ANTILLES MIDDLE SCHOOL, NOV. 2010

good morning everyone, my name is patricia schaefer röder and i am a writer.

recently, i published a book (in spanish) with short stories about the problems and conflicts that city people suffer, and the need for them to return to nature in order to feel good again.

those are my stories, the stories that i want to tell.

everybody has something to tell, and in fact, we are constantly telling things to the people around us. since we don’t live isolated from the rest of the world, we have to interact with those who are next to us. we become tellers and listeners, emitters and receivers. we have many possibilities to express ourselves; we can dance, make music (or noise), paint, design something, make a sculpture, build, make a video, take photos, talk, write…

the only thing that we actually need in order to tell something is an audience. and nowadays, with the internet, the whole world can be our audience! we can upload anything on the web: videos, music, photos and writings, and put it into the public domain. we stay connected with everyone through cell phones, twitter, youtube, facebook, myspace, and obviously regular telephones, mail and e-mail. every time we use one of those resources, we tell someone something, either about ourselves or about someone else. we can tell what we want, what we dislike, what we are doing, what we will do, what we did and what we didn’t do and why.

when we write, we tell things that move us in some way, and we tell them in our own way. sometimes we write only for ourselves, acting as the teller and the listener at the same time, like when we keep a diary. in doing this, we can even explore and figure out our problems, because we will have to understand the issue in order to write about it. usually, when we finish those writings, we feel much better and know that we are closer to a solution.

when we do creative writing, we can deal with different conflicts and points of view. it’s very interesting because we can actually place ourselves in other realities, feeling and understanding new emotions and situations.

to begin writing, the only things we need are a pen or pencil, and a piece of paper… or just a computer. as soon as we sit in front of it, we can start taking five minutes to write everything that crosses our mind, just the way it comes to us. write each and every thought, even if you would think it’s silly or corny, that doesn’t matter! the important thing is, that at the end, you will be able to identify the themes that really move you. later on, you can start thinking of those themes or issues and write about them in more detail.

to write, you can get inspiration from endless sources like feelings, people, music, photos, videos, literature, movies… anything! when we write we can convey our own ideas and test them by others. doing it is cool and it’s actually good for us, because it lets us express ourselves in our own way. the only thing we have to do is start!


©2010 PSR
Patricia Schaefer Röder