The worst thing about being a writer still in school is that you have to balance interesting things (i.e. writing) with terrible, awful, tedious things (i.e. homework). As summer draws to a close and I prepare to enter my senior year, it would seem I'm inundated by summer work.
Yes, all of it seems pointless. And to most students, it is. But to a writer, it's all inspiration, technique, and extreme amounts of getting out of your writing box. You get the opportunity to turn all of it from a waste of time into a progression of your skills.
Here are some things to consider:
1. It makes you pick up a pencil every once in awhile.
With the exception of essays, a lot of my work has to be done by hand. I actually kind of love it. All my artwork for my studio classes is so much better when handmade. My vocabulary flashcards for English look so much prettier than any computer could do. Math looks kind of cool when you do it all out.
I’m not saying you should write your novel by hand (unless you’re into it; then go for it!). But for Knowers Book Two, I now have a journal in which I jot down quotes or plot ideas. Not only is aesthetically pleasing (and has a whale on it), but it helps me remember things better. I can write stuff down exactly how I see it in my head--words don't always move in straight lines. I can doodle things that come to me, too, which is a great way to get some ideas captures.
I can make my plot lines however I want to. In a series like The Knowers, time doesn't necessarily move sequentially, and computers like when things have order. I have more control over the way things move when I can move them myself.
At least at my school, as it tries to go paperless, not enough things are done the old fashioned way. Your summer work, unless required to be turned in electronically, gives you a great opportunity to develop these skills and direct them towards your writing.
2. Deadlines are terrible but a good thing to learn to work around.
We’ve all written stuff for school with deadlines, but summer work gives you a span of about three months before the first day, paving the way for procrastination. When you have seven essays due in September and it’s July, you feel like you have eons before you have to turn that in.
But July flies by and then you reach August and you decide that you should start on them, but you only half care until September first. That, my friend, is when you panic.
Hear me out: set some of your own deadlines for your own writing.
I’ve set myself a deadline for when I want to finish the first draft of Knowers Book Two (which is coming up really quickly). With proper time-management (and lots of self-motivation), you can easily make your writing process more efficient.
3. Read things out of your preferred genres/time periods.
I would have never read Much Ado About Nothing or Frankenstein on my own accord. But because of required reading, I discovered two awesome books that helped me with writing things. Much Ado About Nothing’s snappy dialogue is incredible, and Frankenstein’s prose is magnetic. You can really find inspiration in places you don’t expect to find it.
As much as we like to believe we're good at expanding our horizons, we're not. We need to be prodded, and teachers are pretty good at that. You're exposed to things you wouldn't normally expose yourself to.
4. English work helps you with . . . well, English.
Character arcs? Vocabulary? Foils/parallels? Irony and imagery and firsthand contact with someone's ideas and worlds?
Enough said.
No, I don't want to go back to school. Even now, as I realize I've been procrastinating too much and struggle to get my work done, the lack of free time is astounding. But everything has a silver lining. Everything in your world can seep into your writing in one way or another.
This is one of those things if you make it one.
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