Less is More

Imagine my surprise - and honor - when I was contacted by a representative of Dr. Grant Wiggins, the founder of Authentic Education, and told that he had stumbled across one of my postings on Leadertalk.org while looking for something else.  He liked it enough that we established contact and his editor asked if they could edit the post and re-publish it in a new on-line magazine titled BIG IDEAS.

I decided to learn a little more about Dr. Wiggins. I quickly discovered he founded Authentic Education, 3 points for initiative. He has a Ed.D. from Harvard, full 5 points for academic creds.  I threw in a couple of Bonus Points for a great beard...So by now, I'm thinking, Dr. Wiggins sounds ok.

But then I learn the name of his column in BIG IDEAS is The Contrarian.  Kindred spirit? Another full 5 points and now I'm a budding fan. And THEN I discover he plays the guitar in a rock band called The Hazbins.  Ding Ding Ding!! We have a winner...in my self-designed-slightly-off-center system of choosing people who I'd want to get to know better, being a self-proclaimed contrarian in a rock band scores way higher than even a doctorate from an Iconic Ivy League Institution (with sincere apologies to the very Reverend John Harvard). 

And that's how - even though we've never met - Dr. Wiggins became Grant.

I'm still waiting to see how the edited article turns out (the edition hasn't been published on-line yet).

In the meantime, the editor, a delightful lady named Meg, asked if I'd consider writing as a "regular contributor".  Like I would say no!  Besides, they hooked me with a free copy of Schooling by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe.  (Hey guys, you COULD have at least signed it...)

Of course I read the book.  I immediately ordered the pre-quel and foundational book, Understanding by Design and studied it.  I'll write much more about this later, believe me.

So - just like that, I was invited to start writing for BIG IDEAS.  With a real live editor, no less!

Here's what I quickly learned: you wanna write for a real publisher, you better grow some thick skin and have An Emergency Ego Repair Triage standing by! (See, Meg! I was paying attention LOL)

I wrote the first draft of my first "real" article - not counting the one Meg is rewriting from the original post.  Now, in her defense, Meg had been very clear and told me to stay "between 800 - 1000 words".   I didn't count while writing.  My thinking was: I'll just express what's important and guesstimate about when to stop.  When I finished, I ran a Word Count and discovered I'm a lousy guesstimator...the first draft was slightly over 3400 words.

One week later I had it down to 2100 words...three days later I hit 1067 words...damn proud I tell ya!

Like a proud parent, I sent it off to Meg. SURELY those extra 67 words were just added brilliance she would overlook. And of course she would respond that it was the greatest piece of educational writing ever produced. Why, I was Hemingway and Dewey combined...

Nuh uh...not even close, baby!

Her email came back gently reassuring and still encouraging...

...along with her final edit...

...my "baby" had regressed from 3400 to 2100 to 1067 to a final version of just over 600 words!  Or put another way, about 18% of my original article survived being edited.

Meg shared with me that her first professionally published article came back so heavily edited that all she recognized as her writing was the title.

Honestly...it's the best thing that could happen to me.  I plan to take full advantage of Meg's input and advice and - hopefully - grow as a writer. 

Thank you Meg for your honest "tough love".  Also thank Grant for the opportunity to be involved.  (And tell Grant's wife that I hear she's the real "Less Is More" advocate, so I thank her also!)

And for those who gradually discover this new blog...head over to

http://www.authenticeducation.org/

or

http://www.authenticeducation.org/bigideas/

to learn more about Authentic Education and Understanding by Design.

Technorati Tags: Authentic_Education Big_Ideas Understanding_by_Design Grant_Wiggins Jay_McTighe

Comments

[meg]

AN Emergency Ego Repair...

I had to look really hard to make that joke!

[Scott McLeod]

Very cool. Grant Wiggins is an educational demigod. Congrats!

[Angie]

Several years ago I was lucky enough to get in on an Understanding by Design workshop in the district. Loved it ever since. BTW- I once sent off an article to The English Journal. My thoughts of being a half-way decent writer turned into believing I must be the most horrible writer with an English degree in the history of the world.