More Magic

My daughter is obsessed.  With words and fonts. With images: sketches, water-colors, photographs.  And Pinterest, of course, which is often the inspiration for her creations.  I am lucky enough to be the recipient of lots of her artsy attempts.  Yes, they look an awful lot like the originals, minus the misspellings. One may even say that she has "copied" from other artists.  Guess what?  That is okay.  We all have to begin somewhere.  The more she immerses herself in the artwork of others, the more her own personality, voice, and style will develop and shine.  It is a magical process.

The same is true for any craft or skill.  If you want to be a singer, you listen to and study the artists that sing the way you envision yourself singing.  If you want to learn to quilt, or knit, or dance, you go to the experts and get tips from them.  Each expert is going to put their own "spin" on things, which is likely going to show up in your work, until you decide you want to "spin off" in other directions.

Think about the craft of writing.  Whatever genre or mode we are teaching, we need to allow students to immerse themselves in it so that they can begin to emulate it.  We have to show them the characteristics of real-life examples.  They need to see what "good" looks like.  Hopefully then they will be able to model their writing after the experts, and eventually add an unexpected twist that makes it their own.

It makes sense, if you think about it.  It's not rocket science, but it is pretty magical.