Sixth-Grade Graduation

One of the things we (our Writers' Group) try to do at every meeting is to have some kind of writing exercise to stretch ourselves a little. A few months ago our task was to re-create a piece of writing in a different format. Years ago I wrote down some memories about my 6th grade graduation ceremony, something like this:


At some point in my sixth-grade year, my parents divorced. In some ways, this wasn't a big change because my mother had almost always worked a full-time job outside the home and handled all of the domestic chores. My father was not a very active parent. In any case, Mom continued to work hard all day and come home to continue working. As the end of my school year approached, she decided to make a special dress for me to wear to the end-of-year "graduation" ceremony: we sixth-graders would be leaving elementary school and moving on to junior high school.

So for a while Mom's evenings included not only housework and cooking, but also making this dress for me. I remember it vividly: it was no ordinary dress. It was a sheath dress made of snow-white fabric, onto which she stitched rows and rows of lace trim. The lace trim had an inset into which she threaded red satin ribbon. There were hours and hours of delicate handwork and love in that dress.

On the morning of the ceremony, I was allowed to wear pantyhose, I think for the first time ever! While that is not at all thrilling to me now, it was then. I felt so grown-up and sophisticated in my pantyhose and this beautiful, fancy dress Mom had spent so many hours crafting for me.  Mom left as usual to go to work as my sister and I prepared to leave for school.

For some reason I no longer remember, I decided to ride my bike to school - something I had never done before. I have a vague recollection of being persuaded to do it by a friend, but the details have been long forgotten. In any case, I did ride my bike to school, white party dress, pantyhose, and all. If you know me, you will not be surprised to hear that on the way to school I crashed my bike. Bike wrecks leave their mark: my pantyhose were shredded and my snowy white dress was no longer snowy white. It was now marred with grass stains and smears of bicycle chain oil.

I walked across the stage at school in that stained dress and ripped hose. The embarrassment I felt competed with my guilt to fill my emotions. What should have been a happy day was ruined, and my mother's sacrifice seemed ruined as well.

I don't remember Mom's anger and disappointment, although I am sure she felt those feelings. How could she not?

I do, however, remember her forgiveness and her love.



At the Writers' Group meeting I mentioned above, I took the challenge of changing this memoir into a poem:


Sixth-Grade Graduation

Hours of work
Of care
Of love
After days already full;
Tired hands
Tired eyes
Tired mind.

Yards and yards of white lace
Scarlet ribbon winding through
Fine stitches
Create a white dress
Fit for a princess.

Careless girl
Cycles
Swerves
Crashes
Picks up and
Continues on.

Heartbroken girl
In lovely white dress
Scarlet ribbon threaded
Through yards and yards
Of white lace

With tire marks
Grass and mud stains
And jagged tears
For all to see.

The infinite love of a mother
Forgives.

The Writing For Our Lives Challenge by Andrea

      This blog is called Writing Four Lives for we four women, four friends, four writers writing about our four lives.  The title should also bring to mind the thought that we write for our lives- writing as if our very lives depend on it.  Since our inception as a group in 2010, each month we've tried many practices, habits, and methods to support and encourage one another in staying committed to the craft.  We read about being writers.  We give ourselves writing assignments while together.  We established a blog to keep us honest, to give us an authentic audience beyond each other, to hold ourselves accountable. We created a calendar to help each take a turn posting. When half of us published more faithfully than the other half, we upped the ante, used the acronym ACES (our first initials) as a way to hold each member responsible for staying the course and being committed to writing for and about her life.
   
      One post per person once every four weeks. This seemed foolproof.  It is the most and the least we should be able to do to support our commitment to being writing teachers who write, to be writers who actually produce content for readers.  Yet, if you do the calendar math on our blog posts just over the last four months, you'll quickly see that we have fallen short and far from this simple goal. We know better.  We are writing teachers.  We are students of the craft of writing. We would never allow our students to get out of the habit of writing to say something to someone or for someone.  Words matter.  We have things to say. What should one do when you've fallen off the proverbial wagon?

     Well, if you're writers, you pick up your pen or laptop, dust them off and begin again.  To help us do just that, I have created a challenge for our Writers' Group and anyone else who needs to climb back into the saddle and move their writing life forward.

Writing For Our Lives Challenge

Objective:
To refine a daily habit of collecting our thoughts, wonderings, recollections, and responses to our lives.

The Set-up:
Fifteen days of writing for 15 minutes each day.  Challenge will begin on August 1, ending at 11:59 pm on August 15.

Rules of Engagement:
1. Accepting this challenge means no opting out and no excuses. If by some unimaginable chance you miss a day, you must start over at one.

2. Plan how, when, and where you'll get your writing time in. You must get it in before you lay your head down at night.

3. Write until the time is up.  Writing Workshop is a time, not a task.  It is time to live and do the work of writers.  The timer tells us when we are finished for the day!

4. Upload an image on Instagram and/or post a line or two from your writing on our Facebook group each day as a measure of accountability and encouragement to the group.  Be sure to tag the other three writers!  Yes, that's three tags per day plus your own.  It's probably better than the other junk you could get tagged in on any given day!

Use the hashtags: 

    #IAmWriting4Lives  #15x15Writing  #DailyWritingRituals

This challenge is not limited to the writers of this blog.  If you need to restart your writing game, join us!  

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Strategies for Tackling the Blank Page
Strategies are better than prompts because you can use them anytime, anywhere and not write about the same idea or in the same way twice.

• Put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and just start writing what is on your mind, even if those words begin with, "I don't know what to write..." Then do not stop writing/typing until fifteen minutes are over.
• Take a look around where you are right now until something catches your eyes and sparks a memory, somewhere for you to start writing from.
• Let a piece of literature inspire a start on the blank page.  What thoughts did your reading evoke? What memories or reactions came conjuring up?  Start there.
• Writing off of a word as a strategy to get yourself started.  Choose any word, write it at the top of your page then write whatever comes.
• Storytelling is a great strategy for getting yourself unstuck.  Think of the last story you just told, a story from today or a story you tell all the time.  Take a moment to tell the story aloud if needed, then write.
• Snatches of conversation:  Somewhere with other people?  Listen in on their conversations and use what you overhear to jumpstart your writing.
• Take a few minutes to reread other writing you've done to find inspiration- something you want to say more about, something you think differently about now
• Sometimes writers write about people, places, events and ideas that are important to them.  Create a list, visual diagram, pictures, etc of any of these.  Choose one to write as much as you can, as well as you can before the timer goes off.