I Might Be Able To Use That Someday

Ever since I started writing fiction, my days consist of one fun-loving circus after the other. Like a tightrope walker, I step forward with with weight on my author platform. Next step, leaning into the crafting of words. A delicate balance.

I juggle several plates of research, first drafts, edits, social media posts, blogs, and public relations opportunities.

Story ideas swing back and forth in my mind until I finally let go of the trapeze to grasp the approaching bar of my computer. I type madly on the upswing which lands me safely on the next platform, complete with a page--or a hundred pages--of a story.

It's impossible to plan far ahead, for wonder of wonders, I’m a pantser! After a teaching career of detailed lesson plans, the idea of outlining every aspect of my novel spurred rebellion in my soul.

However, discovering my spontaneous personality has become a delightful adventure.

I know my characters and follow their lead. Oh, they let me lead them sometimes, but if I get off track, they shove me back in line. I will stay bogged down in some swamp of narrative until I backtrack to the path they intended for me.

Along the way, either forward or backward, random thoughts race through my brain. If I'm purposeful in gathering those thoughts, I enjoy the distinct pleasure of panning for gold. All kinds of nuggets appear as I sift through them.

“I might be able to use that someday,” I think. And I stuff them in this:

My composition book

Random thoughts don’t appear only as I write or journal. When I travel, I watch for road signs and billboard ads. The names of shops and towns are fascinating. I whip out my notebook and jot it all down, noting where I saw them. My favorite: Winter Wheat Antiques in central Illinois. 

When I'm in restaurants and airports, I people-watch and write down their behaviors, their eccentricities. I even make up stories about them on the spot.

I write down dreams, blog ideas, beautiful phrases I think up, metaphors, sensory details of a given moment. I might be able to use them someday.

I copy quotations and credit the original author for I might be able to use them someday.

A couple weeks ago, I attended a banquet honoring athletes from my husband’s high school. Twelve recipients, each with a presenter. Both speakers were to limit their remarks to five minutes each. That equals two hours for awards plus all the introductions by the master of ceremonies beforehand. It was going to be a long night, so I started writing my impressions of their comments on the back of the program.

My husband leaned over. “Are you taking notes?”

“My hands need something to do while I listen,” I replied. “Besides, I might be able to use this someday.”

So, I’m a paper and pencil person for writing down the minutia of life to use someday and loving it. What about you? Do you depend on memory? Use your smart phone? Never record details? What kinds of things do you find you observe the most?

Linda Sammaritan writes realistic fiction, mostly for kids ages ten to fourteen. She has published a  middle grade trilogy, World Without Sound, based on her own experiences growing up with a deaf sister. Book One, Reaching Into Silence, was an ACFW Genesis Contest semi-finalist and a First Impressions Finalist.

Linda had always figured she’d teach teens and tweens until school authorities presented her with a retirement wheelchair and rolled her out the door. However, God changed those plans when He gave her a growing passion for writing fiction. In May of 2016, she blew goodbye kisses to her students and dedicated her work hours to becoming an author.

A wife, mother of three, and grandmother to eight, Linda regales the youngest grandchildren with “Nona Stories,” tales of her childhood. Maybe one day those stories will be in picture books!

Where Linda can be found on the web:

www.lindasammaritan.com

www.facebook.com/lindasammaritan

www.twitter.com/LindaSammaritan

www.instagram.com/lindasammaritan

 

 

 

 

 

Writing IS Teaching

I have spent nearly my entire life in classrooms. From my earliest attempts at finger painting in nursery school to running a recent workshop, my time in school is like a duck paddling around in its favorite pond. I’m home.

Because I love learning and because I love teaching, I waited a long time before taking the jump to concentrate on writing instead of lesson plans.

You know what I found out?

Writing IS teaching.

It doesn’t matter if I pen an informative blog or create a scene with my characters. With both projects, I use my life’s experiences to share a topic worth learning. The manuscript becomes my lesson plan, and the best lesson plans connect with my students, in this case, my readers.

I’m giving a book talk at a local school today. As I planned for what I would say, I became more and more enthused. I’d be back on old stomping grounds. I outlined my lesson plan (the book talk). Effortlessly, I slipped on my teacher persona and came up with a great “anticipatory set,” or as writers say, a great “hook.” I raced through the rest of the outline, knowing how I would move from one concept to the next. I am teaching again. About writing!

Scene by scene, my novels teach lessons on a theme.

As I learn a little more about writing craft each year, the sense of teaching via the written word has become stronger and stronger.

My World Without Sound series teaches loyalty and family love. The first of my Cracked Quartet series teaches the consequences of misplaced guilt and shame and offers the solution for peace in a person’s soul.

Many of you in ACFW Indiana are teachers or have been teachers.

Have you made the same connection between teaching and writing? Do you get excited about a story as you see how the plot is aimed toward a specific outcome? And how your characters are going to discover the beauty of that outcome? I hope so.

Recognizing that I am still a teacher feels so good! That realization solidifies the purposes God has for me. I may not choose to be in the classroom every day, but I can see I’m at the center of His will. I am content.

 

Linda Sammaritan writes realistic fiction, mostly for kids ages ten to fourteen. She has completed a  middle grade trilogy, World Without Sound, based on her own experiences growing up with a deaf sister. Book One, Reaching Into Silence, was an ACFW Genesis Contest semi-finalist and a First Impressions Finalist.

Linda had always figured she’d teach teens and tweens until school authorities presented her with a retirement wheelchair and rolled her out the door. However, God changed those plans when He gave her a growing passion for writing fiction. In May of 2016, she blew goodbye kisses to her students and dedicated her work hours to becoming an author.

A wife, mother of three, and grandmother to eight, Linda regales the youngest grandchildren with “Nona Stories,” tales of her childhood. Maybe one day those stories will be in picture books!

Where Linda can be found on the web:

www.lindasammaritan.com

www.facebook.com/lindasammaritan

www.twitter.com/LindaSammaritan

www.instagram.com/lindasammaritan