Zero Draft

Writer's block. Who needs it? Not you, I bet. Writer's block comes from thinking too hard, putting on too much pressure to be perfect now. You stare at the blank page/screen and no ideas come. You write something down. It sucks. You get stuck. You figure you're better off playing Halo or baking brownies.

But what if you actually want to write and not just get carpal tunnel and cavities? The zero draft comes to the rescue. What's that? Weather stripping? Well, yes, but, I'm talking about writing, not home improvement. Stay with me here.

The zero draft, also known as the shitty first draft, is a jedi mind trick. A way of tricking yourself into writing by lowering the stakes. You're not really writing a first draft, or even a real draft. You're just writing a zero draft. It doesn't have to be any good. In fact, it's even better if totally sucks. You can write the first draft later. The zero draft is like a scrimmage, or a pre-season game. You're going to rest your starters and see what Curtis Painter can do. Who cares if you win?

Just write. Get it down. See where it leads. Don't look back. The key is to give yourself time. Write for an hour straight. Or if you aren't up to that, write for a half hour. Chances are you won't really be keeping track of time anyway, once you get into it.

Idea #2 for blog post

Write a list. 10 things I miss. 5 reasons the Colts won't win the Super Bowl again this year. 8 things I love about breakfast.

Fish Tank

Every year the local elementary has a Spring Festival, with bingo, a cakewalk, ring toss, and all of those games you only play at a school. When I was a kid, we had the same thing, but we called it a carnival. The idea is to raise money. At one of these festivals, my daughter M won a goldfish. She brought him home in a plastic bag filled with water. We bought a plastic fish tank, colored pebbles, a fish net, and fish food, and created a nice little plastic home for Goldie.

He died the next day.

So much for that. We emptied out the tank and stuck it on a shelf in the closet. Eventually, the tank made its way down to the basement, where it sat undisturbed for at least four years.

This weekend the tank made its way out of the basement for our yard sale. It lasted about ten minutes before being rescued by my nine-year-old daughter L.

"We can't sell this!"

She took it up to her room where it is now home to fish of a more durable nature.

Idea #1 for Blog Post: Write about a picture.

Create a blog

Everyone is making their blogs today. Yippee!

Why do I have my students blog?

Last year, I had my students create blogs for the first time, but I did not have them blog. Instead, I had them post assignments, such as reading responses and maybe their multigenre essay, to their blogs.

How is blogging different from that? Blogging requires regular posting. Blogging requires readers. Blogging requires the author to make choices about what to blog about. That is, a blog needs a blogger. Not a student posting a few random assignments.

Why am I making them do this? Here are five reasons.

5. Blogging gives students a chance to write for real readers. And to get feedback from readers.

4. Blogging allows students choice over what they write about.

3. Blogging gives students a way to get to know each other through their writing. It could--maybe, hopefully--foster a sense of community in class.

2. Blogging allows students to incorporate different media, especially images (see above), into their writing.

1. Blogging is fun. I won’t kid myself into thinking that everyone is going to love doing this. But it will give everyone a chance to write in a forum that is not graded. It will give everyone a chance to write for the sole purpose of communicating.

My main motivation for this was the feeling that last year I missed an opportunity with my students, that we just didn’t get that much out of the blogs because we didn’t really use them as blogs. This time I’m trying something different. We’ll see how it goes.

Note: Photo by Pascal. Source: Flickr.

Go for a walk after class

And leave your ipod, cell, and laptop at home.  You'll learn more:

Your Brain on Computers - Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime - NYTimes.com

“Almost certainly, downtime lets the brain go over experiences it’s had, solidify them and turn them into permanent long-term memories,” said Loren Frank, assistant professor in the department of physiology at the university, where he specializes in learning and memory. He said he believed that when the brain was constantly stimulated, “you prevent this learning process.”

Welcome

Welcome to all of you in my English 103 sections this semester. I'm going to re-start this blog this semester. I plan on being more active with it than I was last year. Partly, that will depend on whether I can make it something you will want to read (and maybe have to read). You all will also be creating and writing blogs yourselves. You can go ahead and create one here in blogger if you want to get started right away. Otherwise, you can wait until I introduce them in class next week.

I'm looking forward to this semester with a lot of excitement. I've been working on the syllabus and the class wiki for the past couple days, and I'm getting excited about the things we are going to be doing. I'll meet you all on Monday.