and clear writer. Each spring, as the school year is winding down, I am haunted by how much I have not taught you and how many nuggets of literary wisdom--from a number of sources--I didn't pass on to you; and each spring I pick up that small tome and wonder why I didn't make it a part of our daily life in class. But you should make it a part of your life. If nothing else it keeps you aware that it is an effort to write well. Writing is like riding a bicycle; once you learn how to do it, you feel like you can do it in your sleep; but if you do it in your sleep, you'll end up in a heap on the road.

Good writing is being constantly aware. Elememnts of Style helps to keep you aware. 

                           

                              

I came to school early this morning to get some work done, but instead I picked up the small book I always keep on or in my desk, Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style." It is a small ninety page book that spells out the basics of being a good and clear writer. Each spring, as the school year is winding down, I am haunted by how much I have not taught you and how many nuggets of literary wisdom--from a number of sources--I didn't pass on to you; and each spring I pick up that small tome and wonder why I didn't make it a part of our daily life in class. But you should make it a part of your life. If nothing else it keeps you aware that it is an effort to write well. Writing is like riding a bicycle; once you learn how to do it, you feel like you can do it in your sleep; but if you do it in your sleep, you'll end up in a heap on the road.

Good writing is being constantly aware. Elememnts of Style helps to keep you aware. 

                           

The Perfect Reflection. The Perfect Breath?

                                                                                   

Homework
The Perfect Reflection
Due Friday, October 7
In class all week.
25 Points.
Details below:

I wonder why we are not all insane. Yesterday three people said to me with an admiring sigh, "What a perfect day." A true wordsmith would look at them like they were brain-dead. Perfect? Half the world is in chaos, and the other is asleep at the wheel—and you call it perfect?. But I let it slide. They know it wasn’t a perfect day, and I know it wasn’t a perfect day, but it sure was a nice day! We use the word because it seems to work the way we want it to work. It implies we have some idea of the quality of perfection. Every time we use the word we know that it’s an exaggeration.

We like to think we're seeking perfection, yet everyday we settle for something less--sometimes a lot less. We want the perfect job, the perfect spouse; we want the perfect plan to face life in all its vicissitudes. We want our kids to strive for perfection, and we even point the way...but still we don't know perfection, and we fail ourselves at every attempt to be perfect. We do know what it isn't. And so we cringe, avoid and obfuscate when we think of our own imperfections, but we can quickly identify three or four of the same in everyone we know--and especially in those we do not know; and even more especially in our students

There is no one word for “trying” to be perfect. We’re like mountain climbers struggling towards the summit of an unclaimed peak. Stop even slightly shy of the peak and your still just a mountain “climber.” Only when you reach the top are you a hero. Why doesn’t that stop people from trying? Because we need a goal. We need a peak to loom above us and inspire us to greatness. We need to slow down, live deliberately and save that “perfect breath” for the final steps to the summit. Use this week to write and rewrite; recite and recite again. Try different words. Try. Essai. .Don’t write for me; write for you.

Choose a topic and write a five to six minute reflection (when recited)which is as perfect as you can make it within this five day time frame.

You may expand upon something you've already started or written. (Another good reason to write good blog entries.)

Work in microsoft word with "track changes" enabled. This way I can see the work you are doing to make your reflection as "perfect" as possible. Save your work in your English folder as "username/perfectreflection. " Be prepared to work on it in class.

Work especially hard on your opening line and on the guiding statement in your opening paragraph.

Post your progress in your the homework category of your blog titled: The Perfect Reflection.

A Thought for My 8th Grade Boys

I wrote this today for one of my classes that is having a hard time finding good topics to write about.  Maybe they should read Rich's blog:)

When we first start writing in our blogs many of us run into the same difficulty: "What the Sam Hill can I write about? Nothing that is happening in my life is interesting..."

Baloney.

You are the inescapable you. Your mind is bursting with images, ideas, memories, fears, desires, hopes and wonderings. Everyone of which is uniquely and miraculously your own. If you can "recreate" who you are, then your readers will understand who "they" are--because they are as human as you are. Fit'z Day at the Beach might sound boring if all I told you was that I went to the beach. Whoopdee doo--why should you care that I went to the beach? You shouldn't care...unless I care. If going to the beach means nothing to me, then a lame attempt on my part to describe my apathy surely won't engage my readers. (Though it might satisfy the homework requirements.)

