So, Shelly and I are working on a book about writing pedagogy, and this morning I wrote something that surprised me. I think I believe it, but I’m not sure. I’m just trying it out at this point. Anyway, here’s the excerpt: 

Earlier we claimed that teaching your students to “read like writers” might be the single most important writing lesson. We said might be because at least two other lessons compete for that crown: figuring out your writing process, and embracing deep revision. The same key opens the doors to process and revision: reflection.

Reflection allows a writer to look back on her process and assess how well it worked, where it failed, and what she might do differently next time. Reflection is also the catalyst for revision. “No revision without reflection” is the old saying. You could try it, we suppose, but you’d just end up doing a little light line-editing and proofreading. Deeper reflection is necessary for deep revision: working at the tectonic level of ideas and structure, seeing big problems and big possibilities.

So what I’ve got here is a holy trinity of writing lessons: 

1. Reading like a writer

2. Figuring out your process

3. Embracing deep revision

Here’s the surprising thing: these lessons are more about reading and reflecting than actually putting words down on the page. I suppose it shows how deeply intertwined the processes of thinking and reading and writing really are. 

But again, I’m not sure about any of this. What do you think about these three lessons? And what do you think is the most important lesson you can teach your students about writing?