Writing is analysis

“Writing…does not come after analysis; it is analysis, happening as the writer thinks through the meaning of data…” 

(p.101, Miles and Huberman, Qualitative Data Analysis A Methods Sourcebook)

Nulla dies sine linea

Nulla dies sine linea --never a day without a line
    ---Donald Murray


Murray, D. (1986). One writer's secrets. College Compositions and Communication. 37(2), 146-153.

What did I learn about writing this week?

A colleague and I recently published a piece in SIGNAL Journal about the award-winning author, Guadalupe García McCall. I reread our interview with her and found her description of her call to write most compelling. It taught me that I have to listen to those urges. If not, the pull may not return. Once, I would read literature and be compelled to write something. That strong feeling rarely visits me these days.

Here is Ms. McCall’s response to our question about her typical writing day:

 "Writing is something I do almost every night …. When my everyday life is forgotten and  my mind is quiet, the words come to visit me. I know it sounds weird, but I go to sleep   at a regular time, and, then, most often than not, my eyes pop open in the middle of the   night and I hear the call. A piece of dialogue, a great line, an enchanting word will whisper in the darkness. I try to go back to sleep, but the words keep repeating themselves in my head. They keep lingering in my thoughts, until I absolutely have to get up and write them down. It's the only way I can go back to sleep, when the words are written, they are quieted and they let me rest. So I write a lot at night. It keeps me sane, I guess."

Want to read our article?

Our article about Guadalupe García McCall can be found in an excellent volume of SIGNAL Journal on first time authors guest edited by Toby Emert.

 Rodríguez, R. J. & Hinton, K. (2014). Guadalupe García McCall: A Storyteller of Cultures and Odysseys. SIGNAL Journal, 37(5), 17-21.

Writing Book Reviews as Writing Practice

"Book reviews are an underappreciated art form in academic writing. Read them. Write them. Pay no heed to anyone who insists that book reviews--whether published or  electronic-- 'don't count' as scholarly contributions. Anything that makes you a more astute writer/editor contributes immeasurably to your ability."


from p. 108, Writing up Qualitative Research by Harry F. Wolcott

Note: I found out the hard way that book reviews are not easy to write. I've been writing them regularly since 2004 and they are still challenging. Summarize, but not too much. Contextualize, but don't rewrite the book.  Critique, but don't bludgeon.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

Art from Tagxedo

I put my favorite quotes from Donald Gallo’s "The Writing Processes of Professional Authors,” English Journal, 83(5), Sept. 1994,p.55-60, into Tagxedo.

 

 

My favorite quote from the piece  belongs to Richard Peck:

“Nobody but a reader ever became a writer."(58)

 

"...[W]riters revise in different ways. Beverly Cleary, for example, says she races through her first draft, never re-reading her previous day’s work before she moves on. She does not write recursively..."  (59)

 

“Most of what we know about the process of writing has come from writers of
fiction. But most of the writing we require from our students is nonfiction.” (55)

Advice from Kofi Awoonor

Nearly a month ago, NPR reported that Ghanaian poet  Kofi Awoonor was among those killed during the attack at a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya.

Melissa Block interviewed someone who said she was in the audience of a festival in Kenya at which Mr. Awoonor encouraged young writers.

I was struck by what the woman said Mr. Awoonor told them:

"When you want to write, look back at how your ancestors used to speak. Go back and listen to the stories of your people, and then you will know what to write about."

Writers on Writing

2 lines stuck out for me in an interview with Tim Seibles published in ODU's student newspaper:

Line 1---"I think we’ve entered a sort of golden age of poetry."

Now, I don't write poetry, but I read it and turn to it often when I am experiencing a strong emotion. Recently, I wrote several senryus (I guess that's the plural form.) that helped me come to terms with a devastating loss. While those short poems (senryu) that are designed to deal with human emotion may never reach an audience, they served as an important conduit for me. I think this golden age that Tim speaks of is reflective of how society sees poetry as healing, (whether you are a writer or reader) as a powerful mode of expression that can be so timely.