So then, write about something you care about. If it is even remotely important to you, you will be able to make it important to others as well. That is the power of art, and our art lives in the power of words. To find something you care deeply about might actually require some work--and so we ramble away in our journals searching for a place to begin; searching for an experience that hits you with that "oh yeah, that was cool" kind of feeling. A ramble is a way of creating a stepping off place to a more complete piece of writing--a piece of writing that is crafted as close to perfection as you can make it.

In the good old days I had a shoebox on my shelf. In that shoebox were lyrics to unfinished songs, napkins from Friendlies with ideas for different stories; maybe a rock I picked up on a beach in Oregon--just so I could remember that beach. Even just remembering that rock is taking me back there; the huge driftwood fire; the...

The point is there's good stuff to write about, and there's bad stuff to write about. The good stuff captures your heart and imagination. The bad stuff is just that: bad stuff that ain't worth recreating. Bad writing stuff is much different than when bad things happen to you. Bad things happening to you is almost always interesting to you (and oftentimes painful) and as such it provides rich soil with which to begin our writing. Corey Dillon didn't have a great game on Sunday, nor did he have a bad game. In fact, I don't think any sportswriter wrote about Corey Dillon. Who did they write about? They wrote about Rodney Harrison. Rodney Harrison's season--and very likely his career--is over. He's at the top of his game and life throws him a curveball. There's plenty to write about. Just think about it...

Has life ever thrown you, or someone you know, a curveball? How did you or they deal with it?
The same can be said of a homerun; whatever changes our lives or makes us think differently is worth writing about.

So don't just think about it. Write about it!

A Summer Blog Community

I am offering blogs and writing tutorials to anyone who is interested this summer. The writing will be blog based writing exercises and prompts, book reflections and journaling--similar to how we used our blogs this year--though you will have the freedom to write what most interests you. I am setting up my home computer with a server so that it can host Movable Type blogs. I will set you up with a blog, pretty much the same as you have now; you can even export this year's blog to your new blog. Everybody in the community will have their own password protected blog, which you can customize as much as you want. You will also be able to read and comment on other blogs in the community.

I will weigh in a couple of times of week with feedback on your writing, offer suggestions for how to improve your writing, provide links to sites that can help and a written monthly assessment of your work.

The writing blogs are not limited to the Fenn Community, but they are limited to common age and interest groups. My hope is to create blog community for young teenagers that is safe, educationally directed to help you become a better writer, and small enough to have plenty of personal contact.  If somebody wished, it could even be an entirely private blog between one person and myself. Propriety, privacy and common sense will inform the rules we follow.

If you are interested--or if you know people who might be interested--please let me know and I will let you know the cost and timing. You will of course need your parent's permission. My number is, 978-897-2076, My home e-mail is, balladmaker@mac.com

Writing a Song Reflection

One more time: Memorize this!

In times of great emotional turmoil the language of our everyday life fail us, and so we turn to the power of poetry, music and prayer.
-Peter Gomes

Writing these song reflections is a good opportunity to practice one of the most basic of songwriting skills: writing a "good hook." In this case your hook is your opening line; Try and make your first sentence as creative, interesting and unique as possible; every song you reflect on is on your list because of its unique qualities--because that song is one of the coolest, most meaningful creations on the planet. Since these reflections are short, try and make that open also serve as your thesis--or focusing--or steering statement; whatever you want to call your main point, the reader should feel they know what you are trying to say.

Never write--
I like this song because...
This song has meaning for my life because...

Do--
Use images and your senses to show us what you experience when you hear the song.
Think of your reflection as a living, thinking and breathing creation.

*Don't be afraid to take chances with your writing. The odds are the songs in your top ten took a few chances themselves.

Getting in the Flow (and Keeping in the Flow)

I've watched some of you struggling with this assignment. For a few of you the nature aspect feels limiting--maybe your sojourn in nature wasn't enough of an experience to give you good meat for a narrative; maybe you're not all that keen on your question; maybe the assignment is too forced and too un-natural; maybe you're lazy and don't feel like writing an essay that requires this much thought. For me, it feels like the year is winding down and I want to get to the next level--a confident place where you know what you know. I want you to leave this year with not only a love and appreciation for literature and writing, but I want you to think like a writer; I want you to work like a writer. I want you to recognize and be able to write well no matter who gives the assignment and what is expected of you. If you are asked to write about something you know then you should be able to write well about that topic. Nobody should write about what they don't know, they can't imagine or they haven't experienced. No teacher can expect that; no good writer should try to create words out of thin air. It ain't a pretty sight.

