Interesting, many of the responses I got to my piece were about a particular phrase that I used to describe the time in my life where I wasn't writing. I used the phrase "seasons of nothing." I'm so interested that so many people responded directly to this phrase since it didn't seem all that significant to me at the time that I wrote it. There were others things that I said which would have been more likely choices (so I thought) to be commented on. This experience makes me wonder about writer and reader as roles. Does this happen a lot? Do writers write things that they didn't really think were terribly significant and then their readers latch on and surprise them? It makes me wonder how many times I have done this while reading. Of course, I'll never know.
This was a positive experience for me. I am hesitant to put myself out there and this was a good step in that direction. I also really liked to learn about what other people were thinking about writing and where they were in that journey now. Not to mention that everyone had used some different piece of technology that I got to experience!
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| My post-it responses! I love post-its! |
I did do a lot of good thinking about my demo too. I don't really want to write about that now because I'm still basking in the glory of the post-it image above. I have this feeling that if I start to write about the demo I will lose the post-it glow that I imagine I have about me right now.
Later...
After viewing your digital story, I commented on "seasons of nothing" as being my favorite phrase. Here are some reasons why. I have a strong affinity to seasons and the changing of seasons and what that represents in life and the different seasons that have happened and continue to happen in my own life. I was struck by the visual images of the trees in your timeline representing the changing of seasons, without text, but symbolizing the passing of time. The word "nothing" also touches me deeply and means many things to me personally. It is interesting that others connected to this same phrase and I wonder what their reasons might have been...I think post it notes, multi-colored, should play a large part in your demo too.
ReplyDeleteMary: I really appreciate the details you gave in your response. I was drawn to the images of trees (which happen to be photos I took during a very emotional moment last fall) as representing that time in my life. I also wonder what drew other people to the same phrase. Thank you for the thoughtful reply.
ReplyDeleteI found that your story had some similar pieces to my story. I had a "season of nothing" for many years and am still trying to rethink my place as a writer. I am a fairly shy person when it comes to revealing things about myself. I too have a hard time putting myself out there. I loved the idea of a gallery crawl. I hope to use this in my classroom. Since your classroom is self-paced, would you be able to use this with your students? Would it work well?
ReplyDeleteTeena,
ReplyDeleteI think that I could still use the idea of the gallery crawl with my students. Perhaps I could use an online space so that it could be posted and available virtually. Also, at a point at which several students had completed the project we could do one in RL with post it comments and all!
I think it's hard to be a writer and be shy. We are in good writing company these 2 weeks!