New Here? This is Tiny Lines

Every Friday, I publish an invitation for writers and for those who teach writing. I call the series Tiny Lines, and if you’ve just found your way here, this post offers a quick intro.

A tiny line is a small bit of print constructed around something that sticks with you: A moment so brief it barely registers as a story, yet it never leaves you alone. My Tiny Lines Friday series is built on the belief that these fragments are worth our attention as writers, and that short, tight frames like the vignette give us a manageable and meaningful way to work with them.

Here is how a Friday unfolds. We begin by making, not writing. Before any words hit the page, I invite you to build your piece with materials of your choosing. I’m working with watercolor and collage this summer. Both are new to me. I’m a beginner, my work is beginner-level work, and I’m learning a lot about working with these materials and how other people do it well along the way. See? Messy.

You might play with clay or loose parts or any other material you like. Pretty isn’t the point here. When we make writing, we use materials to represent our ideas to ourselves first. Making creates a container for them, and materials inspire ideas we may not have accessed otherwise. When we construct our compositions with our hands first, the writing that follows is almost always richer for it. We stretch into new possibilities. The entire experience is more expansive.

Each post includes an uncommon writing prompt, a craft move worth studying, a vignette from my novel in progress, Reality Testing, which serves as one mentor text among several, and reflection questions that help you decide what to do with what you’ve made. If you’re a teacher, each post closes with thinking about how the week’s invitation might be situated in your curriculum.

Tonight, a new four-week series begins. Each week will bring a fresh making and writing invitation, four in all, and when this second series closes, I’ll shift out of my creative writing posture and into my curriculum writing posture: The fifth post will flip those four invitations into complete lesson plans for high school teachers, aligned to standards and to works you’ll recognize from the textbook series and resources many of you are expected to use.

You’re welcome to make and write alongside us for your own sake, for your students’ sake, or for both at once.

If that sounds like your kind of Friday, I’d love to have you. Subscribe below, gather a few materials, and come make writing with us.