To be a writer is to be willing to write and to struggle towards your greatest potential. To be a writer is to embrace editing and re-writing as part and parcel of the trade. There are a few brilliant sorts whose first draft is their final draft. They write well intuitively, usually because they write a lot--much like you guys, but they don't always know what makes for good writing; they can't look at another person's writing and offer sound and wise advice.

They know good writing when they see it, but will struggle when asked why it is good writing. For most of us the writing process is a long night of going back into the heart of our writing and fixing and tweaking and re-arranging and chucking out and adding in and changing tenses and finding better verbs and better nouns and getting rid of cliches; yet somehow keeping the rhythm and flow so that it still feels natural and fresh--practically alive.

For the body paragraphs of this essay I urge you to just write; think through a few responses (a response does not have to be an answer) to your thesis and then just go for it. In the rough draft phase you don't want to stop writing. You can't leap a canyon in two jumps, but don't try and make chicken salad out of chicken manure. If after a good effort it ain't working throw it over your shoulder. Even if the essay ends up lousy, what's the big deal? You'll still have had a great writing exercise. You'll still have the barebones of a future effort. Every fruit comes after a flower.

After the rough draft takes shape re-read your words s-l-o-w-l-y and and consider the following.

The small picture stuff:

1) Do the sentences sound like you normally speak? Can you make them shorter and more clear? Any wacky pronouns or verb tense issues?
2) Are you using words that you might ordinarily use? Using new vocabulary is an important skill, but make sure the word works in the way you intend them to work. Avoid cliches like the plague. (see what I mean?)
3) Try not sound too "poetic." Sometimes we mistake makeup for beauty.
4) Adjectives and adverbs can often (not always!) be eliminated by the use of action verbs and vivid nouns. Rarely or never use the word "very" or "really;' It makes a bad adjective or verb worse.
5) Write in the "active voice."

The big picture:

1) Does your opening paragraph point the reader clearly in the direction of your essay (does it have a clear thesis)? Have you made a good faith effort to try and hook your reader in?
2) Do your body paragraphs relate in a direct way (no Liberty Streets!) to that thesis? Do they stick to one idea or example only?
3) Is there some kind of sense and/or logic to the order of your paragraphs?
4) Nobody likes when their internet goes down in the middle of an important "Chat." In the same way, does your essay end gracefully? Is there a real sense that you have wrapped up a conversation? Did you cut the board all the way through.
5) And by far the most important question: "Do you like your essay?"

I just spent over a half an hour editing this entry. Am I practicing what I preach, or am I just being a writer because I give a damn about what and how I write? I don’t have a logical head. There is no hierarchy in my thought processes. From the maddened jumble that is my mind I use words to make sense of who I am and what I feel and know. I fight my way to the edge of the forest. Everyday is a chance for me to leave something behind: a memory, a thought, a poem, a song, a story—all of them borne of a dream, cradled in my imagination, sharpened by experience, but always, always made of dirt.

The Opening Paragraph

The Crafted Word: How to Write a Narrative Essay

The Opening Paragraph:

Imagine being introduced to someone who acts like a complete jerk to you. Add on to this that the kid is a complete know-it-all who doesn’t know when to shut up; plus, thinks you are a total moron and treats you like you are an idiot. Try to imagine yourself going home and saying, “Hey Mom, I met this really cool guy today. I think we are going to be good friends. Can he come skiing with us tomorrow so I can listen to him all the way up to Quebec and back? He’s really interesting. He told me so.”

The reality is that this kid might get your attention, but I doubt he would be able to keep your attention; You might not be so eager to hear all he has to say.

When writing, don’t be that kid!

The opening paragraph introduces not only your topic but it also introduces you. If the reader likes and respects you they will keep reading even if your main thesis is lost in a jumble of irrelevant details. By the same token, if you capture their attention and engage their senses—see, feel, touch, hear, smell and taste—in a meaningful and relevant way they will want to read what you have to say; they will give you, the writer, the benefit of the doubt. A good opening paragraph gets you in the door. A good writer gets to stay in the house!

