Author-in-Residence Week With John Coy

Writing, Reading, and The Importance of Resilience “The single biggest obstacle to becoming a writer is worrying about being perfect,” Mr. Coy told students during writing sessions with them. So often, says Mr. Coy, students are so concerned with each word that they end up deleting / erasing material before they’ve given it a chance to become anything. The impetus toward “getting it right” the first time is the antithesis of how the writing process should work. Instead, during his workshops with students this week, Mr. Coy led students through a variety of writing exercises meant to help them generate a significant amount of material before engaging in any editing. Students have explored beginning with character, adding a problem, and then complicating the problem to develop suspense. The results have been impressive!

​During his keynote speech for The Independent Schools Association of Zambia (hosted by AISL this past weekend) Mr. Coy stressed the importance of modeling reading to our students / children. He urged adults not to be overly critical of students’ reading choices, particularly those of boys, who often enjoy graphic novels, Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, or the Captain Underpants series. What is important, he said, is to encourage them to keep reading and to let them see the adults in their lives reading, too. I don’t know many grown adults who are still reading Wimpy Kid novels, so I suspect there is truth in Mr. Coy’s message!

The most important lesson Mr. Coy imparted, though, was that of resilience in the face of rejection. At our opening assembly to welcome Mr. Coy, he shared many of the rejection letters publishers sent him when he was trying to publish his first book. With each rejection, rather than giving up, he honed his manuscript until it was finally published, which opened the door for easier publication of his subsequent books. At AISL, we believe that tenacity and resilience are essential qualities for our students to develop in order to thrive in life beyond school, a point underscored by Mr. Coy’s experience.

If you have not asked your son or daughter about what they learned over the week with Mr. Coy, you may wish to.

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