“I wish our class didn’t have to end,” a student said the other evening as we blew out the candle at the final session of a six-week writing workshop. “I need the structure of the lessons and writing exercises to focus my writing, otherwise I’m all over the place and nothing ever really gets finished.”
She’s not the first to express this feeling at the end of a class or workshop or writing retreat. I know exactly what she’s talking about. When I’m not involved in a project or a work-in-progess, my writing rambles all over the place, too. I may continue to do a regular writing practice, making time to write almost every day, but the writing doesn’t cohese into much of anything. Practice is important, that’s for certain, but what to do with all those bits and pieces.