What I want students to know about writing

You are the only person who can say what you have to say. 

No one else can capture your ideas. They might have similar ones, but they won’t express them the way you will because language is messy and imperfect and infinitely flexible.

It takes courage to put your ideas into the world — to make them stand still for anyone to see.

To be a writer, you must be brave enough to do it anyway, to give your ideas a voice, to work and rework them until you express them just the right way.   

Your writing won’t come out perfectly every time. And that’s OK. No one’s writing does.  

It takes patience and perseverance and practice to write. Mostly it takes bravery.

Be brave! Just write. You’re the only person who can say what you have to say.