Back-to-School Energy for Writers
Embracing the season with a syllabus.
It’s that time of year again: I’m craving school. Watching my all-time favorite YouTuber, Ruby Granger, prepare for her master’s at Oxford this fall, I’ve felt nothing but envy.
But as I watched Ruby annotate The Faerie Queene, I asked myself: what is it I’m really craving about school? It’s certainly not the exams or academic papers.
But spending an afternoon in a dusty library sure sounds nice.
So does taking diligent notes.
I’d also love to pack a backpack (and, while I’m at it, a pencil case).
Believe me when I say that I’d give almost anything for that first-day-of-class moment when the professor forks over a fat stack of syllabi, saying, “Take one and pass it,” and the pages are still hot from the English department Xerox as they pass through the rows of desks. How I long for that sense of potential and possibility as I pore over the list of assigned readings!
Last week, I was talking to my friend Mara about back-to-school energy. The conversation was punctuated with many long and wistful sighs.
Mara said, “I’ve even been thinking about making my own syllabus for myself.”
Genius! And because I’m a gal who loves an accountability partner, I said, “Let’s make our fall syllabi and share them with each other in a couple of weeks.” We immediately got a date on the calendar.
Mara and I aren’t the only ones who’ve been jonesing for a syllabus. Last week, fellow Type-A Queen
wrote about stealing the syllabus for Quartz. She argues for titling your “course,” giving it a clear objective, and even building in a midterm and a final.(Which reminds me: Mara, if you’re reading, should we set up “midterm” and “final” check-ins with each other? I’ll bring the snacks!)
Working on my fall syllabus, I’m giving myself the semester of my dreams.
I’ve made a reading list filled with books I’ve been meaning to read, books that have felt a little too “heavy” for those summer beach days. They’re books I’m going to want to tote to the library (in the backpack I am most definitely going to pack for the occasion), posting up at a table with a fresh pack of sticky notes and my most astute-feeling pen.
And yes, there will be many, many cups of tea.
GO AHEAD: BUY NEW PENS AND A NOTEBOOK
Do it! I’m enabling you! If it’s going to get you stoked about writing this fall, why wouldn’t you? I don’t care that you already have a bunch of notebooks you only used halfway before shoving them in a drawer! Get a new one!!!
To enable you even more, here’s a roundup of my favorite writing supplies.
Post-It Flags in these pretty colors
Pilot G-2 0.7 pens (my ride-or-die)
Moleskine soft cover XXL notebook (the only one that works for me these days)
Zebra Sarasa pens in the vintage colors (my ~fun~ pens)
Mildliner highlighters in these unique neutrals
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT 💌
I’m giving away some of my writing books to paying subscribers who are interested!