As a writer progresses in his craft, he may sometimes wonder what he might expect the path to look like. In this four-part series, Charity Singleton Craig envisions a possible progression of a writing life through the lens of a snowboarder. In today’s installment, she considers the role of play.
_____________________
During the most recent Winter Olympics, my husband and I were watching the men’s halfpipe competition on the old television in our bedroom, far away from the snow-packed half cylinder in Sochi, Russia. Reclining lazily in our flannel sheets, we felt distanced from the jumps and acrobatics of these extreme athletes who ride their small boards up and down and over and through the pipe.
“How do they start?” I asked my husband, wondering how a person goes from couch-potato spectator, watching snowboarders ride the halfpipe on an outdated TV, to actually making the jumps, twists, and flips in the icy track.
“They probably started practicing over mats, ” my husband offered. I also pictured helmets, padded suits, and wire cables during those first few jumps. And certainly they didn’t start with 23-foot-deep, icy pipes.
When I clicked off the television and rolled over to sleep, I was still thinking of these uber-skilled athletes, how one day they were watching others do this amazing thing, and then, they decided to start doing it themselves. From the beginning.
Where Our Writing Life Begins
This is where the writing life begins for most of us, too. We don’t start out crafting our own complex sentences and well-structured paragraphs. In the beginning, we don’t write at all. First, we read, or listen to others read. The stories we hear entertain us, encourage us, even thrill us. We don’t first come to words because we want a lifetime of work; we come because other writers made them seem enjoyable. And we want to play, too.
Apparently that’s how gold medalist Shaun White first entered the world of professional snowboarding. He was not even five years old when he followed his brother, Jesse, to a nearby YMCA where he regularly skateboarded with friends. I can imagine the young Shaun thinking, That looks fun! According to Bio magazine, by age six, he added snowboarding to his repertoire.
I was about the same age when I entered the world of words. My mom had read to my brother and me for years. I began reading for myself at age four. My brother was four years older and often brought home school writing projects. When I was six, his fifth-grade teacher assigned a written report about one of the 50 states, his choice. Seemed fun to me, so I decided to try one for myself. I picked Kansas. The teacher graciously read my report, in addition to my brothers’ and the other students’ in her class. I got an A+.
Writing was a playground for me for years. Long before my ambition for a career in publishing, I used words as toys, crafting stories and poems and songs. I jotted them down on scrap paper for myself. I meticulously penned them on construction paper as gifts for others. Many of them were thrown away with no thought of the future. I was just playing.
Make the Most of It
Whether you are still in this early stage of your writing career, or have moved far beyond it, playing with words can help you make progress in your writing life. Sometimes when I am working under deadline, word work gets too serious. I forget why I am doing it. Playing helps me remember. Other times, I am stuck. The words won’t come. Stepping away from an assignment and playing in other ways—going for a walk, painting a picture, playing a game of tennis, enjoying a cup of tea on the porch swing—provides the space I need.
Keep Growing
I hope I never stop playing with words. But I also know that if I want to grow as a writer, I can’t play all the time. Allowing the joy that develops through play to propel me toward a more serious commitment to the craft becomes an important next step in the progression of my writing life.
Photo by Khairul Nizam, Creative Commons license via Flickr. Post by Charity Singleton Craig.
_______________________
Read a poem a day. Become a better writer.
Buy a year of Every Day Poems, just $5.99
- Grammar for a Full Life Book Club: On Becoming Less Possessive - June 16, 2021
- Grammar for a Full Life Book Club: Chilling Out on the Grammar Rules - June 9, 2021
- Grammar for a Full Life Book Club: A Passive Voice - June 2, 2021
Will Willingham says
I like the idea that playing with words begins with reading, or more specifically, being *read to.* I don’t think that’s limited to young children, either. I think that older children and even adults (even me) engage with the words differently when hearing them read vs reading them directly or even writing them.
Some good thoughts to consider about how we each come into a life of words.
Charity Singleton Craig says
I agree. I really enjoy listening to books on CD. I don’t have real-life people who will read to me! I definitely engage differently when I don’t have the words in front of me; it seems to be a bigger competition for my attention to just hear and not see. But it also gives me more freedom to put myself into the story.
Thanks for your comment.
Laura Brown says
I love stories of voluntary homework. I had the gift of seeing my second-grade teacher again last year, and she told me I used to turn in unassigned reports. She especially remembers one about aardvarks, which she told me I was obsessed with for a while. I suspect it was partly the novelty of the sound of that word, partly the oddness of the animal, and once I knew how to spell it, partly the surprise that a word could begin with two A’s.
What marvelous play we all had last fall in the Writing Life workshop.
Charity Singleton Craig says
Laura – I agree about the playfulness in our workshop last year. It was refreshing.
I had an obsession with duck-billed platypuses in my childhood. I read a book about them and couldn’t get them out of my mind. Not sure if I wrote any extra assignments about them, but it’s possible.
I wrote lots of extra poems when I was a child. I remember being introduced to the world of poetry in second grade, and I couldn’t get enough.
Sheila Seiler Lagrand says
The Kansas Report. I love that story.
Donna says
Playing catch up… playing… yes… playing! I was going to say that the word “play” and the ability to “DO” it is probably how anyone gets anywhere in the beginning, middle, and even the end. We not only don’t recognize it and give PLAY its due, but we devalue it as a society. Thank you Charity… great post.
Charity Singleton Craig says
Donna – I agree with your thoughts about society devaluing play, particularly when it comes to our work. We think of it as drudgery all too often. Ironically, I think we feel that way about work, though, because our society also overvalues play. We sludge through the week and live for the weekend. We spend billions of dollars being entertained. I think a healthier integration of work, play, rest, etc. may be what’s needed. If we brought more playfulness to our work, maybe we wouldn’t have to work so hard at playing.
Donna says
I love that! Such interesting opposites! Until quite recently I’ve had a hard time accepting that completely opposite phenomenon go on simultaneously… but they do, like this. Maybe a lot of people are stuck in that mindset and so are often living “for” something else, convinced that things should not be as they are. Work can certainly be playful! Play can certainly be work. What’s wrong with work, anyway, right? Not a blessed thing. 🙂