Big dork alert. This post is about how I love to learn. But it’s true and it’s a big part of why I love teaching. I especially love to learn when things are easy for me (duh). When things are hard, I sulk and avoid a bit more. But in the end I’m usually happy I stuck with it.
Things I’ve been avoiding include any kind of New Year’s resolution type post. I just don’t think I have anything to say on the matter that hasn’t been said better and before by someone else.
However, one goal I do have for this year (goal, not resolution) is to attend a writing conference. I’ve participated in a number of writing conferences before and found them to be invaluable in one way or another. A writing conference taught me what point of view really was, and what it meant in my writing. Writing conferences taught me that you really can learn about your own writing through editing and discussing other people’s writing. Writing conferences have made me appreciate the sheer delicious indulgence of devoting yourself completely to one subject for a week or a weekend or a day.
Something I’ve been learning lately, is that just because you write one book, it doesn’t make writing the next one any easier. I was really hoping it would, but it turns out it’s just as hard but in a different way. So now seems like a good time to do some learnin’.
Registration for the NESCBWI (New England Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrator’s) Spring conference opens in a couple weeks and I intend to sign myself up. (One of my writing idols -the incomparable Sara Zarr will be speaking. If you haven’t read her books, you should.) Hopefully I’ll learn something, even if it means I kick and scream a little along the way.
Ideas In Things 