I give up. It’s not that I haven’t written anything today. Oh no, it’s much worse than that: it’s that I haven’t *finished* anything today. When I realized I was struggling to write, I looked through my photos, thinking that a photo essay might be just right. I even got as far as creating a March collage. Then I decided I didn’t like it. Harrumph.
I considered writing about my pets because I love posts with pets, but this morning Hera stood on my chest and purred until I woke up, and the dog was kind of a jerk at the dog park this afternoon, so no posts for them.
I looked back at ideas I’ve collected from other bloggers this month and got deeply involved in a prompt from Steph at Steph Scrap Quilts, but it’s definitely not done enough to share. Or, more true, I like it too much to share it too early.
I tried to shake off my writing blahs by doing non-writing things that sometimes help me write: I took a walk, baked (banana bread – delicious), talked to my sisters for a long time, worked out, read other blog posts… Still, nothing.
And here I am. It’s almost 8pm, and this is what I’ve got. I’m giving myself credit for writing something when nothing would have been easier, and I will publish my imperfect writing.
Now that I think about it, I’m going to dedicate this to my students. After all, I started blogging as practice so that I could be a better writing teacher. I think it’s worked. If nothing else, I know what it means to stare down a blank document, knowing I have a deadline, knowing that others will read my work, knowing that another day, another hour might make it better. And then, I publish anyway. This is what I wish for you all: the strength to do your work, even when you aren’t inspired, and the courage to turn it in, even when it’s imperfect. This is me, practicing what I teach.
Persistence and Pedagogy 
Give yourself credit for banana bread (my favorite), and a walk, and exercise, and play with and for the animals at the dog park!
I especially love your last paragraph. I love that it’s a dedication to your students. They’re lucky 🍀 to have a writing teacher who deeply understands writing from the inside-out.
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this is rockstar level, friend. I LOVE that last wish. Remember, perfect is the enemy of done.
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I felt exactly the same tonight, plus some other issues. The way you wrote through your frustration made me feel validated and you reminded me of a student of mine doing something similar; maybe I’ll write about him tomorrow night.
Grateful for you, Amanda!
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Right back at you. Hope we both sleep well!
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I like how this slice helped you empathize with your students. I think that’s always a good thing to be able to put yourself in their shoes. I feel like my son’s teacher (one in particular) could use an exercise in that.
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Oh, don’t get me started about some of my kids’ teachers. Sigh. (And yes, some of them are wonderful.)
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Yep, my daughter’s teacher is AMAZING. And many of my son’s are great too. But one, not so much.
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This is why we write! Bravo! I felt the same way today…I have no “in the bank ideas” this year, but each day something comes out. I’m pretty impressed with all of us.
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I always admire how you find slices everywhere! Oddly, being off for a week has made it a little harder- largely because my boys do not want to feature here!
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I’ve been finding the weekends harder, so I get it!
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I appreciate your honesty in this post. I think we can mostly all relate. I certainly can. This writing challenge has definitely humbled me to what our students expereince and overcome, on the daily.
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Grateful for your honesty in this post. I had a similar struggle today in figuring out what to write about. Your slice is a good reminder to us all, to show up even on the tough days when you’re feeling uninspired, write anyway, and publish it even if it’s imperfect. That wish at the end is pure poetry. Thank you!
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I love that you shared both the struggle and the resolution. And *this* is writing! (This *is* writing!) You also make your difficulty tangible. You give it character, voice – a multifaceted profile. We are all publishing our imperfect writing which is both the joy and the catch. Why we both hesitate and still persist.
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Yes! The joy and the catch. That’s exactly it. When I get seriously stuck, I remind myself that it “just a slice of life” and sometimes that shakes me back into what we’re doing here.
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I totally felt this way, too yesterday. And I love how you dedicated this to your students. I wonder what they would think of some of your blog entries?
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Some of the older ones actually read my blog – along with some grads. It’s one of the many reasons I’m cautious about complaining about work. Here’s hoping that some of them caught this post.
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Sherri directed me here today in her “Jumbled…” post. What great luck! I love the final paragraph; “just do it” isn’t only a commercial slogan.
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Isn’t that the truth? Somehow, we’ve created people who are afraid of imperfection, afraid to be seen to be trying too hard. I know it’s societal, but I wish they could see the gifts of letting go. Maybe it comes with age?
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Well that I’ve got…
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You’ve just summarized every day of my life! Should I write? should I speak? What should I write and to whom or about whom? If I speak up, who will get mad at me and will it cost me a job?
I like to believe this is a product of brilliance, where I have so much wisdom that I cannot make sense of it all. In the end it’s just ADHD run amuck, usually ending with a cold beer and another round of Call of Duty.
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Cold beer & Call of Duty doesn’t sound so bad… The best thing about this annual “write for a month” challenge is that it forces me to give up on brilliance and just get the words down, though I still hate hitting publish on something that’s only so-so.
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Yes! Some days I don’t really have a slice but I DO have writing in various states of thinking through and needing more time and space and needing to be set down for awhile and returned to later. I DO have ideas I just can’t do justice to yet. The arbitrary deadline of the daily slice–and how sometimes that’s very generative for me but other times it constricts and keeps a piece of writing from becoming what it wants to become–does make me reflect on how our arbitrary deadlines at school impact our writers.
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