My students are my deepest inspiration for writing.
When I shifted from school system bureaucracy into the K-12 classroom, I created some personal narratives to model the writing process with my 6th graders. The hook sank right into my bones.
For over three years now, the writing bug has woken me up early in the morning.
In this process, I've come to see myself as a writer-for-life. As a professional challenge, it makes sense to share inspirations, reflections, and perhaps some reviews-of-sorts. It's an exciting moment.
I'm currently revising a YA novel that's set in a near-future NYC. My goal is to craft a book that youth will not be able to put down. I want them to fight over copies. I want them to pull out the book to read when they could (or should) be doing other things. That's the dream. This blog cannot be separated from this writing process - the joys, the hope, the strains, the moments of complete bafflement.
So, I just picked up Story Engineering by Larry Brooks as well as the Gotham Writers' Workshop text on fiction. As impossible as it seems, I also hope to take a week to step back and reflect. I'll probably dump quite a lot of posts and media during this time. :)
