Category: Creative Writing

How I Write: Brian Leung — Novelist

Welcome back for the Spring 2014 semester! Our “How I Write” series asks writers from the University of Louisville community and beyond to respond to five questions that provide insight into their writing processes and offer advice to other writers. Through this series, we promote the idea that learning to write is an ongoing, life-long process and that all writers, from first-year students to career professionals, benefit from discussing and collaborating on their work with thoughtful and respectful readers. The series will be featured every other Wednesday.

To kick off the new semester, local novelist Brian Leung offers us a little bit of insight into his writing process. Brian Leung is the author of the short story collection, World Famous Love Acts (Sarabande), winner of the Mary McCarthy Award for short fiction and The Asian American Literary Award for Fiction. His novels are Lost Men (Random House) and Take Me Home (Harper/Collins) which won the 2011 Willa Award for Historical Fiction. You can read more about each of these here. His fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction appear in numerous magazines and journals. Leung is currently the Director of Creative Writing at UofL and is a board member of the nonprofit organization, Louisville Literary Arts.

How I Write: Brian Leung

Location: outdoors or next to a window (shame on me)

Current project: Novel and a short story collection

Currently reading: Zealot by Reza Aslan

What type(s) of writing do you regularly engage in?

I confess to having a bias in responding to this question because, as a personal definition, I think of writing as the activity I engage in when I’m working on fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and the various small creative projects I’m invited to contribute to. These categories get my attention on a daily basis, though it varies by deadline which I’ll be working on in a given moment. For example, earlier this year I was asked write a brief review/essay, so I set aside my novel project to work on that. In the past couple of weeks I’ve been working on poetry and hand editing my novel manuscript. These activities generally take place in the morning.

Now, back to the confession. On any given day I probably write more words on emails, social media and on text messaging than I do in my creative work. I call this part of my typing life, communicating, but not writing. I don’t mean to disparage these activities, but they rarely capture my sustained attention in a way that makes me reflect deeply on the language being employed. This may be a casualty of thinking of electronic communication as being fleeting and not permanent. We’ll find out if that’s true when the lights go out.
When/where/how do you write?

I recall Annie Dillard writing that she had to close the blinds and tape up a drawing of the view from her window just so she could concentrate on writing. I require the distraction of the occasional cardinal, of a rocking, late blooming yellow iris. It’s a refreshing tableau to watch a squirrel hop through snow and pause when she spies me spying her. Because of this, most of my writing in the last seven or eight years has taken place outdoors or next to a window.

I write in the mornings three to five times a week, and I write slowly. I read every sentence aloud. Because of this, I get to keep a healthy percentage of my sentences.
What are your writing necessities—tools, accessories, music, spaces*?

Poetry I compose on paper, and I confess now to being entirely laptop dependent for prose. I rarely listen to music, and I certainly can’t listen to music with lyrics while I’m writing. So, when I say that I have to write with nobody but myself and my cat in the house, I mean both without my boyfriend and without Lady Gaga or One Direction.
What is your best tip for getting started and/or for revision?

Getting started when? There’s the getting started after you’ve started, and there’s starting with a blank page. In the case of the former, I think it’s wise to leave off at an incomplete thought or image so that when you return you have a definite piece of the puzzle to begin with. “Cornfelder stopped at the door, then turned because he forgot. . . .” I don’t have a character named Cornfelder, but I’d have fun tomorrow morning figuring out what he forgot and then I’d be off to the races. It’s the same for essay writing, I think. In an essay about James Baldwin, one might come to a point where Mr. Baldwin might weigh in. But wait until tomorrow and pick that up. This process only works if you’re not a procrastinator, and if you are, G(g)od(s) help you.

Starting with a blank page? See the writing advice I got below. Why bother writing at all unless. . . .
What is the best writing advice you’ve received?

The best writing advice I ever received was unspoken. A creative writing teacher had cut me off at the knees in one of my first undergraduate workshops when my fiction came up. I was so livid, I went home and spent the week reading her work and producing an angry imitation. The next class I stomped into class and read it aloud uninvited, asking at the end, and angrily, “Is that what you want?” She looked at me calmly and said, “Yes.” I understood instantly. Her expression and tone told me not that she wanted me to imitate her writing, but that she wanted me to be passionate about my own.

