Learning How to Play with my Writing

By Becky Villareal

Sometimes I take my writing way to seriously.  I dwell over the exact words I’m trying to write or change aspects of my writing until they feel unfamiliar to me.  In other words, I’ve lost my way.  In trying to please whatever writing “gods” that be, I have lost my own writer’s voice.  It’s then that my writing has become a chore and not the joy it always was.      

However, when I found Roberta Allen’s The Playful Way to Serious Writing I thought I had literally “died and gone to heaven”.  Take a picture, give yourself a time limit and write away.  One of the first pictures I tried was of a bundle of wire.  It led me to write about how I had always hated my curly hair as a child and the memories of trying to fit in as a child.  Writing this way is so freeing.  It immediately brought back that impetuousness that impelled me to write in the first place.

This is another thing I do to help oil my crusty mental wheels. Sometimes, while I’m working on the computer I close my eyes and write, simply write.  I don’t worry about spell check, don’t worry about the correct words, I just let the ideas flow through my fingertips onto the screen.  Not only are the ideas fresh, but this helps me to go back and tackle the harder projects I’m working on.

Play helps children learn and develop their creativity.  

I think writers need time to play too.

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Becky Enriquez Villareal was born in Dallas, Texas in 1954 to missionary parents. She grew up in several different Texas towns including McKinney. For twenty years she has been teaching early childhood in Dallas Independent School District. For the past ten years she has been completing family research. The grandmother of three she enjoys writing and spending time with her family.