Miriam Plotinsky On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Successful Author or Writer

Have something to say. This one is important because sometimes people write for all the wrong reasons. They try to address what’s popular or trendy, and that’s just ridiculous. We all have our own truth, and we have to stick with that. If nobody wants to read it, maybe that’s hard to accept, but we won’t write anything good without that inner voice that moves us.

As part of my interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Miriam Plotinsky. Miriam is an author and instructional specialist who addresses challenges in both teachings and leading across schools with a wide range of differentiated needs. A strong advocate for student-centered learning, she provides coaching and professional development for teachers and administrators. Her first book, Teach More, Hover Less: How to Stop Micromanaging Your Secondary Classroom (W.W. Norton & Company, 2022), is a practical guide to a student-centered instructional approach that removes the necessity of teacher micromanagement. Miriam is widely published in Education Week, Edutopia, ASCD Express, The Teaching Channel, EdSurge, K-12 Talk and Education World. She is also a National Board-Certified Teacher with additional certification in administration and supervision.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you share a story about what brought you to this particular career path?

I’ve been an educator for over 20 years, but for most of that time, I focused on classroom practice. Becoming a writer has been more gradual. There is a lot in the education profession that is untenable for teachers and leaders. In our current political and social climate, when so much of what we do is underfunded, held in contempt or openly attacked, I wind up feeling angry a lot. Writing is an outlet for that, as well as a way to try and help people who are struggling with the very complex work of supporting students. My goal is to provide hands-on ideas that translate to practice with immediacy rather than share theories that may sound nice, but that accomplish very little.

Can you share the most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your career?

I’m not sure if it’s the most interesting, but it’s the reason teaching matters to me. Years ago, I had a student in my creative writing class who was struggling with drug addiction. For the first few months of my class, this student would ignore whatever was happening and scroll through social media feeds. I hung in there, and a change started to occur that was slow at first, and then lightning-fast. The student became engaged in the class, eventually started leading discussions and sharing writing almost constantly, and grew to become the editor-in-chief of our school literary magazine. The drug abuse stopped as this metamorphosis occurred, and so did the phone addiction. It was the most powerful evidence I’ve ever seen that education is transformative.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in your journey to becoming an author? How did you overcome it? Can you share a story about that that other aspiring writers can learn from?

In the early months of the pandemic, I got an email from a book editor who read some of my shorter pieces. She wanted to know if I had ever considered writing a book. To me, that was like asking if I’d ever considered winning the lottery (better, really) because being an author was my dream. At that point, the biggest challenge had been being published, but then it became a deeper question: Can I write a book that makes a contribution to the world we live in, that helps people in some way? As my first book comes out and my second goes into a final round of edits, I am not going to lie about being scared that people won’t like what I do. The thing is, though, staying with that fear is not an option if I want to keep speaking to others through my books. I have to hope that what I do is meaningful, and that others feel the same way.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I have hundreds of hilarious classroom stories about my mistakes, but not that many funny writing anecdotes, even though I’ve made plenty of not-so-amusing blunders in that area. As a teacher, a student of mine had labor pains many years ago in my classroom, and my first reaction was to blurt out, “Nobody panic!” Because of course, I was panicking. I still can’t believe I did that, and it embarrasses me to this day. I can’t say I learned anything from it other than not to do it again. I also had children of my own in the years that followed, and I realized that babies don’t usually (note the qualifier) just come right out without warning.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

I have a lot of writing projects in the pipeline, and that always gives me satisfaction. My next book, Lead Like a Teacher, is nearly ready for its 2023 release. I have a number of shorter pieces coming out as well. For me, the most exciting news is that I decided to take what I call a “genre reset” between writing education books, and I just finished the first draft of a novel. Without getting too specific, it’s a “reboot” of a classic work of feminist literature. The feminism (particularly apropos in our current times) is still there, but I’ve also added a dimension that inserts orthodox Judaism into the mix. I think it will speak to women in all religions and cultures, and that it makes some important points about what personal rights look like.

Can you share the most interesting story that you shared in your book?

