The Telling Room on Medium: How to Use Our Writing Lessons at Home

by Nick Whiston and Blaire Knight-Graves, Telling Room Staff

Here are some general tips to use at home when using our writing lessons:

1. Find a comfortable spot, free of distractions. We usually start with pencil or pen on paper, but if a computer, tablet, or phone works better for you, go for it.
2. Give yourself permission to experiment. We think of the creative process as a form of play, and that means trying out different ideas — maybe ones that feel unfamiliar and new — before settling on one.
3. Try to honor the phases of the writing process in a way that feels comfortable to you. Brainstorm and try out ideas, settle on one and write a draft without revising as you go (as much as you can), and then revise or ask for feedback from a friend or two. Oh, and don’t forget to publish on our Stories page!
4. Remember that we’re all doing our best with the tools that we have. Even the most experienced writers don’t produce their best work every time. Don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t satisfied with your end product. The next one will be better!
5. Interpret our lessons in the way that works best for you. We give time recommendations, for example, but feel free to tweak them to suit your needs. There isn’t one right way to do these exercises. We’re sharing what has worked best for us, but that changes all the time as we try out new approaches, and who knows, maybe you’ll figure out some new brilliant way to modify an activity (if you do, please share it with us)!

Sharing is a central tenet of The Telling Room. Want to share your response to any of our lessons? There are a few options:

• Visit https://www.tellingroom.org/stories to submit your writing!
• Send us a message on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Looking for a way to print? Medium articles print clean on your standard home printer, but there are a few options that might enhance your printing experience:

• You can use Print Friendly to turn an article into a printable PDF.
• If you’re using an Apple computer, you can open the printer window, click “More Settings,” and then click “Open PDF in Preview” in the options menu.

The Telling Room is committed to providing resources, activities, and community engagement to help people of all ages, but especially youth, keep writing and communicating across the divides created and exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be providing a variety of content on this Medium account, including: a list of write/share prompts, articles written by Telling Room staff exploring key elements of literary and language arts methodology, and a curated suite of Telling Room lessons that can be adapted for online classroom and at-home learning.

Want to learn more about The Telling Room philosophy and how we put these lessons together? Read more here! (Coming Soon!)

Instructions for how to get the most out of our lessons can be found here.

This resource would not be possible without the vital support provided by our many generous friends, donors, and funders who believe in The Telling Room, our vision, and our work! Thank you for inspiring us all — especially in this time of great upheaval across the arts and nonprofit sectors. We are so grateful!

Thanks for reading! Subscribe and check back soon for more daily writing prompts and additional writing activities!