The Writing Will Come
It’s easy to put pressure on your kids. Parents are notorious “nudges.” We expect our children to make measurable progress in each area of life every day of the year…or we’ll comment on it, or nag about it, or gently sweetly explain its importance again and again. We measure our own success as parents by how well our children grow up!
Writing doesn’t thrive under those conditions. Nagging, reminding, explaining, nudging – these create anxiety which thwarts the creative process. You need your yogic-self when embarking on writing. Calm, low expectations, quiet, space.
These are conditions that support writing.
Stressed parents make stressed children. You must master your own perfectionism and anxiety first, before freewriting.
In fact, some parents even make freewriting feel like a rule-bound writing excursion. There’s the “right way” to freewrite, which includes obvious mistakes and flights of fancy and urgency. What happens when a child is uptight, careful, and tedious in her clipped short dull sentences? Does that mean freedom in writing failed?
Think back to “free.” Freedom means “not bound.” In this case, not bound by anything! Whatever your child offers in the freewriting excursion can be valued and honored, accepted and appreciated.
Relax. Be there for your young writer as he or she is. Try again another day. One day, writing will come and flow and all of you will be amazed that it was just behind Door #2 all along.