Once, I asked celebrated author Jacqueline Woodson how she prepares to write. She said, "I read poetry."

Line 2---

"...the most important thing you can do in service of your art is to READ deeply and widely. There’s so much to learn from other writers, so many ways we might be awakened to what words can do.”


I like Tim's response to the question about what novice writers like me can do to improve our craft.

What if in classrooms we stopped making reading an opportunity to fill in bubbles, and instead we focused on honing our craft? Taking a risk and trying some of the techniques authors use? Putting the focus back on learning to write rather than recite?

I don't know....just a thought.

Writers on Writing

Some Context: In the book above, Singer describes revealing her writing process to students, including showing editorial comments that led to revising a piece she worked on.

She writes, "[The students] learned that revision is part of the process of clarifying how you express yourself in writing and not a sign of failure. Knowing that revision is a helpful process supports students' ability to reflect openly and in an in-depth manner about their own writing" (p.84).


Why do I want to remember this?

Because revision can be a difficult step to take, and students (and me) often do not see why a perfectly good sentence, paragraph, paper needs to be revised. They wonder, what's wrong with it (and by extension them)?


 See also Revision is Hard.

Finding a place to write can be difficult --Ask author An Na (and me)

Where do you work now? How is the space conducive to triggering your imagination?

An Na: When I first started writing, I worked in the study. That worked for a while until my husband decided he was going to go back to school to get his Ph.D.

Now, instead of kissing me good-bye for the day, he would roll out of bed, stay in his pajamas and go to the study with me. UGH.

I moved my desk to the bedroom and then to the living room. But still, just having another person in the house, stomping around, using the phone, etc, drove me insane. Actually, more hostile than insane.

We eventually decided to do what many other writers have done in the past, go to the shed. We bought a Home Depot gardening shed, popped in a sunroof and some windows, and an instant office was erected in the backyard. There were no distractions, no Internet, no phone. I was finally left in peace.

 

From “Interview with Young Adult Author An Na” by Cynthia Leitich Smith


What if someone wondered about where I write?
Here's how I'd respond: I write in my bed. I have a bright red backrest that helps me sit up straight and comfortably. A laptop stand helps prevent hotlegs from my burning laptop without a battery. Most people would not be productive this way. It's crazy, I know, but it works for me.

I write other places too:

• in the car while waiting for my son to come out of buildings (e.g., schools, malls, barbershops)
• in the dentist and doctor's office (whether I am the patient or my son is)
• at the kitchen table so I can see what the big spider (see picture above), birds, and rabbits outside are doing

I don't think anyone would ask me about my imagination since I do not write fiction.

How does Ellen Wittlinger author of Hard Love (and I) find time to write?

What are the nuts-and-bolts of your writing process? When and where do you do your writing? Do you write everything on computer? Do you save drafts?Ellen Wittlinger author of Hard Love and other books: Now that my kids are grown and gone I have a much more lax schedule. The Internet has also played a role in eating up a chunk of time that I used to use to write. These days I usually spend the morning doing email, business and promotion stuff, until a late lunch. Afternoons are for writing, and if I'm working well I'll sometimes go back and work again after dinner, but not usually. I make notes in longhand and sometimes write a poem or other short piece in longhand, but all the novels are written on the computer. I do save drafts, at least for awhile. In fact, I use up way too many trees because I like to print everything out and see it as I'm revising. I revise in longhand before going back to the computer.

From Mark Dursin "Interview with Ellen Wittlinger, Part II"

What if someone asked me this question? How would I reply?

I have to be comfortable while writing. No tables or desks for me. I need a bed or a recliner and a laptop. My battery in my laptop died, and it's been a real pain. I feel chained to my bedroom because the laptop must stay plugged in at all times. I can't sneak down to the den and edit while watching recorded episodes of The Game, Modern Family, or one of the movies I borrowed from the library.  (In a perfect world I'd be watching Silver Linings Playbook right now.) Not having a laptop that's mobile is a hassle. Imagine trying to go write in a coffee shop or on campus.

