Sunday, August 6, 2017

Teachers Write 2017 - The End

Oh, my Teachers Write friends! It's here. The end is here. It's been a great four weeks but I'm still always sad to say goodbye to the end of Teachers Write. 

The good thing is that we get to keep writing with students when school starts again! And that's what Teachers Write is all about. We come together as a supportive community to learn from amazing people in the industry and work on our own craft. But the real magic of Teachers Write is that we get to take our experiences and share them with students.

My Teachers Write posts this summer were about sharing Tales From The Classroom and I hope they gave you some ideas for how you might keep Teachers Write with you all year. Here's a recap of my Teachers Write Tales From The Classroom posts. 

Tales From The Classroom #1
Tales From The Classroom #2

I hope you keep writing. I hope you invite your students to write with you. I hope you share some of the exercises or the quick writes with them. But more than anything, I hope you remember the love shared in this community. 

Writing is a process. And so much of the process is encouragement from others, positive feedback from others, cheerleading from others (someone to say Go! Go! Go!), solidarity from others, a gentle nudge from others, celebration with others. 

The community is what it's all about. Community comes first and it keeps us going.

Thank you for stopping in for Sunday Check-Ins! A big, giant hug from me to you. I'm so glad you are here. Knowing you are out there, writing along with me, spending your summer to work on your craft, inspires me. 

Now I have some awesome news to share! I hit 50,000 words! At the beginning of Teachers Write, I set out to draft a YA novel. My plan was to take our four weeks together and crank out as many words as possible but I had 50,000 words in mind. Last week, I was at 31,000 words and I thought there was no way I was going to make it to 50,000 but I did. If I had free time, I was writing and I stayed up late a few nights. But I'm excited to say I did it. I still have a few more scenes to write and then I'll have my first draft. I already know it's going to need lots of revision but it's great to know I have a first draft done. 

Here's my Pacemaker chart. This motivated me soooo much. It was awesome to be able to type in my word count and see how much progress I had made (and how far I still had to go!). 
In 2012, I drafted my very first young adult novel ever and now I've written my third. I have never ever written so fast. I'm not sure I like it, my brain has been on writing overdrive and I'm happy to put this draft away and to come back to it in six weeks. But overall, I'm thrilled that I got as much writing done as I did. Thank you so much for being here to cheer me on along the way! It means a lot!

This is it!
I hope you take a few minutes to reflect on these last four weeks.
However you made Teachers Write your own, 
be proud of yourself for being here. 
Let's celebrate! 


via GIPHY


Today, in the comments:
How did you do this week? Did you meet your weekly goal(s)?
What was the pit of your week? (The hardest part, the not-so-fun part?)
What was the peak of your week? (The best part, the most-totally-fun part?)
How was your overall Teachers Write experience?
What are you looking forward to and planning for 

as you get ready for another school year?

A reminder of my rules for Teachers Write Sunday Check-Ins:
1. We respect each other and the type of writing we do.
2. We only offer constructive criticism.
3. We are positive and encourage each other at all times.
4. We recognize and maintain this as a safe environment.


P. S. Thank you for replying to each other's comments! 
While I read them all and do my best to reply and 
reply as soon as possible it doesn't always happen.
I so appreciate you cheering each other on through Teachers Write! You r-o-c-k!

Psst! Yes, you! One more thing...
Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter here!

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