Driving at Night with Headlights

E. L. Doctorow is quoted as offering this wonderful insight into the process of writing a novel: "It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."

That's how I'm feeling about my Winter Term writing-for-children course right now. I realized on day one that the course presented three challenges that I am going to have to deal with somehow:

1) The class is very large for a writing class: 22 students.
2) The class sessions are very long: three hours a day, four days a week, for several weeks.
3) The class population is not what I'm used to: I'm used to middle-aged women, and this class has a sizable population of 20-year-old guys who have never read any of my own childhood favorite texts (no Betsy, Tacy, and Tib fans) and who are primarily interested in writing graphic novels.

So I am going to have to make some changes to what I had planned.

I have to do a lot more small group work as it's deadly to have to listen to 22 students report on their weekend reading, 22 students each share a picture book manuscript for critique, 22 students each share a book chapter for critique. I have to mix up the format to accommodate the long class sessions and the student learning styles: scrap the long lectures in favor of interactive exercises. I'm making the changes day by day, so that I can learn each day from what I did the session before and whether it worked out the way I wanted it to. Basically, I have to keep on my toes. Make that: on my tippy toes!

While peering out through the windshield at that next stretch of road ahead, lit up by those headlights.