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Speaking to Students about Writing

April 2, 2014 / Uncategorized / 31 COMMENTS

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraigCareer in Writing

When I was asked to speak to the 8th graders at the local middle school, my first thought was, “Oh cool…I can encourage young people to write.”  Then I thought, “Uh-oh.  But these are middle schoolers.  And middle schoolers are scary.”

Then there was a sense of relief that my daughter at that school is in 7th grade and wouldn’t be embarrassed by me, no matter what.

I have spoken at everything from elementary schools to retirement homes.  I don’t think anything intimidated me quite as much as speaking to this age group (middle schoolers are roughly ages 11-14…8th graders being at the upper end of the spectrum).  Let’s just say I made sure I prepared so that I looked like I knew what I was talking about. Middle schoolers aren’t known for suffering fools lightly.  It was career day and I was talking about a career in writing.  Once I focused on the writing, I got through whatever anxiety I had with speaking to this age group.

The amazing thing was how receptive the kids were.  I spoke to roughly 120 kids and found most of them very attentive.

I also heard that other people speaking at career day were a policeman, a fireman, a radio personality, and a banker.  I figured at least I could be more interesting than the banker, right?

As soon as I was asked to help out with career day, I asked my 12 year old daughter for tips in addressing the kids.  She raised her eyebrows and said, “You better use a lot of pictures, Mama.”

That’s when I put the power point together.  With pictures.  Actually, it was Prezi (I used the free version) and it worked really well.

Here’s what I learned from Friday’s presentation:

Get visual. As my daughter said, “Use lots of pictures.”  I also used physical props to illustrate points: a printed-out, marked up draft; an ARC; finished books; old notebooks I’d filled with poems and stories from when I was a kid.

Keep it relevant to them.  I talked about successful young writers, what a writer’s day is like, the future for writers and writing, and why I thought it was a great career. I touched on querying (mostly in the context of dealing with rejection), contracts, and promo, but kept that part brief.

Keep it upbeat and uncomplicated.  Obviously, some of the business aspect of writing or details of promo or even craft details aren’t going to be very interesting when you’re just generally outlining what you do.

Bring treats.  Especially on career day.  Because all those other parents had promo junk from their offices.  I brought candy. :)

Leave time for questions.  I was surprised at the number of questions and the scope of the questions.

Bring a handout/business card/bookmark/something with your email address on there.  Some kids were shy about asking questions in front of others.

Remind them there are many different types of jobs that writers can do.  We’re novelists, but there are also screenwriters, scriptwriters, songwriters, journalists, playwrights, copywriters, game writers…lots of opportunities for content creators.

Some of the questions they asked:

What about self-publishing?  Is that a good choice? (Yes, they did know about this topic!  I was amazed.)
How do you get your ideas?  (Of course.)
Do you make money when people buy books?  How much royalty do you get?
Why do you write under two names?
Is it hard to promote two different names? Do you wish you only had one?
Do you have a favorite book that you wrote?

Have you ever done a school visit?    Spoken to this age group?  What are your tips?

  1. Hi Elizabeth – what a great summary of your well prepared day – I bet the school and the kids were impressed. Your daughter set you off on the right track, but your own organisation in your writerly did you well ……. did anyone ask what time you got up?!

    Cheers Hilary .. this was fun and so useful ..

    1. Hilary—Yes! Funny you should ask…I got 2 questions about the fact that I get up so early to write (before 5). And then I had a student at the end of one presentation come over to tell me (she didn’t want to talk in front of the others) that she was also an early riser…and that she used that time to write. :)

  2. I loved visiting middle schools! Never thought to bring treats, but I always handed out bookmarks.

    Getting the kids involved is so important. They don’t want to sit through a presentation – they want to be part of the action.

  3. So true on middle schoolers being scary, but they are just as sweet as scary. True on all the things you can do to keep their attention.

  4. Elizabeth – I’m so glad you had the chance to take your show on the road to a middle school. And I couldn’t possibly agree more about those tips, especially the one about keeping it relevant to them. I’ve also found that helping students feel that they are already writers (i.e. this isn’t some completely unobtainable goal) is helpful. I’m re-teaching myself those lessons as I start to interact with readers and others on Instagram. Lots of young people on that social network space and interacting with them is not the same as interacting with adults on blogs, etc.. It’s simply communicating in a different way with a different audience.

    1. Margot–Oh yes—Instagram is where the young people are! My daughter is on that one, though, and isn’t wild about me having a big presence there. :) I’ve avoided it for the time being. But you do a lot of photography, Margot, so that platform is a natural for you.

  5. I clearly remember being in 7th grade and having a local novelist come and speak to the combined class. (Only about 120 of us.).

    It stuck with me.

    He was (now dead) a short little bald man completely devoid of any sense of charisma or charm. The crowd became restless about three minutes in.

