The Road to Writer: A Manifesto by Dr. Mary Howard

I am a writer with a rich and joyful writing life!

There I said it and it feels so good considering my status as “writer” has been hard earned.

My journey led me down a painful writerly road to recovery of childhood memories riddled with metaphorical and literal red marks that distorted my view. For too long, I allowed past voices in my head to decry my role as writer so I use that word proudly these days. As a result, I take labeling any child as a writing failure seriously because I know that children are still being dubbed as writer haves and have nots.

So what does the writing life of a recovered “failure” look like?

After a long journey of unexpected twists and turns, my writing life is as unique as I am - a lovely, messy, exhilarating, painfully glorious unexpected blessing with meandering detours to all destinations in between. I am grateful for each stopping point along the way, even those that sometimes derail me.

For far too many years, I felt a sense of shame that I didn’t have an easily defined writing persona wrapped up in a neat little bow since I assumed that hard and fast rules were a writer’s membership fee. I likely defy what one might imagine when pulling forth visions of a “writer” since my writing life is much like my day-to-day life: one big fast-paced frenzied celebratory blur of never-ending motion. I don’t keep a writing journal; opting to jot messy disorganized scribbles on scraps of paper (which I often lose). I don’t have a sacred writing space since I write in airplanes, airports, coffee shops, restaurants, indoors, outdoors, in my office, or wherever I land for the day. I write sitting down, standing up, on the floor and laying down with a computer perched on my belly. I write where it’s noisy and I write where it’s quiet and all levels in between. I write with a pencil in my hands more than my fingers on a keyboard. I don’t have a set schedule and I prefer Twitter and Facebook over a formal blog.

I’m well aware that I don’t look or act much like a writer but my writing life is uniquely me. But after all these years I celebrate that uniqueness because I have come to believe that being a writer is about honoring what works for that writer.

I believe that we must let go of our perception that there is one way to write and accept that whatever works is good enough. I am living proof that there is no one-size-fits-all view for what it means to be a writer. I am forever grateful for this messy, exhilarating, painfully glorious unexpected blessing that has taken me on a meandering detour to all destinations in between. I have at last come to know that I deserve to call myself a writer and I am filled with joy anew every time I use that word.

The truth is that I don’t write to publish, although that has been an exciting side effect of my later than usual launch into the writing world. I prefer writing that happens when my love for teaching beckons me. I write when teaching taps me on the shoulder and compels me to give what is inside an outer voice so I can share it with the world. I go to bed at night wondering what writing will beckon me the next day and wake up excited to know what writing awaits me.

I write when I have a professional itch I need to scratch. I write when I can’t hold the thoughts in my head any longer.

I write when I don’t even know what I’m going to write about.

I write because I trust the voices in my head and hold on for dear life to see where they might lead me.

I write in 280 characters on Twitter and long ‘passionate rants’ on Facebook.

I write to understand.

I write to reflect.

I write to make sense of this beautiful work I have loved for more than four and a half decades.

I write because I love being a teacher….

And I write because I must.

Mary Howard is a powerhouse literacy consultant and author. She has been described as a “teachers’ teacher” with insight into the realities of schools and a unique ability to translate research into practice. An educator for over four decades, Mary combines extensive experience as a special education, Title 1 and Reading RecoveryTM teacher and continues to provide in-school support as a literacy consultant and coach. She is the author of three books from Heinemann including RTI from All Sides: What Every Teacher Needs to Know (2009) and Good to Great Teaching: Focusing on the Literacy Work that Matters (2012). 

Mary also co-moderates #G2Great Twitter chat every Thursday night @DrMaryHoward with Jenn Hayhurst and Amy Brennan and can be found on Facebook at Mary C Howard.

This month, the #TeachWrite Chat Blog will be sharing the Writing Manifestos of our community. What do you believe about being a writer?  Would you like your Writing Manifesto featured on this blog?  Are you interested in writing for us at another time? More information is available here.