"She opened the closet..."
This was the end of my daughter's "choose your own adventure" story from an 8-week after-school program we enrolled her in. After eight weeks, she had only written one incomplete paragraph and was going to present this at the local bookstore in front of the other students and their parents.
Because my kid is incredibly confident and not at all shy, she improvised the rest of it, and it was a success. My husband and I, however, were still curious about what kept her from writing more, so we approached her incredible writing teacher to express our concerns.
What emerged was a beautiful and great lesson for all of us.
Her writing teacher tried a different approach. While all of the other kids were heads down on their laptops, writing away, she took my daughter aside and invited her to start sharing her story out loud and on her feet. They danced it out, sang, played characters, and approached writing in a different way.
What emerged from this was 5 complete chapters about a girl named Ella whose mom was an Ice Princess and soon-to-be divorcee of the Fire King.
So my question for you is: are you giving yourself permission to do things differently?
When I wrote my one-person show last year, I did a similar thing. I sat in the studio by myself, used props, moved my body, and dictated while Otter.ai recorded.
For my clients, I capture everything on Yoodli because you never know what golden nugget might be said while brainstorming.
My invitation to you is to find new ways to generate content, especially if what you are doing already is playing it safe or not generating anything at all.
Remember, creativity can enhance engagement,
there is no one way to do anything.
different approaches can lead to success,
recognizing what's not working and being curious about other solutions is key.
Ok, my friends, it's time to get messy and try something new! Why? Because there is magic on the other side.