    He stopped his prepared presentation (speech, really) and said he wanted to show us what writer’s do. He read a couple paragraphs from a chapter of his recent novel set in Nebraska during some range wars. It was a historical fiction. (Michener and John Jakes stuff was big then).

    The description and the characters’ interaction had the crowd silent.

    The one character was telling the other how he was going to shoot a third unseen fellow, and the second character was attempting to reason the first out of the shooting. There was anger and concern and a bitter streak a mile wide and wind and horse and Nebraska. Mostly, there was a person reading to us about a topic that was clearly “adult” and thinking nothing of it …T.V. violence was one thing but murder in a book … a book!

    The restlessness was over. He had our attention.

    He had bound his first draft and showed it to us. It used a bunch of different paper types and it was first draft messy with drawn arrows and doodles and folds and even a coffee spill. It looked like rough drafts of papers I had written.

    He told us writers had day jobs and no, it got easier but it was still close to “term paper hard” to write at times.

    You can see the details stuck.

    You did something important yesterday. They killed Socrates for that sort of work.

    1. I’m amazed how well this has stuck in your mind! I hope that some of the kids will have a similar take-away from my talk.

      It sounds like visual stuff really does work well, if you remember how his first draft looked! And I like the phrase “term paper hard”. Yes, there are definitely books like that.

      And I like being compared to Socrates, no matter the stretch. :) Hoping that I helped influence some kids to write–at least at some point in their lives.

  6. Hi, Elizabeth. No, I’ve never spoken to children. It would intimidate me, but it sounds as if you handled it beautifully. How wonderful for them to learn about these things at so young an age. I don’t remember having adults in particular careers come to any class of mine when I was in school.

    1. Karen–The only one I remember was a woman who worked for an advertising company. She used colored chalks and drew pictures on our blackboard to illustrate (and we usually only had white chalk in the classrooms). I was totally entranced. And that’s all I remember! I wonder if there were a bunch of adults who talked to us and I only paid attention to the one.

  8. Wonderful Elizabeth ! So good to be generous with your time this way. Adults who intersected with my life talking about their passions had a huge influence on me even if their passion didn’t resonate !

    1. Jan–You know, that’s a good way of looking at it. I do vividly remember adults being passionate about various things when I was a child–traveling, crafts, etc. –and it was infectious, even if I wasn’t interested in their passion.

  9. I love that your daughter gave you such good advice! Your tips are excellent. I was asked to speak to 4th and 5th graders at the little elementary school my boys went to. I was extremely nervous…this is not my cup of tea…but I had so much fun. Funniest question? “Are you famous?” Of course I laughed and said no. The kids were awesome.

  10. I keep trying to teach 7th grade (and trying even harder to pen fantastical stories at night) and this completely cracked me up. People cringe when I tell them I teach middle school, but they’re my favorite age group! They’re still young enough to get excited about learning new things and mature enough to handle their own bathroom business (I honestly don’t see how elementary teachers do it, I mean really. Yuck.)

    And you were wise to bring pictures and candy. I never step in front of a classroom without either. Ever. ;)

    1. Kendra–I think you’re very brave! I was, honestly, shaking in my shoes until I started. :) I could speak (and have done) to an auditorium of writers without a second thought, but 10 groups of middle schoolers…ack. I think it’s because I *remember*, so well, being in junior high…and it was just so miserable! But these kids were so sharp, so sophisticated. Not like the kids I remember in the 80s. It was a whole different experience than I thought it would be.

      And…I had a couple of teachers tell me afterward that they write after/before work, too. :)

      Too funny about the pictures and candy! My 7th grade informant did a good job preparing me for my day.

  11. That is so funny! I’m the *exact* opposite. I can speak in front of students all day long – even hundreds of them at once if I need to – but put me in front of adult and I’m toast. My palms go sweaty. My voice shakes. And worst of all, my mind goes completely blank. I feel as if I need a sign that says, “I promise, the woman speaking is indeed a professional. And a grown up.”

    Kudos to you for speaking to students about writing…especially to middle schoolers. We need more of that! :)

    1. Kendra–I have a good tip for those blank-out moments when you’re speaking (because I used to do it a lot…or even forget what the question was that the moderator asked the panel). I read somewhere that it was good to have a cheat sheet for ourselves, but that the cheat sheet should have questions, instead of a script. So mine, for a typical talk, will have on it:
      When did you get serious about writing?
      What’s a typical day like for you?
      Do you have daily goals? Why or why not?

      So that way, when I go blank, I refer to the sheet and just answer the next question–and it sounds less stilted. :)

      Although I swear I need to do one of those Toastmasters classes one day…

      1. Aaah! Why haven’t I heard of that kind of cheat sheet before? Brilliant.

        I really should take another public speaking class at some point. I mean, we all took them in high school and college. But I *knew* those people.

        Perhaps there’s a class somewhere titled: Public Speaking for Insufferable Introverts. ;)

  12. Wow, they had some great questions! I’m glad it went really well. I would have been terrified, too. Middle school. Yikes! LOL

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