Driving to the March

 

As I post today, I have in my mind that in only a week and a day, I’ll start the March Writing Challenge! My goal this year is to “work on my writing”. Last week I gathered possible lessons I might try during March and I posted them HERE on a padlet.

Yesterday, I reread my past 3 years of Challenge writing and I gathered some pieces I think I could revise and added those links to another padlet HERE. Doing this reminded of a report card comment I made recently to one of my 3rd graders – He drafts quickly but doesn’t always want to return to revise for clearer writing structure. Through small group instruction, I will guide him to spend more time in the revision stage of writing during the third quarter. 

Now, I realize that I write quickly and don’t spend much time returning to revise. Yet, I’m often told that revision is the place to spend most of a writer’s time. So here is a draft of a story I wrote and read at my writing club meeting last week (3 ladies and I meet monthly. We write and then read it aloud and receive feedback!) and the feedback I received. The feedback made me realize that this was just a draft and revision is needed! I plan to add this link to the padlet I created yesterday!

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Our car, already filled with 3 adults, pulled up to the curb at 8:10am on a Saturday and 3 more adults approached it. “Brian, thanks for driving us,” one voice called out. In they piled, joining me or rather squishing me in the back seat. Brian’s oldest sister sat in the front and now his youngest sister joined me in the back along with two college-age girls. “This is Rebecca, my college-roommate’s daughter, and her friend, Emma. They drove 11 hours yesterday from Kentucky,” sister-in-law Patti rambled on as the car headed into town onto 66. The map app currently showing only “green roads” so I convinced my husband to awake on a Saturday morning and be our driver so we could avoid the metro crowds.

As we headed over the 14^th Street bridge, her know-it-all voice began. “Just take the 6^th Street exit and drop us by the street so and so’s church. We can walk from there” I could tell Brian was patiently listening / ignoring his backseat sister. He said nothing and kept driving. He passed her suggested destination as his goal was to get us as close as possible. A few blocks more and he pulled right up beside the Capitol to let us all out of the car. I glanced at my watch – 8:31am. It only took us 21 minutes to get here!

So glad we had a driver, even if it meant being packed into the back seat like sardines. So glad I decided to come, even if it meant spending the day with Brian’s sister and her know-it-all attitude.

Looking around, I noticed many more groups of women. Some in pink hats. Some with clever-handmade signs. Some older, some younger. All headed to the National Mall, for the 2017 Women’s March in Washington, D.C.

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Suggestion from my writing group  – Keep going and continue to play with the tight and freeing feeling.