In the last day or so, I have turned in my final poetry essay and what I hope will be the final revision of my thesis. This semester is coming to a close, and I’m having trouble accepting it. I’ve … Continue reading →
Much has been made of the importance of getting to know your characters, with suggested tools such as questionnaires (what three things would your character bring to a deserted island?), histories (and then in kindergarten, she. . .), profiles (his … Continue reading →
When I first considered going for an MFA, I faced this question: should I bother? My assumption was that I should, but in my online research I kept finding echoes of that question, often expressed by people who had completed … Continue reading →
I’m in the middle of a deep revision of my thesis novel right now. I’m going scene by scene through the whole manuscript, checking voice, point of view, metaphor choices, et cetera. I’m also allowing myself room to add detail … Continue reading →
News Flash: The Prose-Poem Project has accepted my piece, “Trouble Sleeping the Night Before a Big Test.” We now return you to your regularly scheduled post. *** I’m back from residency, and when I’ve had a chance to catch up … Continue reading →
News Flash: My prose poem “Phillips Head” has been accepted by “Third Wednesday”. Now back to our regularly scheduled post. —– In three days I begin my fourth residency at Whidbey. Technically I might qualify as an old hand at … Continue reading →
At the August 2010 NILA residency, Mary Guterson spoke about her own path to professional novel-writing, and about her process as an author. I have a vivid image from her talk of her in a motel room (not like that!) … Continue reading →
I’ve gotten tired of referring to my thesis as “my thesis.” A thesis is something that, once it’s finished, gets filed away in the school library and looked at only by other graduate students who are trying to find something … Continue reading →
For the first revision of my thesis, I am trying something my thesis advisor recommended: retyping it. So, after taking a red ink pen to one hundred seventy five pages of text, I committed myself to retyping every word, reviewing … Continue reading →
This semester doesn’t really end for me. Well, it does in the sense that I have reached the last day of school and two of my classes will shortly fall by the wayside. My other class, though, is thesis, and … Continue reading →