My son had a field trip yesterday with his first grade class. They went to the bowling alley. Talk about an interesting, chaotic, experience….hundreds of 6 & 7 year olds hurtling bowling balls at little pins.

Yikes!

The parent helpers each took 5/6 children and supervised them. Of course, I somehow ended up with the rowdy bunch who would not sit still (along with the one child who ‘wandered’ off by the video games and ended up getting a sound reprimand from the teacher once I caught up with him).

I had to laugh at all the different approaches to getting that ball down the lane. We had the thinkers, the one’s who would take their time before they sent the ball down the lane, then there was the impulsive one who wouldn’t wait until the pins were reset and ended up slamming their ball into the metal rails until I began physically holding him back until the lane was clear, and lastly, we had the ‘throwers’ versus the ‘rollers’ who whipped the ball down the lane at waist height instead of rolling it along the floor.

My son ended with the highest score in our group: a 73 (at the 7th frame–when we ran out of time). I was a proud momma. :) Even my 5-year-old did pretty good. He had this whole technique going–he’d take the ball to the lane, set it down, spin it around in circles with both his h ands

and then shove it down the lane. And then, when he’d hit a pin, he’d turn around, put his hands to his mouth and blow kisses at us while bowing. Yes, he has quite the dramatic flair. It was hilarious to watch.

So, my question for the day–what kind of writer are you? Are you the thinker/analyzer who has to setup your story before you jump into it, the impulsive writer who jumps in without knowing little more than the name of a character (and ends up slamming against the rail), or the ‘thrower’ who bounces along on the writing path, hoping the more forceful you are the better your chance at hitting a strike?

Does that make any sense at all? I didn’t think so.