Writing is My Elixir by Fran Haley

I am a writer.


Which means, essentially, that I am an alchemist of words, continually experimenting with ways to convey ideas and inspiration. I write first as a revelation to myself. Once I have some substance on the page, once an idea solidifies, I refine the words repeatedly for a desired effect on readers. This is a point I emphasize to students when my teaching colleagues invite me into their classrooms: “Writing is a message. It involves a sender and a receiver. Your job, as the writer, is to make your reader think and feel what you think and feel.”

As I model for students and teachers, from ideas to final drafts, I involve them in the process. They help me make artistic choices—topic, word choices, sometimes form. They become invested. In fourth grade last week I modeled how poets get ideas from objects, photographs, art, wonder, and relationships (not just between humans, but, say, the relationship of the moon to oceans and tides). I shared my own ideas in these categories and students chose an object as the basis of a poem for me to write: An old tonic bottle I found partially buried in the dirt of what was once my grandfather’s childhood farm. “Write a rhyming poem,” said the students, with glee.

So, before their very eyes, I combined those ingredients: A bottle, a format, emotion, a need to make a vital connection to readers … stirring, refining …

Only as I began writing this post with that little bottle in mind did it occur to me that writing is my elixir. Not a meaningless formula that I hawk to achieve my own ends, but one of authentic, lifelong power.  Once the students get a taste of the real thing, they desire it forever.

As I do.


Fran Haley is a K-12 English Language Arts educator currently serving as a K-5 literacy coach. Writing is her favorite thing to do and to teach; she loves helping others of all ages grow to love writing. She facilitates writing workshop training for teachers in her district and authors the blog Lit Bits and Pieces: Snippets of Learning and Life. Connect with Fran on Twitter: @fahaley.