Ask the experts

Some of you know of my love to write. Over the last few years I have come up with a few kids stories and have been polishing them up and trying to find a way to publish them. There has been a lot of emotion wrapped up in these two stories because I feel like they are so much a part of me and I don't want to be critiqued. I have realized in the last little while that it is not necessarily "me" being critiqued but that it is my words. During the school year last year I got up the nerve to let a few close friends (teachers) read these stories. It was pretty hard to put it out there and let someone in like that but when they liked what I had written it got a little easier. Today I took another mile stone and put it behind me. I shared my first story with Emma's class. Mind you there are no illustrations yet (that's being worked on) but I felt like 2nd graders were old enough to be able to visualize pictures in their heads. As I started out reading my hands were shaking so bad. I wondered if any of the kids even noticed how bad I was shaking. I got into the story though and my story telling mode took over. It was great. The kids sat there so quiet and listened and then after we got done I starting asking questions about the characters and what they looked like and what the story was about. The kids were amazing! They told me back their favorite parts to the story and they told me what they thought the characters looked like in their minds. This one little guy that I always want to call Simon even though his name is not Simon said that he really liked the story because in the end the bully found some friends and he learned what friendship was. That's the whole story! It made me feel so good that my writing could let minds open and help them learn. There's nothing truer than children and they will not sugar coat anything to keep from hurting your feelings. I felt like I faced the experts today and looking back on this I feel like if my book never ends up making the shelves of Barnes and Noble it will be ok because a 2nd grade class enjoyed it. It was worth opening myself up just that!