How I Write: Jeffery Carter — Podcaster

Our “How I Write” series asks writers from the University of Louisville community and beyond to respond to five questions that provide insight into their writing processes and offer advice to other writers. Through this series, we promote the idea that learning to write is an ongoing, life-long process and that all writers, from first-year students to career professionals, benefit from discussing and collaborating on their work with thoughtful and respectful readers. The series will be featured every other Wednesday.

This week we feature our first writer from beyond the university community. Jeffery Carter lives and works in Louisville, KY. His hobbies include boxing, video gaming, reviewing video games and movies, and hosting his own podcast. In his podcast, Nerds Socialize, Carter discusses a range of topics from changing social contracts, to addictive tendencies, to the latest pop culture. With his podcast, he aims to spread the message that “interacting with others is a great thing, and can help you overcome great obstacles in life.”

How I Write: Jeffery Carter

Location: Just about anywhere, but on the floor in my room is best (see the bowl? Yeah, I’m on the “poor bowl ‘o noodle” diet)

Current project: Unsung Knightmares (various short stories and eventually, and hopefully, a novel), and Game Reviews

Currently reading: This blog

What type(s) of writing do you regularly engage in?

I write a lot of short stories and create characters. I also like writing reviews for various types of media like video games and tv shows.
When/where/how do you write?

When Do I write? I write when I feel the mood. I usually write a little bit during most days, and if I’m not writing, I’m usually thinking up ideas or concepts for other stories, or existing ones. The best time for me to write is when I get a really good idea or concept that just makes me excited, cause then the words just seem to flow from me. I also write after I review games or shows, when they’re still fresh in my head.

Where do I write? well… I’ll write just about anywhere. One of my recent writing habits is writing on my iphone using the “notes” app just about anywhere, espeically when I get cool ideas on the spot.

How do I write? Well, in a review, I write heavily in my own voice and opinion. I tend to right my own voice as a bit hyper and eccentric at times. The reason for this is mainly due to the fact that when I review, I’m usually very very excited and hyper in general after wathcing or doing whatever is that I’m reviewing at that time. When I write for a story, I try my best to get into the character as much as I can, so I can think more like that character, and think up actions that said character would do in the situation they are in.
What are your writing necessities—tools, accessories, music, spaces?

A computer or an iphone. Thanks to technology, writing can be done pretty much anywhere at anytime. A perfect example of this is social media, and how often people tweet or post on twitter and facebook when they’re away from their houses… where all their stuff is… that everyone now knows is unguarded. So all I need is some kind of technology that has a word processor on it. now as for music, it is usually one or two songs on repeat. what those songs are just depend on my mood, or the “vibe” of what I’m writing. For intense fight scenes in my stories, I’ll listen to a lot of loud metal, or intense techno. The most frequent song is the Mortal Kombat theme music. And as for space, well, just about anywhere, BUT my preferred space is on my floor, computer on my coffee table, TV on (but on mute), music blaring with a drink of some sort near by.
What is your best tip for getting started and/or for revision?

If you’re writing a story, then just let it play out. Don’t second guess yourself, else your wrting becomes forced and un-natural. If you write a story that plays out how real life would, people can relate more to what’s going on.
What is the best writing advice you’ve received?

Be you. When you try to write how you think people want you to, then you’re not writing what you want anymore.

On Early Writing Advice

Jessica Winck, Assistant Director

This week’s feature was adapted from an earlier post on Jessica’s blog Daily Inventions, which focuses on writing, teaching, and the teaching of writing.

As I work on finishing my M.A. project, I’ve been thinking about how my views on writing were shaped when I was younger. After studying rhetoric and writing for the past two years, I’ve become more conscious of how some of my own views, behaviors, and habits suggest something I learned early on that stayed with me. In other words, I’ll become aware of something I’m doing, and I’ll say (sometimes out loud), “Where did that come from?”

Throughout my teens I saw myself as a fiction writer, and the writing of fiction was Writing to me – so people who wrote it were Writers. I got a sense of this in so many of the books about fiction writing that I read. There was a sense in these books – this discourse – that good writers have a gift. Certainly they work hard, but they have an indefinable quality, so at best, advice about writing for people who don’t have this gift can only help them artificially replicate what gifted writers possess naturally.

