Almost every fiction writer has heard “kill your darlings” and “show don’t tell.” These pithy sayings get repeated so much that they lose a lot of meaning and they’re frankly a little annoying, because they don’t really help writers know when to kill darlings, or which darlings to kill, or what to show and notContinue reading “How To Decide To Cut A Scene: A Heuristic for Writers”
Tag Archives: WorkThursdays
Building Revision Into the Syllabus
Muriel Harris usefully posited the notion of “one-draft writers” and “multi-draft writers” in 1989. For anything less than a novel, I tend to be a “one-drafter”, meaning that I resist revision because I do most of my deep revision on the planning end of things. My outlines are basically my first drafts, and by theContinue reading “Building Revision Into the Syllabus”
What Is Genre Chauvinism?
I’m sure there’s a better term for this, and I really ought to know it given my dissertation work, but lately in my head the term that’s been sticking for the way that certain genres (which, not coincidentally, are often those associated with youth or women) are unfairly considered unimportant or even toxic is genreContinue reading “What Is Genre Chauvinism?”
Talking Disability and Accessibility in the Composition Classroom
Like many instructors, my composition students generally finish the semester making a multimodal/multimedia presentation of their topics to the rest of the class. I love this assignment; it’s creative, it’s real-world, it’s student-driven, it’s everything I love in an assignment. Let me explain the assignment a little: my students deal with “local” issues in theirContinue reading “Talking Disability and Accessibility in the Composition Classroom”
One Easy Trick To Write More Words
Yeah, sorry for the clickbait headline again. I’m kind of enjoying it, though. But I promise I won’t make you read through thirty slides. I don’t do that. Anyway, today I want to talk about the trick I’ve used to write pretty much anything I’ve ever finished: dissertation, novel drafts, articles, you name it. Write-ins.Continue reading “One Easy Trick To Write More Words”
Dr. Cox's Desk 