Natalie Goldberg is the author of many books on writing including two of my old favorites,
Writing Down the Bones and
Wild Mind. I am ordering her latest one on memoir. Some of her writing is included in the readings for the week.
She writes:
"The
basic unit of writing practice is the timed exercise. You may time
yourself for ten minutes, twenty minutes, or an hour. It's up to
you....What does matter is that whatever amount of time you choose for
that session, you must commit yourself to it for the full period."
(Writing Down the Bones)
"A
writing practice is simply picking up a pen, a fast-writing pen,
preferably, since the mind is faster than the hand, and doing timed
writing exercises. The idea is to keep your hand moving for, say, ten
minutes, and don’t cross anything out, because that makes space for
your inner editor to come in. You are free to write the worst junk in
America." (interview)
So
in the Virtual Institute, you are challenged to take just ten minutes
out of your day to write. The next step is to post your writings in the
Virtual Journal. Post at least three times. The important thing is to practice writing. As Goldberg says,
"The more you do it, the better you get at it." Post entries in reply
to this post and remember you may comment on classmates' posts.
Feedback and response is always appreciated.
Georgia Heard
is another of our favorite writers who specializes in encouraging
others to write. She has a range of books for teachers and for writers
that you may have already discovered. Check out her website at http://georgiaheard.com . Many of her books focus on the teaching of poetry. Perhaps Sondra's favorite, however, is Writing Toward Home: Tales and Lessons to Find Your Way
(Heinemann), a thin, inspirational volume that encourage us to write
from close observation and past personal experiences. She challenges us
to see the ordinary in an extraordinary way. On her website she
writes: “Whether you are a student, teacher or a poet I believe our
challenge is to find the poetry all around us every day. Children are
often the best teachers of this. That's one of my goals when I teach
poetry is to help every student find the poetry inside.” 
