Learning from Teaching by Susan Sands

Many of you don't know that I was a teacher in a former life. I even forget sometimes what it was like

to create lesson plans, hold parent/teacher conferences, and get up every morning and head to school and spend a full day shaping young minds. It was rewarding, challenging, and exhausting.

Recently, I've been asked to present workshops at several writers' conferences in my area. I've also been asked to judge a couple contests. I've created handouts for my "students," worked on my presentations, and received material to critique from writers trying to publish their work. I'm to meet with each person whose pages I've critiqued and discuss my notes and suggestions for ideas to help them reach the next level in their publishing journey.

I'm back to teaching, essentially.  And I'm really enjoying it. What I didn't expect was how much I would learn about improving my own work from critiquing others. When I return to my work in progress after editing someone else's, I'm able to recognize more clearly where changes and improvements are needed.

I'm grateful for taking some of, what would have been, my writing time to change gears and work with others. It's definitely helped me in countless ways. I can't wait to meet these writers and brainstorm with them about their stories. I hope I can help them in some way reach their goals.

If you're in the Atlanta area March 10th and have an interest, check out the one-day Atlanta Writing Workshop. I'll be presenting two one-hour workshops. There will be agents and editors on hand taking pitches and lots of other great information.

Happy reading and writing!

Susan