Now I see this as a flawed assumption, but I bought into it when I was younger. When I was 20 or 21 I showed a short story to a guy I worked with who also wrote fiction. His initial response was, “Well, you can write!” On one hand, that’s just stating the obvious. On the other hand, that’s not what he was talking about at all. He meant I had some kind of ability beyond competence.

There were consequences for this kind of view of writing and writers. Though my undergrad curriculum consisted of several creative writing workshops, collaboration wasn’t a major priority – in fact it was discouraged because it was seen as a distraction. Someone once told me that writers who work at coffee shops or with others just want distractions because they aren’t committed to their craft. Real writers toil alone, if not for concentration’s sake, then because their gift for writing – all that genius – leads to bad social skills or neuroses. The Writer/Suffering Genius was a persona more than anything else, and my peers and I all desperately ached toward it.

Clearly I disagreed with these “truths” to some extent, otherwise I wouldn’t have been so frustrated by their limitations at the time. But they weren’t my only influences. When I was in high school, I read two important writers: Peter Elbow and Natalie Goldberg. Something distinguished them from the other people I read during that time and later in undergrad: they didn’t tolerate the view of “Writing” that I’ve elaborated here. For them, improving as writers is first a matter of writing more and being more methodical about how you use your writing time (ie., scheduled or timed writing). Though I read Elbow and Goldberg early on, they stayed on my shelf all through undergrad as I worked through developing an identity as a writer. I thought that improving as a writer couldn’t possibly be a matter of persistence, which is available to everyone.

As I work on my Master’s project now, I’m realizing in really profound ways that at a fundamental level, apart from other factors and forces that bear down on me in this process, that I will finish my project in a reasonable amount of time if I just persist methodically. This isn’t to say that challenges won’t come up, or that I won’t ever feel like it’s hopeless, but it’s to say that there is plenty of evidence that says I should have faith in this process.

There are also benefits for teachers and writing consultants to examine early influences on our views of writing. This is a view of writing that leads us to assume that everyone can write, as Peter Elbow suggests, and that doing well and “being successful,” however defined, is a matter of persisting, not of innate talents or gifts.

The Thesaurus: Your Composition Companion

Carly Johnson, Consultant

A thesaurus always struck me as nothing more than a large, impressive book to place on your shelf and never open…until I turned in my first paper in English Composition 101 my Freshman year of college. My work was riddled with comments written in bold, red pen that stated things like: “repetitive,” “word choice?” and “is this what you meant to say here?” As I examined my paper more closely, I began to realize that my professor was absolutely correct, I was being repetitive—in fact, in the span of four pages, I typed the word “said” roughly fifteen times. In addition, I used the adjectives “nice” and “very” to describe any and all nouns within my paper. “What other words could I have used other than ‘said,’ ‘nice,’ and ‘very’?” I thought to myself. Then, I glanced over at the book I had ignored for so long: the thesaurus.

Many clients come to the writing center with comments from their instructors that convey many of the same messages I mentioned above. Students often become discouraged after reading these critiques, but I’ll let you in on a secret- no one, no matter how talented of a writer they are, knows exactly the right word to use 100% of the time—honestly, probably not even 50% of the time. I urge every writer to use the thesaurus as part of their editing process, and I encourage them to begin by asking themselves questions such as, “Have I used this adjective already?” or “Does this word convey my tone in the most effective way?” The thesaurus provides an opportunity for a writer to put their best vocabulary forward, and create the most polished final draft possible.

The only negative aspect of using a thesaurus is the sheer number of options it provides for you. I’ve seen students fall into the trap of selecting a word they are not familiar with in an effort to give their paper more variety. If you select a word from the thesaurus that is unfamiliar to you, you run the risk of placing that word in an incorrect context within your sentence. Make sure that, when you use a thesaurus, you are familiar with both the meaning of the word and its connotation. If you are unfamiliar with the word, but desperately wish to use it because it just sounds too perfect, like the word ‘bombastic,’ make sure that the word matches the tone of the rest of your essay. For example, I think the word ‘bombastic’ sounds like it should describe someone who has a loud voice and a charismatic personality, but it actually has a negative connotation and is used to describe someone who is ‘overbearing’ or ‘pompous.’ This is essential to know, especially if I am handing a paper into my professor where one of my sentences states, “I found my professor to be exceptionally bombastic.”

