Middle Grade Literature Empowers (or why kids need imaginary worlds to play in)
Can’t is a dangerous word. It’s one of those words that gets pulled out a lot by adults these days. You can’t say that. You can’t believe that. You can’t do that. Can’t is a natural part of the language definitely has its role in our world, but it’s come to mean a lot of different things. Things it was likely never meant to be in the first place. More importantly, it’s an imprecise word that people use as a substitute for other, more meaningful words, like mustn’t. And in its
Meaning Informs Creativity (or how I learned to love my editor)
Meaning informs creativity. Whenever we put pen to the page (or fingers to the keyboard, or camera to the subject...), our goal is to take a piece of our brains and share it with other humans. That means our creativity has to keep those other humans in mind.
I started thinking about this when I went back to read some of my old journal entries and text I'd generated for a project. As I scanned the page, I kept wondering what I was thinking--really--when I was writing. See,
