Wishing I Were a Web Designer
I'm cheating on my blog post today because I have spent all weekend (so far) working on my site. A short back story: Before my trip to...
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The Blog.
I post bi-weekly about writing, editing, teaching, and travel.
Jun 11, 20233 min read
Taking Things Bird by Bird
I arrived home late last night after nearly two weeks away in Costa Rica and Panama. In Costa Rica, I attended a retreat called "Tame...
May 25, 20233 min read
Music as Writing
What is writing, anyway? A way to communicate, sure. But to communicate what? According to Webster's Dictionary, to communicate means...
Feb 19, 20234 min read
On the Importance of Reading and Writing
In Composition 101 at the University of Tennessee, students learn the basic elements of rhetoric and about how it applies to writing they...
Feb 5, 20234 min read
Peleș Castle
I've been thinking about how buildings tell stories. Like novels, buildings tell stories about who we are, what we value, what time...
Jan 29, 20233 min read
Why Are We Here?
On the first day of school, after the usual introductions and syllabus review, I ask my students to pull out a sheet of paper and answer...
Jan 15, 20233 min read
Narrative Distance in Romania
I've been thinking about the similarities between writing and photography lately. About how you can zoom in or out towards your...
Nov 6, 20224 min read
Writing as a Way to Read Life
Literature differs from life in that life is amorphously full of detail, and rarely directs us toward it, whereas literature teaches us...
Oct 30, 20223 min read
Target Versus Actual Audience
In my last post on writing, I discussed the idea that there is no such thing as writing in general. Writing is always "in particular"...
Oct 20, 20224 min read
The Plot of Our Lives
A few weeks ago, in my post Clutter, I discussed the opening lines of Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler: You are about...
Oct 15, 20223 min read
Writing in Particular
In last week's post, I talked about audience. I said that you should write for yourself first (be passionate) and, secondly, for your...
Oct 9, 20224 min read
The Audience
So we're supposed to be ourselves when we write. But what about audience? If we're supposed to write as ourselves, are we writing to...
Sep 24, 20223 min read
Consistency
So you want to start a blog? And you want to be successful? Good luck. There are more than 600 million blogs on the internet today...
Sep 10, 20223 min read
Clutter
Consider the opening lines of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables: Halfway down a by-street of one of our New England...
Sep 4, 20222 min read
Simplicity
In 1942, during World War II, the United States government issued a blackout order: "Such preparations shall be made as will completely...
Aug 20, 20224 min read
The Transaction
On the first day of every semester, before going over the syllabus, I ask my English 101 students to introduce themselves. “Tell us your...
May 20, 20181 min read
Writer’s Block
I don't actually have writer's block, but I am packing to go to California and don't have time for a normal post today. I originally...
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