This is the complaint of my 9th grader, when faced with today’s freewrite (on Haiti, that being the closest land to where her finger hit the globe).

“That’s why we’re talking about it before you start your freewrite,” I tell her. “I’ve given you lots of ideas to get you started. You can take them where you like.”

Fifteen minutes later, when the timer goes off, she tells me she isn’t finished. I tell her to carry on–the timer is a minimum, not a maximum. Another 15 minutes, and I go in to see how she’s doing. She’s up to page 4. She reads me what she has so far, and I’m giggling mightily over the epic struggle between the cub and the ferocious head of grass. (This is not the Haiti that we know, but so what?)

Waddaya know! This freewrite stuff DOES work!

Maybe this will be the one that she chops and polishes and sends to Cricket magazine for publishing.