Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Early writing (and other musings)

This may not be helpful to anyone, but here was my experience in school with early writing and editing. I started out as a kid who loved to write, and I ended up as a person who hated to write because I learned in school to abhor doing any editing of my own work (I actually like editing work of others). I don't have exact memories of when, but sometime in elementary, when we first had to do any sort of rewrites or editing, I would produce a first draft that had no grammatical or spelling errors, and which I liked very much. At that stage the teacher's job was to correct grammatical and spelling errors, and when they couldn't find any, I think they wanted to make me do some sort of edit because everyone was. I can't remember what they said, but i'm sure it was "maybe this sentence could be 2nd instead of 3rd, or "maybe you could add another sentence." This was the start of my hating any sorts of edits, because I found them to be unnecessary busy work. As I got older, I knew the first-draft writing I was doing was better than most of the other kids' final stuff, but I still had to go through the motions. Hated, hated, hated it. In college freshman comp class, I ended up with a rotten teacher, who would only allow things to be done one way. We didn't get along, she didn't appreciate any of my comments, so I got a lousy grade. In law school, there were many projects that required several edits. These edits all occurred in the wee hours the day before the project was due. I was a kid who loved to write in early years, who then hated hated it until now, when i'm giving creative writing another try with a better attitude.

I know since you are all on this board that you know what sorts of underachievement can happen. I am just throwing this out there as a cautionary tale of what can happen in those early school years.

Again though, yours is the OPPOSITE of the original situation being discussed, SPG.

I was suggesting using an editing process as a way to GET a perfectionistic child to go with the flow. I was trying to get the child to delay that internal censor that was hyperfocused on spelling and being "right," and instead get him to focus on his ideas.

Totally different scenario!

To be clear, I completely agree that not all kids need an editing process from a young age. But for a perfectionist who is shutting down on writing, an editing process can be a way to defer the use of that critical voice and allow the writing to flow.

Okay, I'm done beating the poor horse!

Hi Kriston - I know mine was the opposite situation - but since all the other things to think about were being thrown in, i'm throwing mine in too. Sorry - some of the posts struck a chord with me, and so i was having a woe is me moment, and wasn't responsive to the original question.

(hey - aren't you supposed to be doing some writing? ;))

Oh, sure. You're entitled.

I just wanted to make it very clear that I wasn't advocating for JBDad's child the same thing that had shut down you and Chris.

And no, I've given up on NaNoWritMo, I'm afraid. This has just not been my month, and given that it was a stretch for me to try to write in the manner that NaNo requires anyway, it was a stretch I just couldn't manage right now.

Maybe next year...

Bummer about nanowritmo Kriston! But, you're right -all kids are different You'll find your groove I'm sure; besides, I'll bet you got something written. Our October was pretty blown out of the water with kid illness (yucky tummies), etc., hope you did not have same woes this Nov.
Back to the thread...

DH hit a deer, so we had some rather unusual woes...

He's fine; the car (and the deer!) are not. Thank goodness for auto insurance!