My new memoir WOODEN & ME is available here at Amazon
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Embracing New Challenges, Kid-Style
The late, great Chuck Thomas, one of my dear mentors and my predecessor in this space, advised: “Never write a bad column when you can steal a good one.”
With that wisdom in mind, along with the thought that as adults we have a lot to learn from kids, I hereby share some sagacity from my daughter, who recently finished leading her eighth annual youth summer writing seminar. Her lessons and observations apply to life, not just writing.
Dallas shares . . .
One of my favorite things is teaching a writing camp in my hometown for kids and teenagers. For a couple hours over back-to-back weekends, we all sit together in a purple-walled conference room and write. A few use laptops and iPads, but most opt for old-school notebooks and pens.
I put a prompt on the whiteboard, turn on some Norah Jones or Jack Johnson or Miles Davis, and they are off and running – rather, writing.
It’s nothing short of magic, being in that room. It’s calm, peaceful, with a quiet energy fairly making the air molecules dance. You can practically hear the ideas whirring around the room as surely as you can hear the pencils scratching across sheets of paper. You can almost feel the ideas swirling.
My writing campers inspire me in numerous ways. They are passionate, driven, unabashedly enthusiastic. They are creative and ambitious. (Do you know any 9-year-olds writing 300-page novels? I do!) They are well-read, and perceptive, and supportive of each other.
Perhaps most of all, these young people inspire me with the way they eagerly embrace new challenges and take risks in order to push themselves to grow. I teach writing classes for adults as well, and always need to plough through much more resistance before getting down to business.
As adults, we too often become set in our ways. We become afraid to try something new because we might not do it the “right” way. We worry we will make mistakes. We fear stumbling through a learning curve.
Kids, in my experience, seem much less concerned about stumbling. They are focused on flying!
Time and again, I present to my young writers an utterly new idea or wacky concept, intended specifically to push them outside their comfort zones. Do they balk? No, they dive right in and embrace the new challenge! My writing campers are adventurers. They explore. They grow.
These kids are role models for us adults.
One small example is an activity relating to structuring a short story. My only guideline is for the girls and boys to try something they have never before attempted. Write a story in reverse chronological order, from ending to beginning; write with alternating perspectives of two characters; write from the perspective of an animal, insect or inanimate object; write a story in poetic verse.
These amazing kids try it all with joyful abandon. Their bravery is inspiring. They eagerly raise their hands to read aloud their just-birthed fragile words, unselfconscious and unselfish in their sharing. They are generous, both in confidence and in spirit.
When do we lose these wonderful traits as grown-ups? When do we cross that threshold and become shy and stifled? Why are we so terrified of looking foolish that we stop daring to try – and stop trying to dare?
Fundamentally, these kids live Eleanor Roosevelt’s prescription: “Do one thing every day that scares you.”
Except they turn the word “scares” into “thrills.”
We all, old and young, have the capacity to create our own stories and our own magic. You don’t need to be a writing camper to do so. You don’t need anyone’s permission. All you need is a pinch of bravery and a dash of willingness to try, and try again, and always try something new.
I don’t know about you, but I’m going to figuratively open a fresh page in my writer’s notebook, put on some Norah Jones, and get to work creating a life story that matters to me. I’m going to follow my young campers’ fearless example and do one new thing every day that thrills me.
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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.
Check out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”
- Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com
- Unsigned paperbacks or Kindle ebook can be purchased here at Amazon