Your kids hate writing because they don’t know that the words that live in their heads are the ones that need to be on the page. They think they have to find the words the teacher has in mind or the words that the assignment expects. They sometimes think they have to find the words that they can spell or punctuate.
The Secretary for Your Brain
But writing is merely being the secretary for your brain. Your kids need lots of room to simply hook up the hand with the mind and scribble it onto a page. That’s it!
Can you trust that messy process to grow a writer? YES!
Today: set a timer for one minute. Everyone (including you!) writes! Keep that pencil going at top speed, no regard for errors. Just write. At the end, pencils, down, and give a big exhale. No need to even read the writing! Just do it.
Writing is hard when we think it’s a performance. Writing becomes easier and easier when we see it as a skill that hooks up a brain with a hand. Nothing less, but nothing more either.
Everything in the writing life starts with the confidence to put the pen on the page and write what you think.
This post was originally shared on Instagram.
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