Purpose for Writing

I needed a plan. Two weeks ago, I made a commitment to myself that I would write daily. Originally, my purpose in creating the blog was to live a writerly life so I could model that for my students. I wanted to use what I learned about my own writing process to help kids see the writer inside of themselves. But I knew I wanted more. Writing and publishing daily is a big challenge. If I was going to achieve my goal, I needed a plan for my writing. I wanted to be able to practice crafting snapshots, thoughshots, explode-a-moments, informational pieces, and poetry.  I also wanted to connect with other teachers and show how their blog posts or comments spurred ideas for my writing and teaching. Then I thought  about my students and what they teach me everyday. Sometimes their stories were so compelling that they begged to be written about. In other words, my ideas were all over the place. I still kept a small writer's notebook next to the computer. And I liked that I had a record of my stream of thought. But what I needed was a flexible system that worked for me.

So today, this is what I came up with. I created a planning sheet that I can use as my road map for a week's worth of writing. My plan for next week is just a plan. It can be followed, revised, or abandoned. The page numbers in the plan refer to pages in my writer's notebook. Wish me luck!