step two: sell writing to unsuspecting teenagers
step three: tell them how much they need it, how much you love it, how much they'll love it, how easy it is, how important it is, assign them posts every week, and journal prompts every other day, including five they must do on their own, inspire them, inspire them, inspire them
step four: don't write yourself because you're too busy
step five: remind them how important it is for them to write, even if they're busy
step six: call the busiest ones tourists
step seven: watch netflix instead of write
step eight: read instead of write
step nine: fantasy football instead of write
step ten: join a november novel writing website and pretend you'll stick with it
step eleven: repeat every semester and see how long your heart lasts
My dad sells cardboard boxes for a living. He makes 120,000 a year being a manager, sitting in an office overseeing sales and deliveries and the idiots in the warehouse playing bumper cars with forklifts. He stares at a computer screen for 8 hours a day and keeps his workers happy by ordering Waffle Love for them when it's time to take inventory. He comes home every day to his family, and tomorrow he's taking his first vacation exclusively with his wife since my oldest brother was born.
ReplyDeleteMy dad almost had me convinced that 120,000 a year was living.
I guess he fooled everyone.
peace
Step eleven made me sad. Like I was almost laughing when I was reading about the things you do instead of write, then I read eleven and it was like a punch.
ReplyDeletethanks for 2, 11 was a sad read. This made me feel a lot better.
ReplyDeleteHaha this is hilarious! Especially step 3
ReplyDeletenumber 11
ReplyDeleteWell, it seems to be lasting.
ReplyDeletei keep coming back and
ReplyDeletei can still feel the words.
thank you for waking up my heart
you've got me fooled and i know that's sad to say (especially after step 11) but it's true
ReplyDeleteyou convinced me.
ReplyDeletehaha suckas i never bought any of it
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Nelson,
ReplyDelete1. No I have not yet graduated.
2. I am not in creative writing because of a lot of things. If you keep asking me, I'll probably tell you something different every time. This time, I'll tell you that it's because I'm scared of you. I'm scared you won't like me because I'm scared to say what I want.
3. I know you're busy and tired and have to read student blogs but maybe one day you could come back and read mine one more time.
4. I think I'm done being a poet. I think I'm just gonna be me.
5. That doesn't mean I'll stop writing.
-Lucy, aka the Goose Girl, Scout, and most importantly, Emily Ruth Pew.
Seemed to work for me.
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