June 19, 2012
The Courage to Write
Four days in, my writing class students have created some terrific stuff. We've buried parents, tasted Christmas eggnog, and taken Pete the dragon along on a family trip to Disneyland.
Each summer as I teach this three-week, every-weekday session, I give the required reading a fresh look. That means I keep up in Writing the Natural Way, the main text and the one that contains the prompts we use. And I read a chapter a day in Annie Dillard's Waldenesque Pilgrim at Tinker Creek along with Ralph Keyes's The Courage to Write. I came across two quotes today in Keyes that I consider worth passing along:
"The assurance that you have something to say that the world needs to hear counts for more than literary skill." (My variation: 90 percent of writing is having something worth saying.)
If a reader doesn't "get" what he [the writer] is saying, it's the writer's problem, not the reader's.
View the original version of this entry at aspire2.blogspot.com
Suzy Winter
Excellent thoughts and I've been through such a 3 week class of writing as an English teacher! (wonder if it's the same one? ha) Anyway - I love the opening paragraph because that reminds me of how I write too. Thank you!
10 months ago · ( 0 ) Like or Care
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Thinking that Transforms
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Sandra Glahn
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I aspire to "Thinking that Transforms." And I wear many hats: Marriage partner. Mother. Novelist. Mag editor. Adjunct seminary professor. Mentor. Advocate for women. Women in antiquity fan. Reader. PhD candidate. And constant thinker. Why not grab a tall mocha and join me in the conversation? I'm glad you're here.
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