Dissertation progress is slow. I have a solid prospectus and a solid start on chapter 1, but the actual writing is so much harder to keep up with than I'd anticipated. I had been developing a decent working routine, but then I got married and went on a honeymoon and had Thanksgiving and needed to read something for fun to keep from going nuts. ( Read more... )

Here's yet another post from my class blog, this one actually about writing.

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From "How to Speak and Write Postmodern" by Stephen Katz, some advice on how to make your ideas sound appropriately postmodern. This was written in the mid-90s, so (fortunately) this style has fallen somewhat out of fashion in academic writing, but I still read enough shit that sounds like this to find this incredibly funny. Katz writes, ( Read more... )

From "I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script" by Josh Olson:It rarely takes more than a page to recognize that you're in the presence of someone who can write, but it only takes a sentence to know you're dealing with someone who can't ( Read more... )

I was feeling like I wanted to write something nice for Cory this morning, maybe a poem. But I'm not really a poet. So when I came across this madlib love poem generator I thought it was perfect. Here is the poem we (myself and the generator) created:My LoveYour skin glows like the banana, blossoms peaceful as the daffodil in the purest hope of ( Read more... )

I'm working on a paper on Paolo Bacigalupi's story The People of Sand and Slag. This is a part of my notes.


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Following my recent post about a comment in my university newspaper and its troubling attitude toward the victims of sexual assault, I submitted a longer version of that blog entry as an opinion column to the university newspaper ( Read more... )

I just signed up for Postcrossing and requested an address to send a postcard to. My first Postcrossing postcard is headed to Finland tomorrow.

I'm excited. I like getting mail and this looks like a good way to meet people and make connections (even if they're only superficial) around the world.

Yesterday morning I went to church. They were putting on a Christmas program and several of my friends were involved, so I figured I should make an appearance. I sat in the back and worked on editing a paper when there was enough light to do so. When the lights were turned down, I couldn't read, but I could write, so I took out some blank paper ( Read more... )

John Gardner's The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers is one of very, very many books on how to write fiction. Gardner's book strives to offer more than the multitude of alternatives do, however, and, generally, I'd say he succeeds.

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