Mr. Terry Ley was my sophomore English teacher and the first teacher who taught me how to think. I had always done fairly well in English because I was such a voracious reader, but I rarely studied for any of my classes (wasn't homework just a suggestion for those who wanted more?) so I was a pretty solid A/B student all across the board. A bunch of my straight A friends ended up in AP English ("college prep" is what we called it back then) but because I had a B or two in English, I took Creative Writing with the rest of the general populace.
Creative Writing under Mr. Ley was an amazing venture. He wrote his own curriculum and started out having us observe our world. One assignment was to go to downtown Cedar Rapids, sit on a bench outside a big department store and just people-watch for 30 minutes. I took a notebook and made some observations, but I spent an hour lost in other people's stories. I haven't stopped people-watching since.
He also introduced us to "Shotgun Writing" (sometimes called "Freewriting") where we would sit at our desks with pen and paper, and when he said, "Go!" we were to write madly about whatever we were thinking about. The only rule was that the pen had to be moving at all times ("because your brain is always going") until Mr. Ley told us to stop. If you couldn't think of anything to write, you just kept writing "I can't think of anything to write" over and over until you thought of something. You were not allowed to go back, edit or correct anything or even worry about spelling - you were just to get the thoughts on paper. If your topic wandered, it didn't matter - just follow where it leads.
For the first time, my thoughts were not restrained by rules about grammar and punctuation - I could just fly with my thoughts. When I learned how to touch-type (keyboarding, for you young'uns) later that year, my writing really took off because typing kept up with my thoughts a whole lot better than a pen and paper. He also taught us to edit our work - but not while writing a rough draft.
We learned about telling stories through television and film; camera angles and perspectives were taught using comic books (my mother was slightly appalled).One assignment was to write and illustrate a children's book and I discovered how much I loved story. Mine was about a plumber with a big nose who is thrown into the king's dungeon because someone thinks his nose is offensive looking. With Morris (the plumber) in jail, all the kingdom drains start to back up and create a terrible stench. Morris is dragged out of jail and told he has to fix it NOW or be executed, but he has no tools. Things look pretty bad until a mouse he met in the jail spills a huge container of black pepper and Morris gives a huge sneeze which of course clears all the drains.
Mr. Ley ignited a spark of creativity in me that continues to burn, and in this current season of my life where I make a living as a writer, I am even more grateful for his influence.
As I write, I just realized that I could probably google him and actually tell him thank you directly. I just found some links where he is now a retired professor from Auburn University. Sounds like I have a thank you to write.
Who have been the people of influence in your life? Have you ever told them how much you learned from them? Don't wait too long to look for your Mr. Ley.
Sandy Kay Salsbury
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