Tuesday, August 5, 2008
End of summer blues
It is almost the end of summer, almost the end of my workshop too. I am going to miss it so much, and the 5 students who are still attending class. I hope they keep in touch. Maybe some of my loosening up will continue into the regular year, though teaching rhetoric is definitely a different sort of activity from teaching a creative writing workshop and calls for a different attitude. I do intend to keep on writing and thinking about writing and not let anything get in the way, but intentions don't always pan out, as I know. (Just remember my intentions to read all those short story collections and to clean up my house!) I just need to remember how good it felt to write again and think of myself as a writer. I won't forget that.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Remember in the dark what you knew in the light works for all kinds of things that matter.
Those best laid plans can be so haunting. Ah well. I remember going through a period during the years I taught cr wr when I decided that if I received an essay from an expository writing student that was not controlled by a thesis, that paper received a failing grade. So why would a short story that was assigned as a narrative that takes place within a meaningful, vivid setting, yet contains NO setting, receive kudos? To be of benefit, workshops have to be built on the critical examination of the components of the craft.
Absolutely, Marly. It's easy to forget that sometimes though.
Lou,
I don't think I've been uncritical in workshop. In fact, I've had students tell me that I am far more direct than anyone ever has been before. And one student dropped because he wrote a narrative with no narrative and I said so. I didn't give him credit for that assignment because it wasn't what I asked for. It had some good things about it, but it wasn't what I asked for.
But all in all, I am far looser and friendlier as a workshop leader than as a comp teacher.
Post a Comment