When I am stuck, meaning I have no idea what I want to write next, or which project I should work on, or how to start, I take out one of my 8 X 5 notebooks, an envelope, or someone else's published article, and write in any available white space. Once I get going, I transfer to a computer. Sometimes I do this by reading what I wrote into TypeNote and e-mailing it to myself. Other times I just type it into Word.  I get into trouble with the Internet sometimes. I goof off. I start liking stuff on Facebook or checking e-mail fifty times wondering if I have a kind message from a friend. If I'm lucky, I snap out of it and get back to work because my most productive moments are in the morning. My evenings are usually reserved for reading and preparing for classes.

Revision is Hard

Revision is Hard!

Hard to teach.

Hard to do.

I often ask students how they revised assignments for my class.

 

Recently, students told me how they revised their *I-search papers.

 

Here is a list of things they told me that might be useful:

 

 

~Added a more attention grabbing introduction

~ Checked to make sure each section transitioned well from one to the next

~Rearranged things

~ Eearranged ideas to better fit my new organization

~ Decided that one of the journal articles originally chosen did not answer any of the questions I had

~Read the paper a couple of times making sure everything 'looked' and sounded the way that I wanted it to

~ The one method I find that works well for me is reading the paper out loud so that I can physically hear the wording.

~Put more of my personal feelings about the subject area

~ My interview needed some adjustments because I included too much information the first time.

~Added more of what I knew before I started to write this paper

~Replaced a source

~ Put in my interview

~Made sure I had each section required in the rubric

~Elaborated more

~Changed the wording

~ I asked myself: Can the reader tell what my main question is? Can they tell what I knew before I researched? Is it clear what I learned from each source? Are my conclusions clear? I tweaked each paragraph accordingly. I worked to make sure that each paragraph flowed and linked together and that the paper sounded more like a narrative than a dry research paper.

~ I used a lot of acronyms before without considering whether the audience would know what they stood for

 

 

*I-search papers are "research papers on topics that come out of a student’s curiosity and need." See

Macrorie, K. (1988). The I- search paper: Revised edition of searching writing.

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

What advice would Marcus Zusak give?

What advice would you [Markus Zusak author of The Book Thief] give to new writers?



Don't be afraid to fail. I fail every day. I failed thousands of times writing The Book Thief, and that book now means everything to me. Of course, I have many doubts and fears about that book, too, but some of what I feel are the best ideas in it came to me when I was working away for apparently no result. Failure has been my best friend as a writer. It tests you, to see if you have what it takes to see it through.

 

From Sarah Kinson’s“Marcus Zusak”

Want to write better? Read children’s books

from Google

I recently revisited Donald Murray's Writing to Deadline: A Journalist at Work.

I found it interesting that during one of the interviews in the book he asks the journalist, David Arnold to recommend some books that will help writers improve their craft.

Arnold said, “Almost any good children's book…. Children's books often have complex themes, yet the writing is clear and condensed, the vocabulary elementary, alliteration and rhythms of the words and phrasing is playful and always audible, and the humor very funny…. I recommend Mr. Popper's Penguins by Florence and Richard Atwater, Charlotte's Web by E. B. White, Amos and Boris by William Steig, and One Morning in Maine by Robert McClosky…” (p. 27).

Talking to Lillie Lindsay about "Red Riding Hoodie"

My guest blogger today is Lillie Lindsay.

When I asked about Lillie's writing process, she wrote the following:

"I don't have a writing process, per se. I was inspired by the Facebook posts where everyone wrote, ‘I Am Trayvon Martin.’ I always make reference to the past whenever I write. In this case, I referred to Little Red Riding Hood, Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin."

 

Who influenced Lillie?

"So far as an influence, I remember reading a quote from Alice Walker some years ago where she quipped, ‘An ax went into the woods and the tree said, 'Look at the Handle, he is one of us.’ That made me think about how the shooter was a member of an ethnic minority himself."

