Hello Everyone

Just to let you all know, I've posted our schedule of readings on blackboard under syllabus and as an announcement.

So, welcome to the world of blogging if you have not ever done it before.

I am sitting at my favorite table in Donkey Coffee enjoying an iced mocha and hoping to get some writing done.

For those of you who do not already know, I am currently working on finishing a dissertation for a PhD in rhetoric and composition, though my master's is in creative writing/poetry. This writing is such a different experience for me. When I wrote my thesis for my MA, I had been accumulating poems for a couple years, and the thesis was a matter of revision, selection, ordering and introducing. Now, I'm writing a book-length study and trying to conceive of the whole in my mind is really difficult, but also exciting.

Yesterday I had the revelation that what I had thought I was writing as Chapter 5 should actually be a part of Chapter 1, so now I'm going back and reconceptualizing my entire structure (for the umpteenth time). Revising can be an endless process, though I need to keep in mind that at some point, I need to let go and decide its good enough.

I actually really enjoy revising, though. Its like play for me. I move parts around and re-read, and all of a sudden, I have a new manuscript and a new way of thinking about what I'm writing. Of course this is easier if you are writing something you really want to write.

On that note, make sure you all chose a subject you really want to write about for this first draft, since this is what we'll be working with all session. If you are having trouble, try some of the techniques Murray describes in Ch. 1, like interviewing yourself. If you get stuck, take a break and write about Junk for a while, watch TV, then go back to it. Breaks are hard to schedule in a 5 week course, but they are important, even if they are small.

Good luck everyone. See you Monday.