Ch. 3: Writing
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Many years ago, Sharon Miller, National Writing Project Teacher-Consultant and nationally recognized author and educator in the teaching of writing, asked me to offer my thoughts on the power of revision in the genre of creative nonfiction and how, when we write with intent in the revision process and understand who our audience is, we…
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I’ve been teaching for a long time — long enough to see the spin of the pedagogical cycle of strategies come full circle. What I have learned along the way is that there are some practices that work better than others when it comes to teaching writing. In 2009, the National Council of Teachers of…
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I have been in this cafe for a little over an hour, writing in my Daybook to the ambient sounds of chatter, the clanging of dishes, all blended with the meditative, hollow sounds of Deuter playing his bamboo flute. On these pages, I have written about singular moments I experienced decades ago along the marshy…
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If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber’d here While these visions did appear. I’ve been having some rather candid conversations with fellow writers and non-writers in Towson and around town about the importance of authentic writing, both in polished pieces that we submit for publication…
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One of the questions I am asked most frequently about the process of writing is which is most important: the writing or the publishing? It’s a good question, but like everything else associated with the practice of writing, it’s not an easy one to answer. When we look at the process of writing, we can…
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It was a late November night, And I was just about done. The stacks of papers that I needed to grade Had, in some small way, dwindled down to none. I lifted the stained red cup from my desk And finished the cold coffee poured hours before; I reached for the lamp signed by students…
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On June 16, when I cut ties with social media to focus entirely on finishing my book, Fossil Five, I made a big deal about descending into darkness (you can read about it HERE). After all, I selected a 105-day period that ran from a new moon to a total lunar eclipse. You can’t get…
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“Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding.” Tao te Ching, 1 In 1992, when I completed the draft of my first novel, I was shrouded in darkness during a New England blizzard. I wrote the final lines of my story, Night Terrors, by candlelight just minutes before midnight on December 13.…
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By Rus VanWestervelt Late yesterday afternoon, I witnessed an unraveling of peace in my hometown, Baltimore. As I watched the events on television, with commentary by local news media that made the event sound more like a parade being covered than an act of uncivil disobedience, I could not tear myself away from the surreal…
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