The Truth About Real Writers (And What It Means for Your ELA Class) Ep 2

In this episode of Beyond the Paragraph, I’m pulling back the curtain on what real writers do and how we can finally start teaching like that. As a middle school ELA teacher and children’s book author with Disney, HarperCollins, and Houghton Mifflin, I’ve lived both worlds. 

You’ll learn:

• What real authors actually do (and what we don’t)
• 4 things writers do that students should too
• A simple shift you can make this week to transform your writing block

Whether you teach in a classroom or around a kitchen table, this episode will help you ditch the rigid checklists and start teaching writing that actually works.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:

Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk

Take the full Structured Writer's Workshop training

➡️ Learn more about the FULL Structured Writing training PD

📆 Grab my yearlong writing planner for free (it includes my eBook!)

🎥 Watch the teaching strategies in action on YouTube

📝 Read the latest blog posts for writing tips & ideas

HAVE A QUESTION? Email me at robin@structuredwritingteacher.com

Transcript

Ep 2 The Truth About Real Writers (And What It Means for Your ELA Class) - 
Transcript:
(00:01) So what comes to mind when I say the writing process What picture do you have in your head If you're an ELA teacher and if you're using you know your teacher guide and the curriculum that you've been given you might have the kids with folders and they're labeled and it says brainstorm outline draft revise final something like that And you might have posters in your room that say the same thing and they're really pretty from Evmore or whatever that you got at the store And I want us to then also shift
(00:48) our thoughts over to some names So I want you to think about Stephen King Maya Angelou Shakespeare Faulner I want you to think about the classics I want you to think about the modern stories Think about John Green Think about Lewis Sacker all these people who have written amazing things and do you think that their process was the same that they did the exact same thing in the exact same order I would say probably no Not at all the authors that I know and the authors that I have studied and read about their process is messy and frustrating and
(01:45) then it's beautiful and exhilarating And part of it is that the what they go through with each project that they do it's different each time And I found that for myself as an author when I was writing I would approach every book differently And there was actually this one like plotting book that almost all the authors I knew we were all using it It's called Save the Cat Amazing book If you ever want to go and write your own script or novel go get that book And there's one that's that's geared toward plotting novels And
(02:22) there is a like a graphic organizer that goes with it and you can print it out fill it in It's like a fill it in thing And then they have tons of them all over the internet you can just get it print it out blah blah blah But as I was reading through it I would try one of these worksheets and it like my thoughts there were certain parts of it where I wanted to go into more depth I needed more room to write some stuff and some of them I didn't want to go I didn't want to do at all I just wanted to kind of let that part go So I ended up
(02:55) redoing the entire thing myself so that it fit for me And that is something I want you to consider when you're asking your students to write is what is going to work for them And not every graphic organizer will work exactly the same like that It's not like woo this is it This is the answer I'm going to tell you what I do though So don't worry we'll get into the details of how do you get them to brainstorm and organize and all of that But when I first started publishing my books I was just really shocked by how
(03:33) the experience was so different from what I had been asking of my students Because even if you're a reporter for a newspaper and they ask you to cover a topic the the instructions from your editor are not please go write a five paragraph essay And when we're brainstorming we do it in lots of different ways It could be brainstorming on a piece of paper with just a free write of words It might come out as sentences It might come out as a conversation And that's something I also want you to consider is how do we get
(04:11) the kids to brainstorm super important And I I find that they really need to do it And I teach them why it's important in that first lesson that I do on voice because they'll discover that when you start brainstorming your first idea is typically pretty much the first idea that most people have And so you got to get past that You've got to be original You've got to get out of the cliche And the only way to do that is through a particular way of brainstorming Really important But to get the words out and the ideas out I like to give them
(04:45) choices of how they would like to do that They might just hit record and record something for me of their thoughts on everything they want to do or not do And so then as authors we would start to write And I may have brainstormed stuff I may have only talked through it I may have outlined it I may have not outlined my book at all There were several times that I started writing a novel and I didn't outline at all I just started writing because this idea or this character or it just came to me so quickly and I had to get this
(05:22) out on paper And if somebody had said "No no no no no You can't just start writing You're going to have to go and fill in this worksheet and then you can start like no no no no no You don't understand." And there's a TED talk that I want you to go and listen to teachers if you have not um Elizabeth Gilbert does a TED talk on I'll put a link below because now I can't quite remember the the title of it It's like the magic of ide creativity I think Um she wrote a book called Big Magic and it and so it's kind of like the summary of Big Magic
(05:59) Amazing book I'm on my second read of it and it really really would help teachers as well just to see what goes through our brains when when anybody's trying to create anything It's absolutely amazing Her TED talk is phenomenal And she has a thing in there talking about a story in which a poet grabs a poem by the tail And I I do want you to go back and listen to that because it really helps kind of encapsulate this whole idea So we might like spend time writing then go back and outline um then go in and do more revising Like
(06:36) the process is kind of here and there And this whole idea of just going from from brainstorm to draft to peer edit to publish to it just doesn't quite work But don't worry as we go through this podcast I'm going to I'm going to break down all the things for you It might feel a little scary sometimes um because you you have a little bit of you have to have a little bit of trust that that they can do this and they can because your students are our future authors They're just little adults and so we need to treat them you know like
