Celebrating Women Authors & Writer’s Workshop

“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” ― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

In recognition of Women’s History month, (I know it was last month but frankly I believe we should be celebrating women every month of the year), I’d like to share some of my favorite female author’s and their personal writing processes. My hope is that readers of this blog will learn a little something new about these amazing women and be inspired to write their own stories!

Harper Lee

One of my daughter’s favorite books is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It has given her a sense of empathy as well as a ferocious commitment to fighting injustices. As her mom, I’d like to think I could have taught her about the injustices in this world myself, but really, Harper Lee has done it more efficiently through her incredible story telling power.

In her own words:

“If I went to a film once a month it was pretty good for me, and for all children like me. We had to use our own devices in our play, for our entertainment. We didn’t have much money. Nobody had any money. We didn’t have toys, nothing was done for us, so the result was that we lived in our imagination most of the time. We devised things; we were readers, and we would transfer everything we had seen on the printed page to the backyard in the form of high drama.”

Margaret Atwood

According to The New Yorker, Margaret Atwood was inspired to write The Handmaid’s Tale while traveling to West Berlin on a fellowship during the 1980s. In my opinion, she is the unapologetic, confident, brilliant writer who gets her ideas from actual historic events. Step aside Steven King, sometimes our own humanity is all you need to inspire a good horror story.

In her own words:

“I’m not often in a set writing space,” she told The Daily Beast. “I don’t think there’s anything too unusual about it, except that it’s full of books and has two desks. On one desk there’s a computer that is not connected to the internet. On the other desk is a computer that is connected to the internet. You can see the point of that!”

Margaret Mitchell

I feel like Margaret Mitchell had Gone with the Wind brewing in her mind for quite a while. I actually listened to a podcast about her a few months ago and was surprised about the parallels between her life and the story. She worked as a professional writer but was never able to devote time to writing the novel until she was bedridden from an accident (broken ankle). Her husband supplied her with books to read while she recovered, but believed she be happier writing:

For God’s sake, Peggy, can’t you write a book instead of reading thousands of them?

In her own words:

“I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together again and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken – and I’d rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived
Life is under no obligation to give us what we expect.”

Maya Angelou

Activist, poet, actress, dancer, screenwriter, Marguerite Annie Johnson Angelou became the first African American best-selling author, with her memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She’s been nominated for a Tony (Look Away) and an Emmy (Roots) and wrote and recited her poem, On the Pulse of the Morning, for the first inauguration of Bill Clinton. She has written over 35 books, including children’s book and cookbooks.

In her own words:

“I have kept a hotel room in every town I’ve ever lived in. I rent a hotel room for a few months, leave my home at six, and try to be at work by six-thirty. To write, I lie across the bed, so that this elbow is absolutely encrusted at the end, just so rough with callouses. I never allow the hotel people to change the bed, because I never sleep there. I stay until twelve-thirty or one-thirty in the afternoon, and then I go home and try to breathe; I look at the work around five; I have an orderly dinner—proper, quiet, lovely dinner; and then I go back to work the next morning.

A clip from the course Writer’s Workshop:

JK Rowling is one of the most successful, celebrated authors of all time. The Harry Potter series is still a really fun read for me! The advice she shares is relevant for anyone, working toward any type of goal. Not everyone will become a successful, published author like Rowling. But the odds are, everyone will struggle in some way during their lifetime. Wouldn’t it be great to know your students have the knowledge to face adversity and overcome hardships in their lives? All because of your Writer’s Workshop!

JK Rolling: 10 Tips for Aspiring Writers

Projects for the Writer’s Workshop course include:

• Conditions for Writing
• Writer’s Workshop Design
• Inspiration for Writers
• Writing Process Mini-lesson
• Writer’s Notebook/Conference Analysis
• Activities for Your Workshop

Renew or maintain your professional education license by taking courses written by teachers. The Teacher’s Academy helps busy teachers meet their state licensing requirements by providing relevant, customizable project work that can be used in the classroom right away.

The Teacher’s Academy is approved in over 25 states including:

• Pennsylvania Act 48 Hours
• Texas CPE #902185 Clock Hours
• Colorado Professional Development
• Indiana Professional Growth Points
• Tennessee Professional Development Points
• Virginia Professional Development Points