Using a thesaurus is a great way to strengthen your vocabulary, and take your writing to the next level. You don’t even have to open a large, impressive book anymore, either; you can simply right-click on a word within a word processing document and select the “synonyms” option, and within an instant a whole new world of distinct, delightful, and distinguished diction is available at your fingertips.

If, after reading this blog post, you still believe that a thesaurus is nothing but a large book that should never be opened, refer to Layne’s post regarding voice. Her advice regarding the thesaurus is especially useful for all the visual learners out there. However, if you are more inclined to listen to advice form non-writing center consultants, refer to my cool hand-drawn friend, The Saurus-

Next time you are swimming in a sea of ‘said’s, remember that the thesaurus, whether you wish to view it as a helpful tool or a dinosaur with a superior vocabulary, is an excellent composition companion.

Alternatives to Procrastinating

Jessica Winck, Assistant Director

Approaching the end of the semester can be a stressful time, and those of us who are inclined to procrastinate might feel especially anxious. I tend to believe that procrastination involves more than just actively avoiding work. It often relates to a writer’s sincere challenges with any of the following: understanding an assignment; feeling overwhelmed by the workload in college; worrying about whether s/he “has what it takes.” None of these is easy to deal with, and we know that avoiding work doesn’t help us in the long run. If you’re worried about procrastination, try some of these strategies:

Contact your instructor about any questions you have. This might sound obvious, but not everyone feels comfortable with this approach. What if my instructor will think I’m stupid, or that I’m not trying hard enough, or that I’m not good enough to be in this class? Meanwhile, confusion about an assignment prevents us from working on it. Email your instructor or ask to visit her or his office hours, which are set aside specifically for helping students address questions and concerns.

If you have a large assignment on your hands, consider breaking it down into smaller, more manageable pieces. How we see the task plays a large part in our approach to it. “Write a research paper” sounds like a scary and overwhelming task. Try talking to your instructor about how you can approach the assignment in parts. You can also go to the writing center and work with a consultant on setting some manageable goals for completing the assignment. These should be goals that you can reasonably meet in the amount of time you give yourself. You will get more done, and you will likely feel more confident about finishing the assignment.

Try setting a timer when you write. This might sound like an odd piece of advice, but it’s one I always stand by. I often use the Pomodoro method: write for 25 minutes, then take a 5-minute break. Write for another 25, then take another 5. Writers who struggle with procrastination might find this method especially helpful. Over time, you start to notice that some tasks don’t take as much time and energy as you imagined. Tasks become less intimidating and more manageable. Plus, you don’t have to focus on writing for an indeterminate amount of time. If you grow tired or you need a coffee break, you don’t have long to wait; but for the time being, you write. Also check out what Alex Clifton, a writing center consultant, wrote about some online resources that help you keep writing in pre-set blocks of time.

Write with a friend or a group. Working alongside others can be encouraging, and it also keeps you accountable. My colleague Meghan Hancock and I often meet for the specific purpose of writing and working. It’s a great arrangement because we have a shared understanding that we write when it’s time to write (and yes, we set a timer). Since your classmates are working on the same assignment, ask them to join you. Though the time you make is for writing and working, it also presents the opportunity to get to know more people and to feel supported at the same time. Contrary to some of the received wisdom out there that good writers work independently without any help, you actually don’t have to do all this alone.

On that note, make an appointment at the Writing Center. We will be happy to sit down and work with you wherever you are in the process of writing. Plus, having specific times set aside to talk with others about your writing helps you stay motivated.

There are many alternatives to procrastination, and I hope you try some of the ones here. Have a great rest of your semester!

How I Write: Jeffery Skinner — Poet

This semester we are beginning a new series for our blog called “How I Write.” This series asks writers to respond to five questions that provide insight into their writing processes and offer advice to other writers. We’ll be featuring writers from the University of Louisville community, but also those from beyond the university who compose in a variety of personal and professional contexts. Through this series, we promote the idea that learning to write is an ongoing, life-long process and that all writers, from first-year students to career professionals, benefit from discussing and collaborating on their work with thoughtful and respectful readers. The series will be featured every other Wednesday.

