March Slice of Life No. 31 * Celebrate This Week
I have two celebrations today.
Celebration I: #SOL March 2018
With a 34-word story, I am celebrating writing. I have written every day for thirty-one days — my daily slice and daily comments on other slices. Commenting is part of the writing commitment in this challenge.
March 2018
I will forever remember March as thirty-one days of writing, posting, reading, commenting, learning. Daily my skills grew. I made new blogger friends. I conquered the challenge. My life is richer because of you.
Thank you to Betsy, Melanie, Stacey, and everyone else over at TwoWritingTeachers who create and maintain “this meeting place for a world of reflective writers.” Thank you to a couple hundred bloggers who participated in this challenge. And if you are reading this post, I thank you for your encouragement on this 31-day journey.
Celebration II: Easter
With a 34-word story, I am remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Easter
Betrayed, unjustly sentenced, Jesus died on a cross. Earth shook; darkness fell. They sealed His tomb. But He arose, from death to life, victorious. An angel rolled back the stone that I might believe.
Writing about my writing
My choice of form
I started thinking about my final March SOL post several days ago. I decided to celebrate two important things in this last slice — the most important Christian holiday and my completion of the #SOL writing challenge. But I didn’t have a clue as to what form I would use. Then, on Friday, I visited Rita DiCarne’s blog, “Mary’s Son.”
So, inspired by Rita who was inspired by Fran Haley (“Thirty-four Words“) who was inspired by Kelly Gallagher at North Carolina Reading Association, I decided to try my hand at writing two 34-word stories — one for each celebration.
My drafting / revision trail for “Easter”
Sometimes, my drafting and revising are fused, hardly distinguishable. As I wrote the 34-word story celebrating March SOL, I noticed that I was definitely fusing the two. So when I started my Easter piece, I thought I would try to capture what was happening. With just 34 words, I thought it shouldn’t be too hard to do. I would just copy and paste every time I made a change by adding to the draft or by revising what I had written.
Take 1 is what I initially wrote without consciously thinking about crafting the writing. The minute I started to think about crafting, I copied and pasted the initial writing as Take 2 and made the changes. When I began to think of changes to that one, I copied and pasted Take 2 text under Take 3 and made changes. So it went, take-by-take, until I was finally satisfied with my writing … at least for now.
Take 1
The earth shook and darkness fell when He died hanging on a cross. Then His body was sealed in a tomb.
Take 2
He died on a cross. and earth shook and darkness fell
Take 3
He died on a cross. Earth shook. Darkness fell. Then His body was sealed in a tomb. Light shone. Angels rolled the stone. He arose
Take 4
He died on a cross. Earth shook. Darkness fell. They sealed His body in a tomb. But then a great light shone. Angels rolled the stone. He arose Because He lives, I live.
Take 5
He died on a cross. Earth shook. Darkness fell. They sealed His body in a tomb. But then a great light shone. Angels rolled the stone. He arose
Take 6
Betrayed, tried, sentenced without cause. He died on a cross. Earth shook. Darkness fell. They sealed Hm in a tomb. He arose in a great light shone. Angels rolled the stone. He arose
Take 7
Betrayed, tried, sentenced unjustly. On a cross, He died. Earth shook. Darkness fell. They sealed His tomb. But He arose, from death to life. Angels rolled the stone that we might see.
Take 8
Betrayed. Sentenced unjustly. On a cross, He died. Earth shook. Darkness fell. They sealed His tomb. But He arose, from death to life and an angel rolled back the stone that we might see.
Take 9
Betrayed, sentenced unjustly, He died on a cross. Earth shook. Darkness fell. They sealed His tomb. But He arose, from death to life and an angel rolled back the stone that we might see.
Take 10
Betrayed, unjustly sentenced, Jesus died on a cross. Earth shook; darkness fell. They sealed His tomb. But He arose, from death to life, victorious. An angel rolled back the stone that I might believe.
And finally…
Last year at the end of March, I used 112 blog titles of Slicers to create a fun poem,
The Gossip of SOL17: Did you hear?
I’m linking to it today because many of the bloggers in my poem participated this year again. I read the poem today and it made me laugh again. Perhaps I will write one for 2018 during April.
Comments are open on it. If you read it, I’d love to hear from you.
Head over to
http://twowritingteachers.org
for more slice of life stories.
#SOL18
Celebrate this Week
with Ruth Ayres
#Celebratelu.
It seems that you had a fabulous month of writing, Alice. I loved reading your process. Now, happy April!
Two great things to celebrate as this month draws to a close and Easter is a day away. I like how you take us through your thought process in getting form Point A to Point B. I appreciate all of your comments on my posts, Alice. See you Tuesday.
You are welcome. And I appreciate your comments on mine. See you Tuesday.
Thirty-four word stories are tough, but you did it! It’s been a fun month of reading and commenting. See you Tuesdays. 🙂
Alice, now it is time for your to rise joyously tomorrow on Easter knowing that you completed your task, challenged yourself to write two 34-word stories, and be filled with the spirit beside.
Thank you, Carol. Have a blessed Easter Sunday; I know you will enjoy your sweet grandbaby.
Happy Holiday Alice. I appreciate your process and your passion. Have a good day tomorrow.
Bonnie
Thank you, Bonnie! 🙂
Thank you for a faith-filled Easter meditation.
Have a blessed Easter, Diane.
I like the 34 word writing – I will have to give that a try. And thanks for reposting the poem from last year. I remember it well. What great fun! See you on Tuesdays!
Thank you, Joanne. I found the 34-word challenge to be similar to writing poetry in that every word must count and word order is important. I thought it would be easy, but I found I had to consciously think about grammar (e.g., using participles to modify) and crafting moves.
I’ve never thought to include the process of my writing in…my writing! This metacognitive method would be great to share with students.
May this Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday bring blessings to you and yours! Added your blog to my WordPress reader feed; looking forward to reading your future posts!
I encourage you to try it. I usually have to do it as I’m writing or immediately after I finish what I think is my last revision. I started doing it so I could recapture my thinking to model for students and to model for teachers. My you and yours be blessed. Thanks for adding me to your reader feed; I’m honored!
Alice, I am honored to be mentioned here and even more so to read your 34-word stories on the Resurrection. Full of power, beauty – and, ultimately, life. I enjoyed all the “takes” and will reread them; it’s like immersing into a meditation. Many blessings to you and many thanks.
Thank you, Fran. You are right. I noticed that after I finished the post and finally just read through the 10 “takes.” The repetition of thoughts pushed deeper. It was something I didn’t expect.
Again and again you share your process and enrich my understanding of writing. With each of your blogs I grow in understanding and thoughtfulness. Thank you for this. As you said, “My life is richer because of you.” See you on Tuesdays.
Aww… thanks. I’m so glad we connected. See you Tuesdays.
Your shared work in progress and end piece is great. This could be a way to show students how they can develop and revise their writing for a perfect end result. There could also be a discussion about the changes they made and why, through the stages/takes.
Yes, you are so spot on. I thought about sharing my thinking each time I did a new “take.” It would be interesting to see if students could identify the craft moves made from one to the next. If students have access to a word processing program it would be easy for them to do with a short writing like this or a paragraph from a longer piece. If they are working with paper and pen, they might bog down in the recopy.
Thank you Alice for a wonderful month of learning. I know I’ll go back again for your crafting and teaching techniques.
Aww… thanks. I so appreciate your feedback. And I look forward to sharing together on Tuesday SOLs.
Thank you for sharing your reflection of the 34 word process. It’s so neat to see your draft process as well. I connect with both stories…beautifully written.