Over the weekend, Andy Selsberg—author and instructor of English at John Jay College—wrote an op ed for the NYTimes online called Teaching to the Text Message.” In this short post, he explained that he has characteristically taught five-paragraph essays and research papers, and only recently introduced very brief assignments to help students hone their concise [...]
Archive for the ‘Writing Techniques’ Category
What Is a Graphic Narrative?
Posted in Writing Techniques, tagged Fiction, graphic narrative, illustration, reluctant readers on March 22, 2010 | 1 Comment »
In a story in Library Journal titled “Graphic Novels for Reluctant Readers: 33 Titles” on 18 March 2010, Martha Cornog includes The Invention of Hugo Cabret. (She calls them “graphic narratives” in the introduction, which might be slightly less recognizable as a term, but more accurate in describing how this particular book is configured, given [...]
NaNoWriMo: Writing Fiction vs Writing Nonfiction 1 Audience and Sequence
Posted in Fiction, NaNoWriMo, Narration, Nonfiction, Writing Techniques on December 4, 2009 | 1 Comment »
In my interview with Chris Evans on WRUV (University of Vermont radio) yesterday, the subject of the differences in writing fiction and nonfiction was touched on. I’d like to expand on it a bit here. During NaNoWriMo, I began writing a novel, a genre that I had not worked in since my bachelor’s paper—a mystery [...]
NaNoWriMo: How I Made It Work for Me
Posted in NaNoWriMo, Writing Techniques on December 1, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I knew from the start that winning NaNoWriMo in NaNoWriMo terms was not possible for me this year. First of all, I had begun thinking about a novel in 2005, it had grown to a set of five since then, and I had been drafting the first chapter (and redrafting and redrafting) since May. It [...]
The Art of the List
Posted in Writing Techniques on May 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The general concept of a list, I think, connects it with the mundane and a style that is art-less. To-do lists, laundry lists, shopping lists, and wish lists are useful, but not something that we usually invest any craft in—they’re functional, not artful. Yesterday evening, lists came to my attention because of the incessant posting [...]
