do not let yourself feel small and stupid

If you hope to write even a single line, do not get up and check for the latest deaths among the YPG. No. It will only make you feel small and stupid.

alarming information, what to do with it

I think I’m too distractible to write in a coffeeshop. Instead of figuring out what Rose will do with the alarming information she just discovered, I listen to the girls next to me discussing electrons. I listen to some guys complaining about a co-worker. I listen to the men at the next table speaking in Spanish, trying to see how much I can understand (not much). Should I resume my […]

A Sign

I put each chapter on an index card, A plot one color, B plot another. (Didn’t I already do this about 5 years ago??) I thought about how that B plot bumps up against the A plot. Moved the little cards around. Moved them around again. Then moved them one more time, so they were just like they should be. Oh, they are back to where I started. Okay, surely […]

Man Ray and teaching

  I don’t tell my students about my doubts. I don’t say I think school is inferior to what we can learn through following our own curiosity, cultivating our own interests and developing our own course of study. I don’t say I’m convinced that the best way to learn to write isn’t found in the classroom. Read and pay attention. That’s how to learn. Listen to people talk. Find out […]