My new discovery!

Students just can't face writing ten pages of prose these days. It seems a mountain too high to climb. I have therefore divided the story into beginning, middle, and end, and teach these part separately, and then have them put it all together in a finished story. This seems much more approachable to them.

Always it's new

  I always get the feeling, when I begin a new semester, that everything is new and that I have never talked about creative writing before.
    In a way, this is true. You are never the same person from semester to semester. Every time you present something--say first person narration--you will present it in a different way. The singer never sings the song the same way.

Speed Workshops

   Here's a workshop idea I'm trying out this semester. It seems to be going well. I got the name from what's called speed dating. These on ten minute sessions on a student's poem. Each student gets a copy of the poem, the workshop presenter reads the poem, the other students write down comments, and then the workshop presenter asks five questions. Our comments always go beyond the questions. Students overall have responded favorably. They like the interaction (I make comments on poems, too), and they like the intensity.