Returning to my Writing Life by Erin Vogler

I can’t really predict where my summer writing will go, but I do know it will be different from the writing I do during the school year.

For me, summer writing is the writing I want to do, when I am untethered and can let my words take me anywhere.

School year writing, though still something I approach with joy, is often for a defined purpose and specific audience. I never really have the time I need to craft my message with the care I’d prefer.

What I love most about summer writing is that I have time to allow my mind to weave and wade through the deep waters of trust, fear, vulnerability, faith, and wander the grassy meadows of beautiful words like joy, reflection, and wonder.

It is a time when I slow down, preferably with a cup of peppermint tea, and most definitely sitting in my gazebo or on my front porch just after sunset. The lights twinkle, a light breeze flutters, and the orchestra of my rural surroundings guide my pen across the page.

I’m a night writer, so my style gets cramped between September and June when bedtime is 9 p.m. most evenings. During the school year, the writing is rushed. I’m hustling to get it all done and still have time to be well-read and well-rested.

But oh, those summer nights! That’s when my notebook, my writing, starts to breathe and move. It comes to life. I am more intentional. I breathe deeply and let myself sink in. My notebooks get beautiful again.  I have time to sketch and play.  I experiment with collage and take the time to add and write beside others whose words inspire me to take new leaps in my work.

I never forget to write in the summer. I know inspiration can creep up at any moment, so I carry my notebook everywhere. I’m always ready to open the door to invite an idea in to stay for awhile.  I don’t push my notebook to the side during these months.

So, how do I make that summer habit stick? How do I make sure writing doesn’t get placed in the unnecessary indulgence category, or worse yet, just another item on that September to June To Do list that rarely gets finished?

I think the answer lies in reminding myself that I AM a writer and that writers write.

Every. Single. Day.

It is about remembering that BOTH reading and writing are essential - like breathing - one, reading, the deep, delicious inhale, and writing, the necessary other, the space-making, life-saving exhale.  It’s not something I merely want to do. It’s something I must do.


Erin Vogler is about to finish her 18th year of teaching at Keshequa Middle/High School in the Genesee Valley in Western New York. She has taught grades 7-12, and has loved spending this year reading and writing beside her wise and witty 8th and 10th graders. She will be spending her summer reading, writing, doing yoga, and relaxing with her two Boston Terriers and a rambunctious Boxer who can’t wait for her to be home every day. Erin shares her thoughts on teaching, reading, and writing at https://fosteringvoicesandchoices.wordpress.com/, a place where she is not quite as consistent as she’d like to be (yet). You can also find her on Twitter @vogler3024 and Instagram @mrsvogler3024.

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