I got to witness a writing teacher whose writing manuals I loved read from her first published novel. Her first books are primarily exercises with writing tips on many different topics relating to writing.
I love her writing books and over the years I have received many writing tips from them but couldn’t say I felt the same about the novel. In the past I had enjoyed reading her poems that were included in the writing manuals where she also talked about her experiences with automatic writing for the public. She would set up a booth at a public event and charge a dollar per poem about whatever topic each person who approached her requested. She was very good at this.
Her novel skipped around a lot and I could not relate to the characters. I found myself spacing out and thinking about other things.
Her writing books also broach spiritual topics as she is a practicing Buddhist. I learned much about the journey of becoming a writer as she related it to her journey of becoming a more spiritual person. She includes writing tips and exercises at the end of each chapter which help with writing, but also can be translated to spirituality.
I find this author quite talented in her motivation of other writers, including teaching children how to write poetry. She has free-writing techniques that can motivate any writer to put a pen to paper and just keep writing without being overly concerned with or critical of what they write. Her teaching techniques did not seem to translate that well to her own long piece of writing, her novel.
The evening I heard her read I was sad that I didn’t enjoy the novel excerpt so much, but in thinking it over, I decided that it didn’t matter. She is still wonderful at her first art, which is teaching others. Sometimes being a teacher is it’s own art. A person can be a great motivator of others without being the best at the particular art they teach.
My first and best poetry teacher helped me find my own writing voice and he demonstrated this same talent to me. He could take a writer and bring out their best and show them how to tap their voice in the best way possible. But I didn’t enjoy his poems. It’s definitely a different talent to be a great writer than it is to be a great teacher, but I think they are equally as important.
The writing teacher I saw read from her novel is similar to my former poetry teacher. I will always reread her writing manuals as they help me to grow as a writer, but her gifts show the most when she is teaching, rather than trying to practice the art she teaches, on herself.
