I chose to read and review a book that I thought was not only challenging to me personally, but would help me to impart ideas and strategies to my students, particularly those taking creative writing. To this end I chose “Breathing In, Breathing Out” by Ralph Fletcher.
A first glance, the book might seem like nothing more than a piece to encourage what all writers promote as the good habit of keeping a journal, daybook, diary, or other pen to paper work somewhat similar. Yet, on further reading, the merits of this author’s approach begin to reveal themselves. Fletcher combines sound advice to acknowledge one’s own voice and experience with example texts from various authors, including himself.
Validation. This is the one word I choose to word to sum up the emotion I felt after reading this book. Writing is a lonely task at times. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only person who looks at life the way I do, asks the questions I do, or listens to the snippets of conversations around me. Fletcher’s encouragement to not only pay attention to these things but to also record them in the writer’s notebook made me feel much less stupid! I suddenly found myself recalling several strange bits that I had tossed aside as merely things my brain strangely turns to. After reading Fletcher's work and examples, I chose to write them down, although I felt a little silly. I wrote about standing in line for a Disney World ride and watching a young girl intently studying her grandmother’s arm skin as she made it wobble back and forth. It made me think about how confusing and fascinating this must be to the young girl--her arm skin so right and firm and full of youthful elasticity long since gone from her grandmother’s arm. Yes, I felt validated to write about this.
And this is where Fletcher's advice really starts to get interesting. Not only should we write about these bits or snippets that we observe or hear, we should later go back to them and mine them for use in full length pieces. Again, he practices the idea of the mentor text and demonstrates how he has used items from his notebook in full-length pieces. So maybe this image of a young girl and her grandmother will show up in my writing later. Maybe it won't. Either way, I captured it, I validated it, I wrote it down. This is what keeping a writer's notebook is really about.
I love the way you view the world. I feel the same way, see simple things and want to capture them, as if watching a movie in slow motion. The book you chose sounds wonderfully moving and I share the same opinion as writing being a lonely task. I actually prefer the solitude of writing and journal multiple times throughout the day, at times feeling compelled to extract my emotions from inside to on paper. It is such a release. Looking forward to collaborating this summer.
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