We begin our series with University of Louisville’s own Jeffery Skinner who describes himself on his website (jeffreyskinner.net/) as a “poet. playwright. professor.” His most recent collection of poems Glaciology, which won the 2012 Crab Orchard Open Poetry Competition, was just published by Southern Illinois Press. You can hear Jeffery Skinner read with Kiki Petrosino on November 7th at 4:30 pm in the Chao Auditorium in UofL’s Ekstrom Library.

How I Write: Jeffery Skinner

Location: Anywhere fairly quiet

Current project: New book of poems

Currently reading: Mark Richard’s memoir, David Jones poems

What type(s) of writing do you regularly engage in?
Poetry, and prose of various types: recommendation letters, essays, prose poems, memos, grant applications, etc.
When/where/how do you write?
During summers I bear down heavily; during teaching time I snatch whatever odd moment that becomes available.
What are your writing necessities—tools, accessories, music, spaces?
Pen and paper for poems; laptop for prose. I’m fond of parking myself in a coffee shop, and plugging into postclassical, techno, electronica (no human voices).
What is your best tip for getting started and/or for revision?
a. decide to write with your own voice b. lower your expectations c. don’t stop till you’ve written a predetermined amount (which doesn’t have to be “good”–just done)
What is the best writing advice you’ve received?
“Writing is easy: you just sit there until drops of blood appear on your forehead.”

Again, we want to thank Professor Skinner for his insightful responses and encourage our readers to attend his upcoming reading. On November 6th, we will post our next entry featuring University of Louisville Law professor Judith Fischer.

What is Voice and Where Do You Get It?

Layne Porta, Consultant

I remember being told when I first started doing college level writing that I needed to work on my voice. When I asked my professor what exactly she meant by that, I was told that voice is what makes your writing uniquely your own. I was frustrated and confused: Isn’t the fact that I’m writing it what makes it uniquely my own?

Now that I am a graduate student and writing consultant, I often see the same kinds of feedback on my students’ papers. What I would like to offer here are some thoughts on what voice is and how you get it, as well as some resources that can help you along the way to finding your voice.

What I have come to learn about voice is that it is much more about practical decisions you make in your writing than some mystical quality that appears like mist in the night. The writing process itself is an unending sequence of decisions–from word choice to punctuation to paragraph breaks–and all of these decisions add up to create your voice. For example, I love to use dashes in my writing, which can make my voice sound more conversational. Voice can also come from the kinds of metaphors and similes you choose to explain concepts, or the length of your sentences. I have found that one of the biggest factors in creating (and understanding) your voice is word choice. For example, one of my least favorite words is fickle, but one of my favorite words is capricious. They mean the same thing, but my voice will sound very different depending on that decision. There are many resources that can help in making decisions about the words you want to use. For example, on websites such as visualthesaurus.com and visuwords.com, you can type in a word and it will bring up a word web that will feature synonyms and variations of that word clustered according to connotation. The example below is a screen capture of a visual thesaurus app I recently downloaded:

"Volatile" on Visual Thesaurus — “Volatile” on Visual Thesaurus

I have often heard the idea from both students and peers that voice isn’t as important in academic writing as it is in creative writing. I believe this is a huge misconception. Voice is crucial to academic writing because it plays a large role in engaging your audience, establishing a formal tone, and creating your credibility as a writer. In sum, voice plays a very active role in helping you achieve your rhetorical goals. Furthermore, you can have more fun with the writing you will do during your time in college or after if you embrace your voice as a writer.

If you find yourself wanting to learn more about voice and how to get it, I suggest two very helpful websites that offer comprehensive discussions about voice. The first is “Understanding Voice and Tone in Writing” by Julie Wildhaber, featured on quickanddirtytips.com. This article offers tips on defining your voice as well as some helpful examples of how voice will change according to genre. Another useful article on writingcommons.org by Kyle D. Stedman, is “Making Sure Your Voice is Present” which also offers excellent suggestions for finding your voice as well as some YouTube videos about voice.

