HELLOOOOOOOOOOO TEACHERS!!!!

Woohoo!!!! It's #TeachersWrite Time!

I'm your friendly Monday-Morning Warm-Up host and I'll be posting here every Monday Morning with a little writing encouragement and exercise to get you going for the week.

To start, let's think about why you're here. What are your goals? What do you want to say? Why is writing important to you? These are big questions, but I find the answers are what help me keep going on days when it's hard to sit and write.

Here's a favorite passage from Jacqueline Woodson's brilliant and beautiful book, Brown Girl Dreaming (from the poem "Composition Notebook"):

Nothing in the world is like this—
a bright white page with
pale blue lines. The smell of a newly sharpened pencil
the soft hush of it
moving finally
one day
into letters.

(Brown Girl Dreaming, page 155)

Guess what, friends? Today is your white page day!

Today, you get to open a new notebook, start on a new page, a new screen, a new scrap of paper, a new sticky note. Today, that wonderful blank page is waiting for your words to fill it up with a note, a memory, a phrase, a thought, a piece of love. Your truth. Your story.

How can you make that white page colorful? Meaningful? Special? What do you want to tell the world? How might the story inside you change a life if you share it?

My task for you today, on this White Page Day, is to find a blank page and make a list of what you know about your project, and the reasons this particular one is important to you. Just start listing each little piece, no matter how seemingly insignificant. Write everything you know so far. Everything you hope for. Everything you see when you close your eyes and think about this particular story.

As you make your list, watch how your words turn into a poem of promises to yourself. Then keep your list somewhere near, so that when your energized days start to wilt, you'll remember the spark that got you started.

Since I'm beginning something brand new this month, here's mine. I'd love it if you shared yours in the comments, too. Or, share them on your own blogs, or on facebook, or tumblr, or wherever you might be spending time these days. Or don't. You can also hold it close to your chest for now. This is your White Page Day. Celebrate it however you want. :-)

A Work In Progress

This is a story about a girl
Thirteen
It's not a lucky year
Next door, there are new neighbors
They are The Haves
She is a Have Not
From a Have Not family
It's summertime
Dry and hot
I think there's a pony she didn't ask for
And an angry pig to feed
And too many responsibilities
There will be dirt
And resentment
Jealousy
A bit of self-loathing
And blaming
Forgiveness
And longing
There's be a boy who can't see her
And a brother who sees too much
There will be loneliness
And there will be loss
But there will also be joy
This is my story
But I'll make it someone else's
I see the scenes like ghosts
They've been haunting me all my life
The images aren't vivid yet
Just pieces of memory and wishes from the past
Secrets and missed chances
Grudges
And misunderstandings
I feel them slowing down now
Waiting for me to reach out and pull them close
Own what's mine finally
Face fears and face facts
Turn them into story
Put it on the page