Techniques for a good open.

1) Think of a TV drama or sitcom. There is always a short scene to start the show. Its sole purpose is to make you curious and interested enough to wait through two minutes of commercials before the real show starts. The opening scene should not give away the ending but rather prepare you for the show itself; it points the reader in the direction your story is going—but make sure you get where you intend to go. A family flying to Disney World for winter break might be disappointed if they ended up in Newfoundland.

With that in mind, here are a couple of time honored opens:

a. Drop your reader right into a scene. Paint a picture of that scene and then end the paragraph with your “thesis.” The thesis can be either a statement or a question that needs to be answered. Here is an example by a noted author speaking without the “I” in his voice.

“Every day at 10:30 AM it’s the same: Kids dressed in pressed pants and Abercrombie shirts whip lacrosse balls at a shell shocked youngster in front of an oversized net. Their language would make a sailor blush. The smallest kid out there raises his middle finger behind the back of the large and lurking “upper schooler”—the obvious bully. Far off to the side two teachers are lost in conversation, oblivious to teasing, taunting and mayhem going on in front of them. All of this happening at one of the most prestigious prep schools in the country. It has to make you ask: who are these schools hiring, and are they qualified to teach our most precious resource, the children of America.”

b. Allow the reader to enter the world of your imagination. Take them on a journey through your thinking; invite them to join you on this journey. You need to include the “I” in your voice because you are asking your reader to join you—you in all your glory and decadence. Here is how Thoreau invites his readers to speculate on buying a farm. It is certainly not easy reading. Thoreau had no interest in writng to a lazy audience; Thoreau challenges us intellectually, socially, politically and philosophically. As a willing reader we know and respect that there is more than ever meets the eye on his writings:

“AT A CERTAIN season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house. I have thus surveyed the country on every side within a dozen miles of where I live. In imagination I have bought all the farms in succession, for all were to be bought, and I knew their price. I walked over each farmer's premises, tasted his wild apples, discoursed on husbandry with him, took his farm at his price, at any price, mortgaging it to him in my mind; even put a higher price on it—took everything but a deed of it—took his word for his deed, for I dearly love to talk—cultivated it, and him too to some extent, I trust, and withdrew when I had enjoyed it long enough, leaving him to carry it on. This experience entitled me to be regarded as a sort of real-estate broker by my friends. Wherever I sat, there I might live, and the landscape radiated from me accordingly. What is a house but a sedes, a seat?—better if a country seat. I discovered many a site for a house not likely to be soon improved, which some might have thought too far from the village, but to my eyes the village was too far from it. Well, there I might live, I said; and there I did live, for an hour, a summer and a winter life; saw how I could let the years run off, buffet the winter through, and see the spring come in. The future inhabitants of this region, wherever they may place their houses, may be sure that they have been anticipated. An afternoon sufficed to lay out the land into orchard, wood-lot, and pasture, and to decide what fine oaks or pines should be left to stand before the door, and whence each blasted tree could be seen to the best advantage; and then I let it lie, fallow, perchance, for a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.”
-Walden: Where I Lived, and What I lived For”

Voice and Tone

Who is speaking and what is the tone of their voice: The main reason I have had you write so much this year is to help you develop a writing voice which is distinctly your own. By and large it has worked, especially for those of you who kept up with your blogs and went beyond the required assignments. As your writing skills develop you can change the “tone” of your voice to suit your audience, much as you change the tone of your voice depending on if you are hanging out with old friends or adults. You can also take on a different “persona.” Essentially, you can act differently than you are. Most writing you learn in school asks you to write differently than you are (unless of course you are a brilliant, objective, insightful, clear and logical essayist). A scary part of my personality is that I’m a pretty good satirist, even though in “real life” I don’t like to make fun of other people or their situations. My “George Tries to Write an Essay” entry falls into that category. Finally, you can also imitate another person’s style. This happens with me all the time. You read something really cool and then you almost unconsciously start to imitate that writer. Cam did this after reading “Catcher in the Rye.” (You all should read “Catcher in the Rye.”) I didn’t even know he was reading it but then I casually mentioned to him that he sounded like Holden Caulfield. He tried to apologize, but I stopped him: There is no need to apologize for imitating greatness; we do it all the time in sports.

