Ocean Princess Revisited

I signed up this week for Teachers Write. I found it last minute as it was just beginning. I didn't have time to investigate or wrap my mind around it, but it began and I am jumping in.

Every day there are exercises, something to get us thinking about writing. All of it will help me as a writer, and as a teacher of writing.

This week we did some wondering, some people watching and today, getting close to a character. I know it is time for me to pick a piece to work on. So, I went looking through my previous posts.

I have to figure out who I am as a writer. Where do I want to go with it? If I were to write for children (picture books), I want to write like Patricia Polacco or Eve Bunting. I want deep themes in my writing.

But I do love young adult literature. I love to read it. I wish I taught older students so that I could read more. But then again, if I want to write for that audience, I do need to read more. So, that is where I am going to explore, for now. I'm going to start reading LOTS of young adult lit. I will read it to enjoy it, and read it to learn about writing.

I'm excited to improve my craft, my writing craft and teacher craft.
Here is my piece I want to work on Ocean Princess and Her Sentry
It was a piece I felt completely uncomfortable with. Way out of my comfort zone. But the story intrigues me, I want to try to find it, tell it.

So...my exercise. Some character work:

 I'll focus on Caitlyn. The image I want with her is a smooth rock. It is carried in her pocket, always. It sits on her night stand beside her at night. She found it on a camping trip with her family. She loved that trip. Tunneling through caves, climbing the hillsides, standing up high on rocks. She loved the earth, the forest, the hills. She missed that life here near the beach. She did not feel connected to the ocean scent, the sand that she could never seem to be rid of, the sound of the waves, none of it connected to her. So she hung onto that rock, her only connection to days she longed for.

I feel I can't tell their stories until I know them. I will continue to find Caitlyn, this exercise certainly helped. When I sat down to write this evening, I didn't know what the image would be, or the meaning it would hold. I just pulled in a little closer to my character. I love it!