One thing to keep in mind is that finding your voice is like everything else in writing–it requires practice. So in response to my initial question as a beginning college student: yes, the fact that I am writing my paper is what makes it uniquely my own. But voice takes this a bit further, and requires that you do some writing to see how your personality comes across. My suggestion, then is to trust your instincts as a writer. Your writing is a reflection of your thoughts and your personality. Your voice, and your awareness of your voice, will come through the more comfortable you get with writing.

How to Get Unstuck: Ways to Start Writing and Tips to Keep Going

Alex Clifton, Consultant

Writing is hard. Starting any kind of writing—or keeping it flowing—can be so difficult. Very rarely do people get out what they want to say on the first try. I should know; I just drafted the opening sentence of this blog post five or six times, going through wildly different options. It can be challenging to figure out what you initially want to say, and even harder when you feel like giving up after one or two paragraphs because the words just aren’t coming. Here are some tips to get you writing and keep you writing!

If you have trouble at the beginning of a writing session because you are thinking too much about other homework, life problems, cat pictures, etc., freewrite for five to ten minutes. It doesn’t have to be anything sophisticated; just grab a notebook and write down everything you are thinking, as it comes to you, for that short period of time. Afterwards, you’ll have cleansed those thoughts from your brain for the time being, so you can get down to working instead of wondering whether or not you’ve cleaned your aquarium.

Occasionally, you might struggle to find a topic to write about. It might help to make a list of things you are interested in or want to mention in your essay. This can be especially helpful with personal narratives or persuasive essays. For example, if you’re trying to think up concrete examples to support your idea that fish are the best pets ever, you might make a list describing the pros of keeping fish as pets, another list about your experience keeping fish as pets, and another list with all the facts you know about fish that might persuade someone that fish are great. Again, these thoughts do not have to be organised perfectly; list-making is just another way to get you thinking about what you want to write about!

When working on a paper, remember that you don’t have to write everything in a linear manner—there is no rule that says you have to start with your introduction and plough through in the “right order.” If you’re really struggling to make a point, make a note of where you want it in your essay and then continue writing so you don’t lose your momentum. You can always go back and revisit different portions of your paper, and you might be able to rephrase your thoughts better after you’ve written another section.

Sometimes, it’s hard to get a rough draft out at all. One way to get you writing for blocks of time is to use an app like Write or Die (found at writeordie.com). Don’t let the name scare you: it’s a website that helps you write for however long you decide, be it fifteen minutes or an hour. It motivates partially through annoying you: on one mode, a loud pitch will play if you stop writing for too long, and on kamikaze mode, your work will begin to unwrite itself! (Kamikaze is an optional mode.) The great thing about Write or Die is that it gets you writing, and just writing, for however long you need. Think of it as freewriting for your paper; you can type in anything while you are drafting and then go back and revise it afterwards. It will help you get a draft out and may even add to your productivity, especially when you realise you’ve written for half an hour straight without constantly checking social media or your favourite news sites. I’ve found that using it has helped me learn how to write in chunks of time more effectively, so I can sit down to a half-hour writing session and get work done rather than just goofing around. (A word of warning: if you do use Write or Die, make sure that you copy, paste, and save your work in a separate word document—Write or Die will not save it for you.)

Finally, at the risk of sounding shamelessly self-promoting, come into the Writing Center! We’re here to help you with all of your writing needs at any stage of the writing process. You don’t even have to have a word on the page to make an appointment for an assignment. We can help you discuss your ideas and brainstorm possibilities, or we can read over what you have already written and help figure out where your paper will go next. Sometimes it just helps to talk it all out with someone who wants to hear about your ideas—and trust me, we definitely want to hear what you have to say.

I hope some of these strategies work for you. Try one next time you get stuck writing a paper and see if it helps!

Five Places That Make Writing Easier

Megen Boyett, Consultant

It’s the start of the semester, which means, it’s time again to think about research papers! I know, it’s only the second week, and yet, that paper looms ahead of you on your syllabus. It will not be ignored and it will not be denied, but it will be here in about 15 weeks. Worst of all, it’s going to need outside information and some advance planning, both things that a four-day caffeine binge during finals week won’t provide.

The worst thing about new semesters is that, once again, you have the opportunity to find out how little you know and how much you wish you knew. But take heart! The best part about new semesters is that they’re a new beginning! You’ve got time again to get things done right! And, better still, there are resources for you to use right here on campus. Here are five places to get what you need for those research papers and have a less stressful semester:

The Writing Center, of course!

