I Answer Some Questions about Writing 14

"Your words are FIRE."

As always, BYOQ....

• I like them.
• They demonstrate something about writing that students need to know.
• Addonizio just does a terrific and generous job of showing how to write a poem....
• Your poetry assignment is usually six poems. You can write as many as you want in the writing assignments, etc....
• I do.
• But—not necessarily autobiographical. Just something you see/hear/touch transformed into a—story.
• Flannery O'Connor once said that by the time a person is 17 years old, they have experienced everything there is to experience in life. (Think about if that is true...).
• Go read some writers from @ 120 or so years ago—someone walks into a room and there's page after page of room description.
• Yeah. No. We don't see the world like that anymore.
• Your protagonist walks into a room. What do they see? What do they see that's important?
• Focus on what's important.
• Where? There's no "One World" literature.....
• What is success, anyway? As far as the US goes....Gatsby was out of print when Scott Fitzgerald died. Moby-Dick was forgotten when Melville died. They both died thinking they were failures.
• Me, History can look after itself. I try to live in the near-future....
• Some cases of Writer's Block are a form of depression and can be treated with SSRIs. Most (way the most) cases of writer's block are merely the voice of the writer's internal editor telling the writer that they are not good enough. We all have that voice. The trick is--to slip past it and get work done....
• We can discuss "how-to" as the semester progresses.
• For anyone interested in this subject (and I get questions about writer's block all the time), I highly recommend The Midnight Disease, by Alice Flaherty.  The best book on writing....
• You don't. At all.
• Once a story (book, poem, whatever) leaves your hands it's not yours anymore. It belongs to whomever reads it.
• And—they might not like it. You have no control over this.
• What you have control on—total control—is the text itself.
• Write for yourself.
• Nope, no prescribed topic.
• The cw teacher and novelist John Gardener once said that there are only three basic stories: the romance or relationship story / stranger rides into town / hero sets off to find their fortune
• So...you'll end up writing one of those stories. You'll be fine!
• Nope. In fact, I wish more students would write horror.
• Me, I'd just read the whole thing. It's short....
• Yep, you do the readings and writing assignments outside, on your own. For Thursday meetings we'll be talking things over—the readings, these questions, stories, poems, weather, whatever....
• There are indeed reasons for this—very good reasons, to my mind. But it's easier to explain orally than in writing—we'll go over this Thursday.
• Thanks for asking this question!
• The revised edition is fine!
• I usually ask for six poems as part of the poetry assignment....
• But you can write as many as you want (and probably should...).
• Yes—our class is a little literary community. And we Venn Diagram out into the larger Literary Community....
• You sure can! Start a conversation! Express yourself---
• That's a good thing!
• My office hours will be on Tuesdays. Shoot me an email saying that you want to meet up, and we can decide on a time that suits both of us....
• Then—we get on zoom--
• I'm pushing you more towards free verse. But if you want to write a sonnet or a villanelle, that's fine....
• It's always good to see other people when you talk to them, and see the occasional cat or dog wandering by....
• But if you have a problem with it, that's fine. Put yourself first.
•  (Last semester a young man zoomed in from a hot tub. He won the semester).
• Sure—every text has multiple audiences. Here are some that you will have:
• Me
• The other people in this class
• An ideal audience that you would like to write for
• Keep all of them in mind. At the same time, write something that reflects your own heart.
• It's tricky!
• In our zoom meetings, I'll go over these questions and answer some of them at length, and maybe I'll go over a story or two or we'll look at some slides or whatever....
• Basically, we'll talk about writing. That's my teaching method....
• It might be nice to read it before class, but not required....
• I sure hope so! But people are individuals, and will react individually to different things.
• Maybe an appreciation for the complexity of this beautiful and fascinating and tragic world...?
• My fave part changes every semester. My favorite film in this class is "The Big Lebowski," which we'll close the semester with....
• Nope. We will press on relentlessly.
• The pandemic teaches us to be flexible and resilient. If we have to cancel a class meeting...we'll find a way to get around it....
