What are some things you avoid like the plague? (That is, besides using cliche expresssions like AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE 🙂 I (Emily) tend to avoid laundry. I think it’s because there are so many steps involved, the sorting, the washing, the drying, the folding . . . in my head it’s just a whole thing. I do everything BUT laundry and then let it pile up until I have no choice but to stop everything and start sorting and washing.
When it comes to writing, Carrie and I have noticed that kids avoid REWRITING like I avoid the laundry. The minute we say, “rewrite this” they are suddenly so busy with ANYTHING BUT WRITING. What was interesting about a piece of writing five seconds ago is DEAD and they shut down.
After years of trying to figure out how to combat this problem, we’ve come to a great conclusion. If they want to avoid rewriting, just LET THEM avoid it.
We’ll even go a step further and say, not only let them, but help them NOT to rewrite as much as possible. Surprised? Like the laundry, the key is to put it off as long as possible until they can’t stand it anymore and STOP EVERYTHING to rewrite, but this time it’s because they want to.
We find the best way to encourage this to happen is what we call “Story Surgery.” In other words, use any hack you can think of to help them make changes to a piece without a rewrite.Here are some “story surgery” methods we like to use with our writers:
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- Add sticky notes. Instead of rewriting a piece, fix that one sentence, that single part, that one word and put it on the sticky note.
- Use CODES. **** and @@@ and <<<<< are excellent ways to show where you want to insert something into a piece. It’s kind of fun when they are the only one who knows how the “codes” work for their story changes. It keeps them the experts.
- Get out the scotch tape. Tape extra paper to the bottom, top, or even the side of the page. Need to add a new lead? BAM use tape and a half sheet of paper and you’re set! Need to add more to the story but you’re out of paper? A little tape can work wonders.
Write On!