(07:11) the the gem that they are that they're going to be That's how we need to picture them I want to go through four different things to keep in mind about what real authors do And I don't mean like real I I just mean like you know those who take writing seriously I guess Um what is it that they do differently in order to do that and then how can we incorporate that into our classroom So number one a writer will make choices a lot of choices And anytime that you can get your students to make a choice about their writing please
(07:52) do Um if they are you know it's not just you get to pick your topic but it's you get to pick the way that you process through this as well So I do require like when we're doing an essay I do require that my students have some form of pre-planning done And some of them will will pick the recording thing Not many that doesn't really happen that often but you could do that And then what I do is I have graphic organizers out for them And I have three of them And you'll see in my program if you're in my program the
(08:30) number three is very big with me So is seven So I have three out on the table and I tell them I want you to pick the one that's going to help you organize your thoughts So they're going to make the decision about what works for them One of them is kind of a traditional outline Some of them just love that traditional stuff That's what they've been doing That's what they know That's what they like Another one might be one of those mind map things you know where it's circles and lines and or whatever I can find that's sort of a mind map And
(08:58) the third is nothing It's a piece of paper It's a white piece of paper and I tell them "Organize your thoughts the way that works for you." And several of them will always pick this And it's so incredibly interesting to see how their minds work I if you do this your your mind will be blown some they just go in all of these different directions and it's the coolest thing to see your kids start to suddenly become writers because you're giving them the choice So there is structure in the writing program but the approach to it is I I respect you as
(09:40) a writer because you will eventually become a writer in every part of your life We're all writers Okay Okay The second thing that writers do they revise and I would say they revise dramatically It it's writing is revising and to revise means to re which is again and vise which comes from the Latin root vision to see So you see it again You see it differently all over So I've you know rewritten whole chapters I have started all over again I've done little edits I've done huge edits One of the interesting things is
(10:23) that usually um I find when I start writing a story that the beginning of my story is actually chapter 3 Like almost every single time I will start writing writing writing writing writing and then and this I have heard this from so many authors that they realize that ch the first chapter or two is just for the author It's just for them to establish who this character is what's going on here where are we What's the flavor What's the tone All that stuff And then you you get confident and then you hit chapter 3 And then that should be your
(11:02) first line And you'll notice in your students writing that it's typically not all of them but it's like the third or fourth sentence that actually should be their hook because they're doing a like a walk up to whatever they're whatever they're writing They're getting warmed up They're getting into the story And it might start with the cl the clouds were ominous and cackling at me right May but maybe that was their third or fourth sentence And their first few sentences were like "One day I came home and we drove up to the house and it had been
(11:39) raining and mom blah blah blah The clouds were blah blah blah." So it's those first couple of sentences there is for the writer to to establish where they are And then I tell them "Cut those." And that's they love this I'm like "Just cut those sentences Look at this." And then you have them read it out loud I say "I want you to imagine this is the first line of your story Read it out loud to me.
(12:05) " And then they read it and then I they look up and I'm like "Doesn't that sound so cool?" And they're like "Yeah." And I said "Yeah that's how you start with confidence right there You just cut out that stuff that you needed and then just start where it's happening." And I want you to think about it like um I know I do a lot of sports metaphors but this one's a gymnastics metaphor Do you know on the uh pommel horse Is that what it is You know the one where they run and jump and flip in the air Sorry everyone The one where they the horse I
(12:37) am clearly speaking about things that I don't remember anything about But you know how they all have their own process before they go do it They get up there they bounce or they like crack their knuckles or they twist their back and then they start running and they do their own type of run right They're they they look kind of goofy Some of them run cra like crazy But are they judged on the way they run up to that They're not They're only judged on the jump and the landing So their process to get there is their own process that they needed to do
(13:15) that they needed to come up with that works for them So it might look a little different from what we're doing or thinking but that's gymnasts need it and so do writers The third thing is that writers will talk We as authors have critique partners editors we have writing groups we go to meetings we go listen to other people talk about write We're in this world of talking about writing constantly So I would involve more talking than you can think of Talk like turn and talk about your ideas Turn and talk about a sentence Um and and in my
(13:59) workshop the students are in trios But I've always found like I said the number three very very big with me that having a group of three talk through what they've written um can be pretty powerful cuz you don't have one of they can't disappear If it's four or more then one or two of them are going to disappear If there's three of them then at least if there's one quiet one then then you know the other two can have a conversation because it's awkward But three works really well and have them talk about their writing after they've
(14:32) written Super important So you're going to create moments for your students to talk like writers They're going to ask for help or bounce around ideas or find diamonds in each other's writing I'll talk about more about diamonds um in another podcast That's a big part of the program Now I'm going to move on to number four which is what writers do And writers read I mean that's kind of obvious right So we read but but we read differently Like you read as a writer You notice craft You notice techniques You notice tone You notice
