Writing Tip #2 (of 9): Examine Sources of Tension

Educators as Writers Series

“The page is your mirror. What happens inside you is reflected back. You come face-to-face with your own resistance, lack of balance, self-loathing, and insatiable ego - and also with your singular vision, guts, and fortitude.”

- Dani Shapiro, Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life

You're probably heard the advice, "Write what you know." As educators, that can sometimes be hard as our interactions with students, staff, and parents are at times confidential. At the very least, we may feel like we do not have permission to share.

That does not mean we have to avoid the more challenging issues in our work. In fact, these experiences can benefit us the most when we write about them and reflect on what was written. Writing helps us process these events because they are now externalized - words on paper - for us to mull over more objectively and get some perspective.

To examine sources of tension, it may help to ask ourselves a few questions about why we continue to think a…