It was a special kind of class, eleven creative people – three canceled Saturday morning – came to the Creative Conference at Pompanuck Farm,  talked with them about blogging and writing for more than two hours, it was one of the best discussions about creativity I have ever been involved.

I’ve learned a lot about teaching in recent years, and am just beginning to figure out what works best.

– First, the classes need to be small. The students need to each be able to speak, ask questions, talk about themselves and what they want and need. They need to connect with one another as much as they need to connect with me.

– They need to be clear about their reasons for wanting to write, or blog, or find their voices.

– My classes are about expression, not therapy, but issues of fear; reluctance to offend, a fear of being public on the chaotic and sometimes vicious Internet.

-More and more, it has become apparent to me that gender plays a significant role in the teaching of writing or creativity. I see that quite often women have not been encouraged to speak out, listened to, or supported in finding their own voice. So self-awareness becomes a significant element in the teaching of writing.

-Writing does not need to be emotional or revelatory or dramatic. Quite often, the best things to write about, the small elements of life. Everyone who is alive has stories to tell.

-In many writing classes and programs, writers are shut down by being made to feel stupid or incompetent. To me, good writing has nothing to do with spelling, grammar, or technical forms of sentence structure. Those things may be important, but they do not define good writing, which is about clarity, empathy, thoughtfulness and authenticity.

I told them my belief that writing is a discipline, blogs and new technology gives writers new tools and new ways to write. I told them their stories are important, they have to trust that and believe it. The class asked me a score of good and insightful questions, and they were so helpful in telling one another how they feel and what they read and how they often struggle to believe that anyone cares about their stories.

As they talked, it became apparent to everyone that their stories are very interesting, and people do care about them. I spoke of the need for writers to create boundaries around themselves – to not worry about what others will say or think or feel. Writing is intensely person, we have to look inward and believe in ourselves, and the merit of our words, or no one else will pay attention.

For my part, I could have gone on for several hours, two  hours was not enough to talk and listen, I learned more than I taught,I believe, that is always the test of a good class. I’m eager to do this next year, the class all wanted a two-day conference.