The long and short of all this is to ask you to be aware of the voice you are using and the tone you are writing in. Keep the tone and voice consistent throughout the piece you are writing. Always ask yourself, “Who is my audience?” and write to that audience as effectively as you possibly can. But don’t dumb yourself down. Certain writers, such as James Joyce, (Ulysses, Finnegan’s Wake) wrote to an audience that didn’t really even exist yet, much as Einstein developed theories that very few people could even begin to comprehend in his day. The evolution of literature is usually the work of some rebellious never do well who thinks beyond the constraints of the acceptable norms of their day. (hmmm..who could that be?) I appreciate your listening to me, but please don’t be limited by me.

Writing An Essay

"Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead."
-- Gene Fowler

No cause for alarm. I just found this website and wanted to save it in my "Crafted Word" section. It's the Ten Easy Steps to Writing An Essay.

This is another very good site. Basic Essay Writing.

Literary Terms

Try and become familiar with these terms. We will be using them when discussing the books we read. Knowing these terms will give you a formal language to study literature.

Hows it going?

Thanks for keeping me up to date in your blogs. I know studying grammar is not the most gratifying work you have done this year--or even close to the most important, but it is the assignment. Knowing how to salute will not make you a better soldier, but it will "let you be a soldier." Knowing grammar is kind of like that: It shows that you give a darn about the decorum and traditions underpinning the study of writing. And it certainly doesn't hurt to be prepared for future academic battles that might focus on the study of grammar.

Here is my all time favorite site for quick and succinct help with grammar related stuff. If you don't get something after completing a chapter in the yellow book go here.

Words

How often do we hear that we need a better vocabulary? How often are you reminded that your SSAT's and MCAS tests will kill you with their vocabulary sections? How much do you really care?

Learning vocabulary simply to pass a test or impress the snob next door misses the whole point and beauty of language. Language is the gift--as well as the tool--that allows and enables us to both appreciate, understand and express the complexity and nuance of our inner and outer lives.

A short, and hopefully pertinent, digression: I worked for a number of years building stone walls for John Bordman--a brilliant and ornery Yankee curmudgeon if there ever was one--in the hopes that I could learn everything I needed to learn about this piling on of stones. From early on in my apprenticeship he would leave me at a site for hours on end to pick through a mountain of stone trying to find the stones that would "fit together" to make the wall. Invariably, when he returned, he would calmly and quietly destroy ninety percent of my day's work. As critical as he was of society, he rarely crushed my fragile ego by criticising my efforts; Instead, he would say things like, "Damn hard to find good stones in this pile!" While in the same breath he would add, "But, it's all we have to work with." He would then proceed to craft a magnificient wall--a wall that will last for centuries--walls built out of the material at hand, walls that only a true conniseur of stone walls could appreciate.

It didn't take long to figure that building stone walls would take its toll on both the body and the fingers of a fledgling folksinger. But in my world of metaphor I carry those same stones with me as I struggle to build a song, a poem, a story...or this. Words are the stones we work with; the more stones in our pile, the more we can build the wall of our dreams. But equally important is the reality that a pile of good stone does not make a wall, as a thousand new vocabulary words won't make you a better writer. John Bordman never went out and bought more stone just to have more to choose from; instead he always brought good stone in the first place: stone from walls that edge the fields (and what once was fields) all over New England--hand-picked stones culled from the wisdom of his experience. Big, solid, interesting stones already weathered by the storms and viccisitudes of time.

It's not so much that you need a lot of obscure words as much as you need good words. And you need to recognize good words. And to do that you need the experience of words used well: words used in elevated writing; words used in great speeches; words you hear and read and feel; words that you see working. A truly extensive and effective vocabulary is built on an "attentiveness to precise language." It means you have to embrace the world of words used well; It means turning off senseless TV. It means measuring a book by the possibilities it presents, not by its rank on the best seller lists; It means discussions informed by wisdom and decorum--not polemics. It means entering your writer's space wit an open and disciplined mind. It means learning the craft, and recognizing the art, of writng.

It is simply another chance to get better at what you do.

Say what you mean, and mean what you say.

And try like hell to say it well.

-fitz