(15:15) how did they start their sentence How did they end that chapter How did they you know you ask your question and there's so many um novels that I have in my bookshelf that are they're totally marked up and I've got notes to myself I'm highlighting things So sometimes I read for fun and I don't mark my book up It's kind of rare but I love to notice what other writers are doing Now I want to go back to this concept of the process posters The brainstorming part of it is still there It's just that they're going to have some decisions to make about
(15:58) what works best for them The outlining part of it some of the planning it's also still there And I also suggest doing some pit stops or or check-ins that they earn points Think of it like they gather points along the way to the end before they if you're doing an essay right They're going to gather points till they get to the final part of the essay and even maybe even the points along the way count just as much as the final draft because all of this stuff is super important So they're brainstorming they are outlining or
(16:33) getting their ideas out there And and you might find though that some of them say "I don't want to outline." And and I often will say "Okay you probably will find that you need to later won't you?" And 100% of the time they go and they start writing and then they come back up there about 10 minutes later like "Ugh.
(16:50) " So it's kind of up to you if you absolutely require it or not I mean ultimately I do because I want them to like I said gather the points along the way get the 10 points for that and then they're going to go into drafting And sometimes in teacher land we call that sloppy first or whatever sloppy draft Authors in the real world have a a much more colorful word that they use to describe that But it's the same thing And when I traveled around and talked to students across the country really I would tell them this um analogy that if
(17:28) you imagine that you are in an art class and you are going to create like you're going to make a mug out of clay or you're going to make some statue out of clay or whatever you're going to make this amazing thing right And so you don't just you like the clay is always sitting up on the teacher's big table at the front and it's enormous It's this huge chunk of clay and you're supposed to go up there and take your string or wire and you cut out your your part of it But you don't go up to the huge thing of clay and try to just and
(18:07) carve out your masterpiece You've got to take your chunk and you figure out how much you think you need and you take your string or your wire and you lasso it and you take your chunk and you have it in your hands sitting there and you're walking back to your table and this is your chunk of clay and you're like this is it This is I have enough to work with And so that chunk of clay is your draft It's not pretty It's not done It's not anything you're going to give to anyone yet but you have something to work with And you
(18:44) absolutely have to do that for your students Tell them to get their chunk of clay which is their draft because then they will have something to work with and they'll be able to get to the revision process um in a much more efficient way Now you may be thinking "This sounds great and all but how am I going to actually do this with 30 students and we've got this pacing guide and everyone's breathing down my neck and maybe you have six classes a day How do you even do this?" This is all like a a long unfolding here on the podcast I
(19:19) I'll break down all of the the steps to this If you want to hop ahead and go get the training you can look for the link below I have a 10 video training where I show you you can actually see all the documents all the things that I use to get the kids to make their own goals Um how we the structure of it all It's all in there But for now I want you to try something It's a small thing but I want you to if you've never done this give this a try And that is to model writing with your own chunk of clay So I'm not saying you know when we when
(19:59) you go out there and you model an essay for them and you fake and pretend like you don't know what to do like hm I wonder what's next it's so inauthentic and they they know what you're doing But if you actually like during workshop if you actually sat down and wrote with them and you tell them when you're doing the workshop that I'm going to write alongside with you today and I'm going to pick path two skill number four That will all make sense later when I tell you more what that means And when you when the timer tells you to start you
(20:39) all sit down and you start writing and you don't look up But if somebody starts talking you are going to look up and go "Shh I'm writing." And it's going to sound different and look different than if you were just sort of meandering around saying "Shh please don't talk Everybody's writing No talking please.
(21:01) " Like that's again back to like but if you are really writing like you want to do this and you want to write something good you will authentically be like sh I you guys I'm trying to write and they there's something about you literally writing with them that that makes them get on what they need to be doing and then do the process with them share your writing and be vulnerable so that you can they can see that you're like "Oh my gosh I'm so embarrassed.
(21:36) " Like this is how I started you all Like when when I taught fifth grade in Atlanta and I was doing that creative writing stuff and we read Louisis Sacker's um sideways stories from Wayside School that's the book that got me to realize like I could do this I love this book I could write silly funny stuff And the I told that to my students and they were like "Yeah you should totally do that.
(21:56) " So I would write alongside with them and then I would share my stuff and I I was so nervous and I'd say "What did you think?" And they were like "That was so good We like this and we like that." And that that was the beginning of this whole thing was that one fifth grade classroom in 1992 And they they encouraged me and some of the stuff that's in that notebook that I wrote about ended up being in the classroom the series that I wrote for Disney And so it's so important to start getting your words out to show them vulnerability and to
(22:32) show them that the process is you know sometimes it's messy and but it's can be a beautiful thing in the end So to recap real writers will make choices they will revise dramatically Um they're going to talk through ideas with other people and they're going to read books like writers And you my friend you are a writer too So get out there and write right along with them I'll see you in the next one Be sure to follow Beyond the Paragraph wherever you get your podcast and share this with a teacher bestie They will love you for it and so will I
(23:17) To go deeper and learn more about the structured writing method go to structuredwritingteer.com [Music]