My book talks about how I came to develop this four-step process for what I call “hover-free” teaching. In the introduction, I frame some of the shifts in my thinking that occurred over time. Earlier in my career, I was really attached to due dates and deadlines, and I also thought that so-called “great works” of literature that exist in a collection curated mainly by one representative group was more worthwhile than any other books students can access. What I came to realize is that the outdated systems that just barely served me (I was a mediocre student until college) could not possibly be advantageous for most of the students I worked with. It was hard to shift my thinking, especially since I was raised to revere a system that served mainly white people of privilege, and that elevated Eurocentric literature above everything else that exists in this world. Adjusting my perspective is ongoing and enriching, and that’s one of the biggest frames for how my book came to exist.

What is the main empowering lesson you want your readers to take away after finishing your book?

In this transitional pandemic period, most of our schools have gone back to in-person learning. However, teachers (especially the newer ones) became accustomed to driving more instruction while they led classes on Zoom or similar. My book serves as a reminder of how beneficial student-centered learning can be and gives readers both a process and tools to make a shift back toward a model that doesn’t rely on “helicopter” teaching. Teachers have been working too hard, and they’re burning out quickly. If they can shift some of that responsibility to students as a result of the ideas they get from Teach More, Hover Less, my book will have done its job.

Based on your experience, what are the “5 Things You Need to Know to Become a Great Author”? Please share a story or example for each.

1. Have something to say. This one is important, because sometimes people write for all the wrong reasons. They try to address what’s popular or trendy, and that’s just ridiculous. We all have our own truth, and we have to stick with that. If nobody wants to read it, maybe that’s hard to accept, but we won’t write anything good without that inner voice that moves us.
2. Write every day. My minimum is 1,000 words a day, and more if I can swing it. Waiting for inspiration is not worthwhile as a writer. We can’t edit a blank page.
3. Don’t get attached to phrases or sentences. Editors will come and strike out some of my favorite turns of phrase, and I’ve learned to shrug and move on. Unless I think I’m the next great literary icon of this generation (hint: I’m not), nothing I write is irreplaceable.
4. Watch out for dialogue tags. I used to love a popular writer, but in later years, his dialogue tags (how we identify what characters are saying) became too conspicuous. Instead of the invisible “he said/says,” this writer kept using, “I informed her” or “she let me know.” It was so distracting that I had to stop reading his books. So for me, dialogue tags need to be invisible. They also need to represent speech, so no nonsense with “he smiled” or similar.
5. Ease up on the adverbs. I used to say this to students, and it’s true. We use adverbs the same way we use curse words, which is to express thoughts without having to work too hard. Instead of saying, “She eyed him lazily,” describe what she’s actually doing. It will be much better writing.

What is the one habit you believe contributed the most to you becoming a great writer? (i.e., perseverance, discipline, play, craft study) Can you share a story or example?

One thing that I realized when I became familiar with toddlers is that they often win battles not because of their skill or knowledge, but rather because they are the most determined people on this planet.

With writing, I’ve experienced rejection and failure enough to know that the key to my own ultimate success is to take a deep breath, shake it off, and keep going. As an illustration, I have an entire book tucked away that I wrote about 10 years ago. I sent it to so many agents and a few told me they liked it, but that it wasn’t marketable. At the time, letting go of trying to sell that manuscript gutted me, but I found other ways to write. I blogged for a while, and then I began to write in my professional field. At a certain point, what I had to say became marketable, and people began to listen. I couldn’t force that evolution; I needed to live through it and to get stronger as a writer, and I did. I’m still growing, and I’m hoping to never be done with that journey as long as I have the ability to keep writing.

Which literature do you draw inspiration from? Why?

Literature in itself is not necessarily what inspires me so much as the emotional association it holds. Until I was 18 years old, my father read out loud to me each weekend. I love Pride and Prejudice because whenever I pick up that book, I hear his voice reading it to me that first time. Certain books that I taught, like Richard Wright’s Native Son, also strike a deep chord because of how students responded to them. Books have so much power. They can become our dearest and most comforting friends, so I think about that every time I read Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing to my children, hoping they’ll hear my voice someday when they read it on their own.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

While I’ve watched the world around us get crazier with a growing desire to make the madness stop, I should probably share an idea that stays in my lane. I want to bring creative writing to more kids, but in a very specific way. I honed a teaching method over the years that really goes beyond writing itself; it builds student identity and changes the trajectory of how they learn, and perhaps even who they become. So, I’d start a movement to open up a series of classes or workshops that are free or at least super-affordable (some very wealthy, awesome person would be a backer) to subsidize this learning experience for all kids. I’d also want to track what happens to them after they move ahead in life to see if the process made a positive impact on their futures.