November is Binge Writing Month

..and I don’t actually need to binge write. I need to finish. I have no idea why people pick November for this, but there are NaNoWriMo and NationalThesisWritingMonth and AnyGoodThing. All of these wonderful initiatives seem to be good for writers and help them solve problems. Unfortunately, they don’t solve problems that I have as …

On writing: assume you’ve won

I was asked by a colleague who assigned some of my work to say something useful about the writing process for her grad students.  Here’s the request: my charge is to invite you to jot down in one paragraph any helpful thoughts you can offer about any aspect of the writing process–choosing a topic, figuring …

Writing: Tools of the Trade

A Facebook conversation started by Tara Rodgers got me thinking about the tools we use as writers.  Obviously, the creative process is highly idiosyncratic and personal at some level even though none of us are as unique as we think we are.  Try everything; select what works.  The proliferation of new tools is exciting but it …

Post Publication Cleanup: Old School Word Clouds

I’m in the somewhat laborious process of decommissioning files from two books. I hate sorting through paper. I’m organized inside computers, not outside them. There are tons of things that were important at the time and can now be recycled, including these two pages (which as you can see from the scan-through are already recycled …

Projection: A Word for Future-Orientation with “Project” In It

Although I’m not doing any classroom teaching this term* (I am, however, doing plenty of teaching), it somehow started off with a sprint. It’s taken me until week two to get together a plan for the term. Maybe others are more organized in thought and action, but I always have a moment after completing major …