The Golden Moment

The first time I saw this video, I was working at The College of Wooster in the Writing Center, sharing an office with other teacher/writing consultants who were as passionate about the messy, collaborative excitement of the writing process as I was. My friend Jenny showed me this - and I cried. Words have power, and revision metamorphoses and amplifies that power.

For me, writing is not a neat, tidy process. It involves pacing (stomping), scribbling, sketching, and talking (ranting), but when I reach that golden moment when things click, when I finally feel like I've found a steady rock to stand on in the middle of a frothy, flooded river in springtime - that's the moment that drives me to write again. One of the biggest challenges I face as a writing consultant is helping to lead students through the river rapids until they find that rock that makes the whole journey seem doable, managable, and more exciting than scary.

What does writing look like to you? How do you paint the picture of your writing process? What's your golden moment look like?