Over the years, my writing has been related to my legal and teaching careers. Both types of writing are instrumental in purpose, almost exclusively. The object of each is to affect a positive result, ideally the one anticipated by the lawyer and the teacher.

Legal documents and correspondence do not explore possibilities unrelated to the situation at hand. The attempt is to use as many facts or reasonable hypotheses the facts or circumstances can support in order to make a case. Beyond the facts or circumstances relevant to the issue at hand, there is usually little or no poetic or flowery language. Precedent and case law are the structure upon which a legal document is built. While there is room, occasionally, to expand the parameters of the document or insert fictive ‘lessons,’ this is rare and dependent upon how skilled and knowledgeable the lawyer is and whether the superior would permit it.

The worth of boilerplate cannot be over-stated in terms of getting down the facts and ordering one’s thoughts in order to proceed with the argument. Research and organization usually precede the move to a first draft using the boilerplate and its language. 

Writing as a language teacher allows a wide range of creativity without losing sight of the objectives of the lesson and the skill levels of the students. The entire purpose of the lesson and the course is to impart skills in the foreign language. Making engaging exercises, games and projects that capture the attention of students encourages them to participate. Putting students in the lead encourages willingness to participate.

As long as the teacher follows the guide provided by the school or Board, the sky is the limit. Almost. Students must be given the support and time needed to digest material and to feel confident to speak and write. That is why, although allowing for creativity, teaching materials are instrumental in purpose. I am pleased with many of the plans and activities I have invented over the years.

I do write short pieces for fun and sharing with family and book club members. I also write poems and songs. My topics are varied, sometimes wild. My love is letting my imagination loose – it flies in all directions taking in my entire life and experiences all over the world encompassing different genres – especially unusual vocabulary, multi-syllabic and multi-lingual scenarios. In all my writing, I usually outline the work in my mind once or twice, before committing to paper. Then I re-write and so on. I am by no means a poet or expert in prose. I realize instrumentality can be an intended by-product or even the main idea in a work of fiction. But, I do not believe this is a necessary element of fiction.

Books that particularly engage me are those that use multi-syllabic words with perfectly grammatical and punctuated paragraphs that run for at least an entire page, ideally more. The ability to conjure pages of words telling a compelling story that keeps my interest seems an impossible task for me, if I were to try to write fiction.