This morning when I was leaving Montreal to do a writing workshop in the Eastern Townships, I asked my husband, "Do you think it's odd that your 65-year-old wife is looking forward to playing school today?" (He didn't think it was odd. He's used to me!)
It's probably not surprising that a child who liked playing school as much I used to became a teacher. And now that I'm retired after 35 rather joyful years of teaching I sometimes get to do writing workshops. Today I visited the Waterloo satellite office of the Yamaska Literary Council to do a Quebec Writers' Federation day-long StoryScaping workshop called "Finding the Story You Need to Tell."
I had nine "students" -- and they were all my favourites! One of the most fun parts about teaching is seeing how the group gels -- and this group gelled in the most perfect way.
Also, I think I taught them EVERY SINGLE THING I KNOW ABOUT WRITING! (And they took notes!) But best of all, we did A LOT of writing exercises (five, I think) and in every case I had to tell the participants to STOP WRITING. I should explain that that rarely happens -- usually I have to (gently) push people to KEEP WRITING!
More proof that this was an unusual group: we did a word exercise -- writing a list of words that begin with the letter H (in honour of Herb, our eldest participant who is mighty spry and with-it for 79!) ... and two people came up with the word "hitherto" (one was Herb); two people came up with "harbinger" (it's a lovely word to say, don't you agree?) and THREE people came up with "happenstance." Happenstance is a gorgeous word, with a lovely meaning and three is a lot of people in one group to come up with what I consider to be a rather unusual word.
Oh, I need to do a special shout-out to Emilee and Daniel -- they both work for the YLC and they took participated in the best possible way. A small example: Emilee taught as a Tagalog word that starts with H: harana, which means serenade.
We talked about the importance of doing research. To prove my point, I told the participants how I had done research about them! (I had been provided in advance with a list with all their names.) I knew, for instance, that Emilee is a well-known actor; that Mariah is a translator and writer; that Francis went to Massey-Vanier High School (he was quoted in an article I found on-line); that Valerie worked in Nunavik; that Jaime has taught yoga to kids with special needs; that Herb was born in Calgary (we later learned he won a contest for a six-word story!); and that Jessica is a nature educator.
There were two people I hadn't researched. One is Joanne -- because she's my neighbour in the Eastern Townships and I'm getting to know her quite well on our unplanned morning walks. The other was Daniel (because he wasn't on the list). But Daniel may have provided one of my favourite quotes of the day. When participants took a moment to tell us what they wanted from today's workshop, he said: "I want to re-unlock some creativity that I lost." How beautiful! How hopeful. Several of the others said they felt the same way. And I've certainly been there too!
I thought I'd end today's blog entry with something funny. (We did have a lot of laughs during our day together.) We did the memory exercise that I love. And Jaime wrote about being ten years old and imagining what it would feel like to kiss a boy who happened to be her friend: "As I thought about his lips on mine, all I could taste was my mock chicken sandwich." (I'm sure people in the building next door heard us cracking up!)
There were quite a lot of highlights of our day... but that was definitely one. Jaime, use that excellent sense of humour in your stories (even when you are exploring difficult material)!
I know this may sound like I THINK I DID TOO GOOD A JOB... but if you will permit me to say... I had the feeling the participants at today's workshop did leave with a better sense of the stories they need to tell. And hopefully some tools for telling them.
Thanks to the Yamaska Literacy Council for bringing me to Waterloo today; to Emilee and Daniel for getting things organized and for the delicious lunch; to the Quebec Writers' Federation's StoryScaping program for funding today's workshop; but mostly to the participants. YOU MADE MY HEART SING. THANKS FOR BEING PERFECT.