One week closer to Spring Break! ....and teachers are getting sick and dropping like flies. I haven't gotten sick yet, so everyone thinks I'm going down next. I'm trying my hardest to make sure that doesn't happen....
Anyway, it's been a pretty nice week. The third quarter is over, which means it's almost time to start planning for end of the year testing. Funnnnnn. My mentor teacher visited me yesterday, and one of her comments to me was "You have such a great relationship with your kids, and it shows!"
It got me to thinking.
As an artist who takes inspiration from my own life, the relationships that I have influence the relationships that I describe in my stories. The teacher/student relationship that I have with my babies, the parent/child relationship I have with my parents, the coworker relationships, the sibling relationships, and the brother/sister from another mother/mister relationships all flavor the way that I see the world. While some of these relationships may have similarities, they all have a different impact on my life.
I started thinking about the relationships that I describe in my stories. The story I'm working on features a brother/sister duo, where the brother is the oldest but the sister acts like the mother. They have a playful relationship with one of their coworkers. Already I begin to see how differently I would describe these relationships if I did not have the experiences that I have had.
Relationships aren't really in the forefront of my stories, though they form an important part; just like your brain isn't the first thing that people see, but your face wouldn't work without it. The trick is finding subtle ways to explain these relationships; little interactions between people that show their feelings towards one another. I'm not going to lie, sometimes it can be challenging. But someone gave me advice one day a long time ago, and it is advice that I tell my students today. "Show, don't tell." So rather than spend time writing long paragraphs describing the relationships between the characters, I take the time to craft dialogue and actions that let the reader figure it out for themselves.
My experience as an actor also showed me the importance of relationships and interactions; though you are portraying a character, you have to draw from your own experiences to bring your character to life. It was an extremely challenging task for me to play a character who had fallen in love, because I had never been. However, I have played a sister and a servant; and for these roles I had some background knowledge.
I'm not going to say that it is impossible to write about (or perform) relationships that you've never had; what I will say is that the more relationships that you are in, the easier it is to write. I'm a firm believer that God has made me wait to have anything published because I had not had enough world experience to make my writing believable. But now that He has given me the feeling that I'll publish something this year, I'm doing my best to use the knowledge that I have to improve my craft. Let's see how this turns out!
“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
― Henry David Thoreau
Anyway, it's been a pretty nice week. The third quarter is over, which means it's almost time to start planning for end of the year testing. Funnnnnn. My mentor teacher visited me yesterday, and one of her comments to me was "You have such a great relationship with your kids, and it shows!"
It got me to thinking.
As an artist who takes inspiration from my own life, the relationships that I have influence the relationships that I describe in my stories. The teacher/student relationship that I have with my babies, the parent/child relationship I have with my parents, the coworker relationships, the sibling relationships, and the brother/sister from another mother/mister relationships all flavor the way that I see the world. While some of these relationships may have similarities, they all have a different impact on my life.
I started thinking about the relationships that I describe in my stories. The story I'm working on features a brother/sister duo, where the brother is the oldest but the sister acts like the mother. They have a playful relationship with one of their coworkers. Already I begin to see how differently I would describe these relationships if I did not have the experiences that I have had.
Relationships aren't really in the forefront of my stories, though they form an important part; just like your brain isn't the first thing that people see, but your face wouldn't work without it. The trick is finding subtle ways to explain these relationships; little interactions between people that show their feelings towards one another. I'm not going to lie, sometimes it can be challenging. But someone gave me advice one day a long time ago, and it is advice that I tell my students today. "Show, don't tell." So rather than spend time writing long paragraphs describing the relationships between the characters, I take the time to craft dialogue and actions that let the reader figure it out for themselves.
My experience as an actor also showed me the importance of relationships and interactions; though you are portraying a character, you have to draw from your own experiences to bring your character to life. It was an extremely challenging task for me to play a character who had fallen in love, because I had never been. However, I have played a sister and a servant; and for these roles I had some background knowledge.
I'm not going to say that it is impossible to write about (or perform) relationships that you've never had; what I will say is that the more relationships that you are in, the easier it is to write. I'm a firm believer that God has made me wait to have anything published because I had not had enough world experience to make my writing believable. But now that He has given me the feeling that I'll publish something this year, I'm doing my best to use the knowledge that I have to improve my craft. Let's see how this turns out!
“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
― Henry David Thoreau
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