Community Writers Series I: Raphael Rubenstein, Rosa's Dad

by Rosa and Lyndsey


Keywords
fun, organization



What We Learned

• We learned that authors take notes in little botebooks and sometimes on index cards to help them stay organized.
• We also learned that authors keep files for everything they write.  The files have magazine clips, newspaper articles and much more in them.
• It takes a lot of preparation to write an article.
  
  
• Authors gather information from a lot of different places like outside, museums and art galleries.
• Writers go on field trips to see what they're writing about.
• When some writers get stuck they will go outside to get ideas.
• Writers write for fun.
• Some authors will use mentor texts.

How does your writing express you?

"My writing expresses me because I really love language, and it expresses me because I'm able to say things in writing that I couldn't say in person.  I think I've been influenced by my background, the different languages, places, the different parts of my family that I came from.  My writing comes out of my own experiences and my daily life.  I don't write things I invent, I'm more trying to describe what I see."


Quotes
Being a writer is "like being a witch where you have to grab this and this and this." (Steven)


"Being willing to take out what's not working--that's another thing about writing.  I don't always stick with the plan.  Do I really need this?  Is this necessary?  If it's interesting to me but it's really not relevant and necessary to what I'm writing, I take it out."


"One thing I love about art is it gets me to go out into the world."


"What really inspires me is music.  More than anything, it's music."