• Usually a work set in the Southwest. Or maybe about characters from the Southwest doing things elsewhere....
• But usually—almost always—setting....
• Where we live affects how we live. A story set in the gloomy rainy forests of the Northwest will have a different feel from a story set in the arid Southwest...And the characters will be doing different things and have different priorities....
• Just do the work.
• I often get this question in my creative writing classes. My usual response is, "You don't have to 'like' something to learn from it."
• (That said—it's more fun when you "like" something. Try pretending to "like" something).
• You can also make the class into a game, to keep yourself amused. (This is how I got through grad school).
• One of the cool things about teaching a class is that I get to choose books/movies I like....
• But as the course proceeds you will see, I think, that there are thematic connections between them....
• Oh, yes. For one thing, we're online instead of face-to-face. That makes a big difference in how we relate to one another.
• And this has caused some changes in material. For example, I use far less visual art than I would ftf. Less emphasis on music and food....
• I teach Texas Lit occasionally. There is some overlap between the two courses, since Texas is partially in the Southwest. But part of Texas is also in the South. And while the Panhandle is part of the Southwest, it is also part of the Great Plains....
• So—in Texas Lit, I try to represent all regions of the state....
• We are going to cover the books faster than I would like (or you would like, probably)....
• But the readings slack up toward the end of the semester....
• There are a lot of places that have used copies of these books—so, shop around.
• As I think I said upthread, I think you will see themes emerges. The texts talk to one another....
• I deal a lot with writer's block—both as a novelist and as a teacher. Most of the time it is merely a writer's Internal Editor telling the writer that what they are writing is not good enough.
• I am here to tell you that what you are writing—will write in this class—is good enough.
• The trick is to find a way to believe that and integrate it into your writing/studying practice.
• We can discuss in more detail going forward.
• One of the best classes I had as an undergrad was "Art and Photographic History of the American West." It was great! And then I got a nice summer gig as a research assistant for the prof, Dr WIlliam Goetzmann. (Here's his book, The West of the Imagination (Links to an external site.)).
• My fave form—painting, probably. Though photography is great, too.
• In class I just run some slides past you....
• It's pretty basic—environment, violence, race, family, gender. How do these elements work in the texts we cover...?
• The region we're looking at was once part of Mexico, and there are plenty of Latinx people living in it and telling stories....
• So, sure--
• The University Writing Center helps everyone. They are really good.
• I got interested in SWLit back when I was the Dobie Fellow—I got stranded out there for five weeks—the low-water crossing was flooded, so I read a pile of books by Dobie and his friends....
• Books that speak to me. Books that speak to the diversity of the Southwest. Those are the main criteria....
• Grading is the least favorite part of teaching! It's WORK!
• What makes grading difficult is knowing that so many students place a high priority on their grades....
• Basically, go north on I-35 until you hit Wichita, Ks. Then hang a left and keep going west until you hit the Pacific Ocean. Everything to your West and South is the...Southwest.....
• At one time Tennessee was the Southwest. (Ohio was the Northwest!)
• But you can see how this was formed, right? By someone standing in Boston or New York and looking...West....
• How did the people who lived here conceive of where they were....?
• Write a (good) short story.
• And you definitely want to pay close attention to the Christine Granados book….
• This is a tough question! Every writer we read will have an individual style....
• I'm a Southwestern Writer....and I'm an academic who is interested in Regional Literatures....
• Don't be a perfectionist.
• Nothing is more deadly to a writer than perfectionism.
• Know that whatever you write will be flawed because ALL TEXTS ARE FLAWED.
• Accept that, and work to making your text better.
• And, most of all: KEEP—MOVING—FORWARD
• They are all available at the library. You can also find cheap used copies.
• Believe it or not, they are all faves in different ways—they all speak to different aspects of my personality and writerly being....
• "Write what you know" is a convention that privileges experience. It's not totally wrong! (Or wholly right).
• There are different ways of knowing. (Physical, emotional, etc).
• You can write what you learn. Creative writers do research!