 

Where did Lillie get her form?

"While I was in the Peace Corps in Jamaica, I used to go to Dub Poetry slams [and listen to poetry] from writers like Cherry Natural. They were into telling a story and not so caught up with rhyme scheme."

 

Do you want to read Lillie's poem?
 

"Red Riding Hoodie"

 

Writers on Writing

“The writing teacher’s ministry is not just to the

words but to the person who wrote the words.” ~~William Zinsser

(Note to me: Be kind with your criticism/response to student writing.)

From p. 48 of Writing to Learn

Writing & Money

"Fewer than five percent of the Author’s Guild…live primarily on their income as writers, and this figure includes those with lucrative movie rights, overseas translations….”
~~Stephen Pyne in Voice and Vision: A Guide to Writing History and Other Serious Nonfiction


Um. Is this true? Wow!

Well, what motivates this writer?

I write because I have something to say.
I write because books have been a lighthouse for me.
What if I write something that helps someone?
 

Young Adult Writers I’m Watching Closely

Young Adult Writers I’m Watching

 

 

Why? Because I think they have something important to say about race, ethnicity, class, and gender, and they say it in interesting ways. 

 

 

Brian F. Walker (If you know him, please tell him I want an interview:) --

 

What surprised you most about the process of getting published?
What surprised me most about the publishing process – hands down – is how LONG it takes to get a book out and onto the shelves. There was a lot of editing, revision, talks about the cover,the title, etc. It wiped me out.

--quoted from "Author Interview: Brian F. Walker"
 

Guadalupe Garcia McCall--

 

What is one thing you would like your readers to take away from reading Under the Mesquite?

GGM: I would love for readers to find their own strength, their own voice, and hold onto it. To keep dreaming, even when times are tough. To honor their family, their culture, themselves in a way that fulfills them and brings them to a place of peace and happiness.

--quoted from "Fictionalizing a Life Story with Guadalupe Garcia McCall"

 

Wendy Wan Long Shang--

What advice do you have for kids who want to be writers.

“Read as much as you can; write as much as you can. Sit down and write a little bit every day. A very famous writer wrote down what he ate every day. To get in the habit [of writing every day] is very helpful. . . . My goal is to write two double-spaced pages each day. If I get stuck, I go to another place in the manuscript. Or sometimes I get up to walk the dog.”
--quoted from "Interview with author of 'The Great Wall of Lucy Wu'"
 

Just Write: Here's How by Walter Dean Myers

The National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature—Walter Dean Myers—has finally written a tell-all guide to writing. Years ago he wrote a memoir, Bad Boy, and while I enjoyed reading about his life and love of reading, I wanted/needed to read about his writing process.

This is the book I wanted back then. Here, Myers focuses on fiction and nonfiction. He says he uses a six-box outline for fiction and a four-box outline for nonfiction.  He discusses doing research for both genres and how research for one often fuels the other.

The chapters are short and full of anecdotes and examples from his process, particularly the collaboration with Ross Workman on Kick. He also writes about how his experiences interviewing imprisoned youth, teaching writing classes for teens, and discussing books like Monster with youth informed his writing.

Excerpts from his notebooks are a great addition to the book, but unfortunately many of the notebook pages are difficult to read.

Writers on Writing

Golden Line from Let's Get Digital:  "...never forget the golden rule: keep writing!" ~~David Gaughran, p. 111

Writers on Writing

I was reminded recently of Joan Didion's essay, "Why I Write." Here's my favorite part:

In many ways writing is the act of saying I, of imposing oneself upon other people, of saying   listen to me, see it my way, change your mind. It’s an aggressive, even a hostile act. You can disguise its qualifiers and tentative subjunctives, with ellipses and evasions—with the whole manner of intimating rather than claiming, of alluding rather than stating—but there’s no getting around the fact that setting words on paper is the tactic of a secret bully, an invasion, an imposition of the writer’s sensibility on 
                     the reader’s most private space.