Category: writing

  • My Writing Life in Five Sentences: Slice of Life #sol21 18/31

    My Writing Life in Five Sentences: Slice of Life #sol21 18/31

    I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing, when I didn’t have a narrator in my head turning my actions into sentences, when I wasn’t full of story ideas, when I didn’t itch to pick up a pencil and use my hand to form words on paper, when my favorite toy wasn’t my grandmother’s…

  • April Writing Challenges

    April Writing Challenges

    If you’re looking for a new writing challenge in April, here are a few to consider: NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing Month, offers a daily prompt as well as links to several more poems and poetry resources that may inspire. Amy Ludwig VanderWater at The Poem Farm announces a theme for her annual 31-day poetry projects.…

  • Four Things I’ve Learned in Four Years of Slicing: Slice of Life #sol19 22/31

    Four Things I’ve Learned in Four Years of Slicing: Slice of Life #sol19 22/31

    This post was inspired by Lisa Keeler’s Six Things I’ve Learn in Six Years of Slicing. Reading makes me a better writer. I used to think that my propensity for reading slices before writing my own was a way to procrastinate, and in my first year, I didn’t allow myself to read before I had…

  • How I Slice: Slice of Life #sol19 14/31

    How I Slice: Slice of Life #sol19 14/31

    This is my fifth year participating in the March Slice of Life Challenge, and this year, it’s different. Before, I carried a notebook and collected moments, fragments, words, ideas all day long. I sought slices everywhere. Pay attention, I admonished myself. Write that down. I worried so much that I wouldn’t be able to find…

  • Notebook Woes: Slice of Life #sol19 11/31

    Notebook Woes: Slice of Life #sol19 11/31

    Today, I borrowed a SPARK from Paula Bourque who blogs at LitCoachLady and whose latest book, SPARK!, focuses on quickwrites in the elementary classroom. If you’re stuck for a writing idea, be sure to visit Paula’s blog where she is sharing a different prompt every day in March. Here’s today’s prompt: A simple quick write SPARK to…

  • 11 Things about Me as a Blogger: Slice of Life #sol19 1/31

    11 Things about Me as a Blogger: Slice of Life #sol19 1/31

    One. I started blogging in November 2012, not coincidentally when I was at my first NCTE conference.  My very first post was called Writing Advice from John Green’s Dad and my mom left my only comment. “11 Things About Me as a Blogger” will be my 1,066th blog post. Two. The title of my blog…

  • My Best Piece of Advice for Making it Through the Slice of Life Challenge #sol19 2/26/19

    My Best Piece of Advice for Making it Through the Slice of Life Challenge #sol19 2/26/19

    Many of us are gearing up for the March Slice of Life Challenge that starts on Friday. (Friday!!! ALREADY?? YIKES!!) For 31 days, I’ll join 300+ other teacher/bloggers in crafting and publishing a daily Slice of Life, a short narrative capturing a moment, an image, a feeling, an experience. I’ve already unearthed my writer’s notebook,…

  • Quotidian Haiku: Haiku-A-Day Challenge #3

    Quotidian Haiku: Haiku-A-Day Challenge #3

    Image CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0 Steve Rotman on Flickr.com I am joining Trina Haase at Trinarrative for a daily haiku challenge in December. There’s always that day early in a new challenge where it’s late and you’re wrapping up your day and winding things down and then you suddenly remember you’ve committed to a challenge and so far,…

  • Traditional Haiku: Haiku-A-Day December Challenge #2

    Traditional Haiku: Haiku-A-Day December Challenge #2

    Image CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0 Steve Rotman on Flickr.com I’m joining Trina Haase at Trinarrative in a daily haiku challenge for the month of December. Today, I did some reading about the differences between traditional and modern haiku and attempted to write a traditional haiku.  I focused on the seventeen syllable count as well as three elements of…

  • 10 Things, or Getting Back into the Habit of Writing: Slice of Life #sol18

    10 Things, or Getting Back into the Habit of Writing: Slice of Life #sol18

    I always have lots of plans for summer writing. Stacks of new notebooks and the only pens I can write with. A couple of free professional development writing opportunities that should keep me in writing ideas and inspirations (#100DOSW18, Teachers Write). A lack of other obligations and time commitments that makes writing sound appealing and…