In Love With the Process by Carol Gordon Ekster

I taught 4th grade for 35 years and consistently shared with my classes my views on the power of goal setting. In my retired life, my now full-time writing life, I don't have the school bells telling me what to do. I write because I want to write. I write because I love the process.

My goal setting is quiet. I visualize more books in my future. Seeing yourself achieve your goal will have positive outcomes for your future. I believe it! I set goals to do my best, work the craft, share my manuscripts with as many critique groups and buddies as will view my work. I want to open myself to all the universe offers in getting each manuscript right.

I continue to write, despite the ups and downs of this life, without the main goal being published, but certainly with that hope for some of my stories.

My goal is not to be lazy. I need to carefully look at each sentence. (The genre of picture books, with its low word count, allows for this.) Can I reword the sentence or spiff up a verb? I have a document for each of my manuscripts, close to 80 right now, that simply has most sentences with many variations. I choose the one that sounds the best, is lyrical, perhaps has alliteration.

It was always the message I tried to relate when I taught. “Can you do better?” In art – can you add more detail, outline with a marker? In math – did you check each problem? Care enough to do so! Use a calculator. In writing – did you revise, did you use beautiful language, is it your best work?

With writing, revision is how you get to that polished piece. I tried hard to set an example for this excellence with my students. I modeled the process when I shared my work with my students. I encouraged their feedback to my own writing and I’d read my revisions to them.

If you model your writing and encourage students’ best work, we will have a future generation of amazing writers and caring citizens. May we all be better goal-getters in 2018 and encourage students to do the same.

When Carol Gordon Ekster is not thinking about writing or teaching, you can find her doing yoga, biking, involved with critique groups or working on her books. The English version of her newest book, You Know What? with Clavis Books, was released on September 1, 2017. The Chinese and Korean versions are in the works. Carol is now retired from a 35-year teaching career. She is grateful that her writing gives her another way to continue working with children. You can find out more about Carol and her other books at www.carolgordonekster.com or connect with her on Twitter at @cekster. 

Write for Us!

The #TeachWrite Twitter Chat Blog is dedicated to providing a space for our community to connect and share their voices about writing and teaching writing.  We are looking for guest bloggers for January who would like to blog on topics related to our January theme -- GOALS.  Educators and writers of all levels are invited to join us in this space. More information can be found here.