I've made a big mistake

Hi there,

I'm Leandro and I've just realised that I've made a big mistake: I haven't introduced myself properly.

Perhaps you already know me because we have taken an online course together or met face-to-face. Perhaps you are or have been a student of mine, so you know a bit about me. But perhaps you have just stumbled upon this page and want to understand why this guy talks so much about writing.

So here are just a few words to tell you a little bit about me, what I do and how I can help you.

I’m originally from São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. I grew up there and spent most of my life in this city I’ve grown to love and hate. I hate it because it’s notoriously hot – we have a running joke about winter falling on a Wednesday because it’s over so quickly. But I also love it because it’s my hometown; it’s where most of my family lives, and it’s where I met my best friends.

I don’t live there anymore, though. I’ve recently moved to another, smaller, city in the same state. It’s called Bebedouro, which translates to ‘water fountain’ in English. Since moving here, I joke that nobody here feels thirsty because we live in a ‘water fountain’. Thankfully, I don’t try to earn a living telling jokes.

Moving away from my hometown has been one of my greatest personal challenges. I had grown used to living there and had a hard time picturing myself living somewhere else. But I couldn’t be happier about my decision to face the long 1h20-drive to a new place. I know, some people commute for two or three hours every single day, but this is not a competition of who travels the furthest. It’s about facing your fears and feeling like you can be yourself and build your own little corner of the world wherever you go.

And as it happens every time I take the plunge and face a significant challenge, I’ve expanded my horizons and felt capable of achieving more.

This is exactly the kind of feeling I want my students to experience when it comes to their writing skills.

There’s so much fear and anxiety surrounding writing that many people think it’s downright unattainable. What I work hard to do is to help my students change this perspective and start looking at writing as a process. As the phrase goes, ‘there’s method to my madness’ – as well as to my writing.

When we stop looking at the finished text as if it were produced in one sitting with the help of an inspirational muse, we realise that a piece of writing is very much like a building, built one step at a time. And if we become familiar with the steps in the process, we don’t feel lost or anxious. Instead, we feel confident because we know where we are going and how we can get there. We may even find joy in the process. Can you imagine that?

Can you imagine yourself using pre-writing strategies to generate, select and organise ideas?

How about writing relevant content by imagining the reader’s questions?

What if you knew how to organise a set of arguments into a structure that makes sense to you and to your reader?

I bet if you take the plunge and face this significant challenge, you will expand your horizons and feel capable of achieving more. Take it from me, you won’t regret it.

Ready to give it a try? Get in touch so we can discuss the possibilities.