On the drive back home today, I finished listening to an audiobook production of BUDDHA BOY. It was a perfect traveling companion, just the right length for the round trip. While I loved the recording of the audiobook by Full Cast Audio, it was the afterword by the author that caught my attention, making me pull over to jot down a brief note before continuing the drive. Kate Koje was talking about her process as a writer, how stories begin and then how they evolve.

The journey of the writing is fascinating. As I talk to others about writing, I discover that we have different approaches: the tools we use, how we draft and revise, whether we outline or not. I am talking here about a different kind of writing than Koje's. I am talking about the sort of professional writing that is part of our lives.

Because I try to blog every day, I find these posts seem to flow naturally. I do very little revision. These are intended to be almost stream of consciousness pieces. I begin with a concept and see where the writing leads me. I blog also for Follett. Those pieces are super short, and once I have a theme or topic, the post moves quickly.

Sometimes I am surprised at a turn a post takes. And I let that turn take me to a new realization. Often, these come my favorite pieces of short writing. A couple of weeks ago, I posted a link to Austin Kleon's blog about doing the verb in order to be the noun. It is true for reading AND for writing. If I want to be a writer, I must do the verb and WRITE. How can we provide more time for our kids to do the verbs in order to be the nouns?