Metacognition is thinking about thinking; the ability effective teachers instill in their students.
Metacogwriting is thinking about writing; a made up term by a teacher struggling to prepare for the downhill slope of the school year, yet also in pursuit of becoming a better writer. Anyone who has taught, knows this job doesn't leave your mind, especially at the beginning of second semester in the loom of the tests approaching, or even on holiday break, cooking for your family, cleaning up after them, shopping for groceries on the weekend, you get it. Your students, lessons, ideas, the curriculum, state assessments, are all there lurking in the back of your mind. Then, when you finally sit to write, not because you've worked it into your schedule, but because you need to get away and writing feels oh-so-good, those thoughts drift out of your toolbox like different colored floating feathers, waiting for you to reach out and grab one.
Maybe my answers on how to be a better writer in the midst of chaos are found in changing the way I see my hectic life, morphing that old way of thinking into an appreciation that it is... and therefore has given me the feathers I need to write a good story.
For those of us 'writing on the side' of whatever full-time career or responsibility we have, in pursuit of publishing to the masses, it's a struggle, at least for me, to divide my thoughts among my job, being a mother and wife, and trying to be a serious writer, let alone a new one, trying to learn all that I can about 'writing for real' in the shortest amount of time possible because of that expanding urge to get my destined story 'out,' pay more bills, and use my passion and talent in the best way profitable to myself and family (in all honesty), and that's just scratching the surface, all the while trying to be the best teacher I can, again, separating the two, or three, or four... (this paragraph should symbolize the way I see my life, all one paragraph, chaotic, but hopefully controlled chaos. smiley face)
Though, I know all my career moves and personal paths have led to this moment. Instead of trying to separate myself from this, this, and then this, I just need to embrace that I am all these things and allow them to overflow. No more juggling, but painting. I will mix this color with this and see what I get; exactly how my latest middle grade novel came to be, as well as my picture book Bonnie's Box, all from mixing the colors of my life. I was that quirky girl talking to myself in the box. I've seen many Devins who see the world in a different way than I do, and you don't want Mommy Monster to surface, a book I'm afraid to write, but really want to! All, not just from my creativity, but inspired by the hectic paths that have led me to this moment. If we speed through life and divide our thoughts, how will the paintings ever come to be...
