Teachers Who Influenced Your Writing

This is National Teacher Appreciation Week, and today is National Teacher Appreciation Day. What better time to give thought to the many men and women who taught you and me over the past decades? Narrowing it down here to those who helped us become writers.

There are three parts to today's post:

1.  Teachers who helped us learn about the craft of writing: 

We must thank those teachers who introduced us to the world of writing back in grade school, middle school and high school. They were classroom teachers, ones who taught the language, and those who concentrated on Literature and Writing only. Did they all teach us to be writers? No, but we derived bits and pieces of learning to write as we moved from grade to grade. 

Some of us can pinpoint one specific teacher who set us on the path to a writing journey that has continued into adulthood. Maybe it was a college professor whose class on Creative Writing in which you soaked up knowledge about writing like a sponge. It could have been a person who conducted a workshop for writers at a conference. Or someone who wrote a book about writing skill that you have read time and again. 

Certain teachers stand out in our mind as ones who offered us the most useful and interesting material that helped us pursue our writing. The one who offered inspiration to write and keep writing. 

2.  Writers who become teachers of writers:

When we attend a writing conference, nearly every workshop presenter or keynote speaker is another writer. These people are willing to share their knowledge and experience with both newbie writers and seasoned ones. I am firmly convinced that we are never too experienced nor too old to learn more about our craft. 

Do we appreciate these 'writers who teach writers' enough? Next time you sit in a workshop taught by another writer, think about the time they put into preparing the lesson for you? What about the time they must take away from their own writing? They make this sacrifice to give you the gift of what they know about the subject, be it mystery writing, essay composition, or novels. 

Authors who write books about writing have dual purposes in most cases. They want to share their expertise, but they also want to publish another book and enjoy the royalties. When an author with a recognizable name writes a book about writing, others tend to pay attention. 

There are plenty of writers who are not willing to give the time and effort required to teach other writers. Some don't feel qualified. Some are terrified of speaking publicly. Some are takers, not givers. There are any number of reasons, and none are to be criticized. Instead, those writers should be all the more appreciative of writers who can teach other writers.

3.  Write to a teacher who helped you learn to write:

As an exercise, write a letter of thanks to a teacher who inspired or aided you in becoming a writer. Besides your thanks, let them know what they did to reach out to you, what made you remember what they taught you. You can mail it or not. Many of those teachers may no longer be living or whereabouts unknown. You can turn your letter into a personal essay or you can use it strictly as a writing exercise. Your choice. 

We didn't become writers without help from teachers throughout the years. Give some thought and appreciation to those who helped you both before and during your writing journey. 

Learning Is A Never-Ending Process

When I teach a writing workshop on any topic, there is one statement I always make. You're never too old to learn. I usually see heads nodding in agreement.

The poster for today refers to all of life but on this blog, we concentrate on the writing life. If the advice spills over into the rest of your life, it's a bonus.

As a writer, you've probably done many of the things mentioned in the quote. Writers run into myriad roadblocks--not occasionally but on a regular basis. Meet each one head-on and deal with it as best you can. When you've gotten to the other side of that roadblock, ask yourself one question. What have I learned? If you have no answer, you'd better retreat several steps and work your way through the roadblock again. Then repeat the question.

Even writers who have attained multiple successes can still learn more about their trade. I don't think anyone can ever claim to know everything about the writing game. Writers who publish books on the writing craft can learn new things as they move down the writing path. They don't stop learning either.

There are often new ways to accomplish old tasks. As technology progresses, so must we. We read the classics but we know that our contemporary method of writing differs from some of those great authors. What would happen if a writer today wrote the amount of description that Charles Dickens used? With the great emphasis on keeping things short because of readers' lack of time, his books would probably be passed by today. Contemporary writers learned to keep it short. We've learned to hook our readers fast and keep them hooked. We've learned to cut the unnecessary words that tend to float happily into our prose.

We've learned that we must look for markets on a constant basis. We've learned that we must submit our work if it is to be published. We've learned to accept rejection. We've learned to create interesting characters that aren't stereotypes. We've learned how to put conflict into a story, even a children's story.

Yes, we've learned a lot but there is never an end to our writing world education. As long as we are putting words on paper or a screen, we should be learning. With each new writing project that you finish, ask yourself once more What have I learned?