Your Blog Entry

by Andrew Katz

For your blog entry, you are asked to write a short article (around 500-600 words) or else to create a podcast or video that informatively and insightfully explores a specific issue related to the practice of creative writing. 

A couple of keys words above: 

Practice––meaning your entry should deal with issues that would interest other practicing writers. For instance, if you were doing a podcast about a particular book or author, you would need to talk not just from the point of view of a reader but also from that of a writer--i.e. what do you, as a writer, get from this book/author?

Specific––meaning your entry should deal with a specific aspect of the craft or process of writing (e.g. a word, a kind of sentence, an issue involved creating a character, a particular dimension of brainstorming or editing, etc.). Avoid vague generalities. 

Your piece may incline towards the more technical or philosophical or biographical (maybe you want to profile a favorite writer or book) or in any other direction, but its central objective should be that it be useful to a fellow writer.

If you decide to do a podcast or video, you will have to find another place online to post it (e.g. youtube) and then link to that place on our blog. 

You are welcome to team up with other students to make a podcast or video or even to write an article, though the more students involved, the longer the entry should be (500-600 words per student, or 5 minutes of speaking per student). 

In addition to posting an entry on our class blog, you are also asked to leave two thoughtful comments of at least 100 words each on your colleagues' entries throughout the semester. 

I will hand out a schedule for entry and comment dates (i.e. when you need to post your entries and comments by) in class. 

This blog will be live to the world, and I will not be editing them, unless you email me or stop by my office to go over them in person beforehand, so you are encouraged to make your entries as readable and engaging as possible. Feel free to invite your friends and family to read the blog and leave comments as well. 

Below are some links to other creative writing blogs and individual articles/podcasts/videos that you can use for guidance and inspiration:

A terrific resource: Opinionator: Draft, by the New York Times. 

"Draft features essays by grammarians, historians, linguists, journalists, novelists and others on the art of writing — from the comma to the tweet to the novel — and why a well-crafted sentence matters more than ever in the digital age."

Slate Audio Book club page (podcast)

"Open Book: Writers on Writing" (videocast)

"Writing is in my blood, but how do I know if I'm any good?" by Cary Tennis (advice column)

"Think you know 'How to Write a Sentence'?" on NPR (radio program and book review)

"Stanley Fish's Top Five Sentences" by Nina Rastogi (book review)

"Stanley Fish Picks His Favorite of Your Favorite Sentences" by Nina Rastogi" (article)

"Everything is Fiction," by Keith Ridgway (article)

"Your Elusive Creative Genius," by Elizabeth Gilbert on TED talks (video)

"Marian Moore's 'Poetry'" by Robert Pinsky (profile)

"The Storyteller's Storyteller," by Jonah Weiner (profile)

"The Man Who Made Oz: L. Frank Baum and the First American Fairy Tale," by Meghan O'Rourke (profile)

"Beware of Pity: Hannah Arendt and the Power of the Impersonal," by Adam Kirsch (profile) 

"Show or Tell: Should Creative Writing Be Taught?" by Louis Menand (article)

On Writing Workshops: "Creative Tension" by Louis Menand (podcast)

"Slowpoke: How to Be a Faster Writer," by Michael Agger (article)