writerjenn

Last night I had the privilege of speaking to Dr. Francine Woodford's English 101-072 class at the Community College of Philadelphia.  We talked about many aspects of the writing process, with a special focus on Revision.  I certainly felt comfortable talking about that, since I would guess that 90% or more of my writing time is spent revising what I've already written!  

One interesting question that came up was what to do with criticism that seems to be based on a misunderstanding of your intent.  I could think of 3 reasons for such criticism: 1) the person didn't read the work closely enough; 2) the person read into the work something from his/her own mind; 3) whatever was in your head didn't actually make it down on paper.  Talking to the critiquer can help establish which one it is.

Other questions that came from this lively and articulate group included: What is writer's block?  (I will write more about that in a future blog post!)  and How can you be creative within the confines of a rigid form such as an essay?  (I used an analogy to say, in essence, that you learn the rules and boundaries of that form, and then you're free to play with everything else.)

The class has been reading Stephen King's great book, ON WRITING, and they discussed their own essays on King's ideas, particularly the writer's "toolbox."  (To any writers out there: if you haven't read this book yet, I recommend it.  You may or may not be interested in the autobiographical section, but there's plenty of good advice on the craft of writing.)

Thank you again to Dr. Woodford and the class!