My daughter has been writing for about three years now. She averages about a page and a half a day. I don't ask her to read it, and I act like I don't care because if I showed how much it delights me she would probably stop. I've pretty much assumed that anything she is writing at this point is going to pretty crappy anyway, and I'd much rather just get her into the habit of writing rather and not worry about whether the writing is good.

So tonight she did a public presentation as part of her 4-H club. She did a poem. She doesn't write a lot of poems but according to her one came along and lodged itself inside her head so she wrote it.

So for some reason all I could think about as I was sitting there tonight is the scene from "About a boy." where the kid makes a total fool of himself. So while I'm waiting there I start sweating like I'm in a sauna.

But she did a great job. I don't know squat about poetry but this was REALLY nice. Afterward the kids give these presentations they ask some questions. My kid had some interesting comments. She said that when she writes poetry she really isn't herself, she's whoever the poem wants her to be. She described her creative process as sort of like being invaded. About half of the words came to her around midnight two weeks ago and the rest came in an afternoon a few days later.

I watched my daughter go through a fair number of these phases where she gets into things and then eventually loses interest. This writing thing seems different though. When I was her age I don't remember a lot of kids who had written a thousand pages before they were fourteen. I'd be really happy if this were something that worked out for her.

Me - avid reader, not a writer. Kid - maybe more.

I'm going to scan that poem this weekend when I see her again and I'll put it up here.