Are you unsure where to start an assignment? Do you need some help figuring out what it’s asking for, or what you should do next? Have you written as much as you think you possibly can on a topic, but only gotten halfway through the page requirement? Bring your assignment and whatever you have so far into the writing center. Sit and talk it over with us for a while (let’s say, up to fifty minutes). Believe me when I say, it’s oh-so-helpful to have someone to talk about your work with, especially when they aren’t giving you a grade at the end. If nothing else, you’ll leave knowing what questions to ask when you go back to class.

The Research Lab at Ekstrom Library

You know the sources are out there! You just don’t know where to start looking, and it’s a little intimidating to wade through so much information on your own. Fortunately, the librarians at Ekstrom do have a good idea of where you should start. You can ask questions at the research desk (1^st floor), you can set up an appointment to learn how to use databases, or you can even chat with a librarian online at http://louisville.edu/library/services/ask.html.

Citation Databases

Does thinking about citation styles give you a cold sweat? Then, of course, ask your writing center consultant. We all have our favorite sites for citation help. One of the most commonly suggested is the OWL, or the Online Writing Lab at Purdue. It has quick links to citation style guides and plenty of examples. Another really good program is EndNote, which stores all your sources for you and formats bibliographies and in-text citations. Best of all, it’s free through the U of L library!

Your professors

I have yet to meet a U of L professor who won’t make time during office hours for a student to talk about a paper. Your professors are valuable resources because, after all, they wrote the assignment. Not only can they answer questions about what they want you to do, they’re also good for helping you talk through ideas and suggesting potential sources. Put their expertise to use!

The Writing Center, again

You’ve researched, you’ve drafted, you’ve cited to your heart’s content. You’re pretty confident that you know what your professor wants and even how to do it. Now it’s all (or almost all) down on paper, but you’re still not sure that your paper says what you want it to. Come back to the writing center and read your paper aloud with a consultant! Never underestimate the value of talking about your writing with a student who’s been trained to talk about writing. Being able to hear feedback before you hand in a paper not only gives you one last chance to make changes and turn in the paper you meant to write, it’ll with future writing assignments, too. (Plus, it’s really fun to talk about something you created with someone who wants to read it. Trust me.)

Here’s to a fabulous semester! Here’s to knowing what you’re doing and to asking when you don’t know! Here’s to caffeine headaches after something other than an all-night paper-writing-palooza, because, after all, don’t you have better reasons to stay up till 2 am?

Happy Writing!

In Search of the Perfect Paper

Ashly Bender, Assistant Director

While working with a fellow writer this weekend, we started discussing the desire for the “perfect paper.” As each of us pour ourselves in dissertation chapters, we often unreasonably hope that the response to our drafts will be something along the lines of “This looks great; start on the next chapter”—or some other kind of confirmation that we are done with that piece and can move on. This desire is something I believe that my writing students and the many clients we see in the Writing Center are familiar with. It’s more than wanting to know that you did a good job. It’s wanting to know that you did the best job and that you can be released from further labor on a piece that certainly demands a lot of physical and mental effort. Bronwyn Williams posted earlier this year about the intensely personal aspect of writing, and how that connection—even to a writing that is seemingly impersonal—makes receiving feedback difficult. So we continue to yearn for the “perfect paper.”

The conversation this weekend forced me to wonder what the perfect paper look like. How do you know when you’ve achieved it? The most common answer seems to be that this essay would, above all else, receive no marks, nothing to mar the masterpiece the writer has created. It requires no response because it is beyond reproach. This conception of the perfect text is reinforced often in classrooms by tales of red ink and grammar-meanie teachers. Almost all of us have a story of getting back a paper that was “torn apart” by a grader, had more writing by the teacher than the writer, or had a seemingly scathing and long note attached to it. What if though, just to venture out on a limb for a moment, that the unmarked, pristine essay was not actually the “perfect paper.” I know, I know—it’s outlandish, but bear with me for a moment.

When we write, it’s always for an audience, even if that audience is just the writer herself. Writing communicates a message. It may or may not be personal. Either way, it aims to connect with the reader, to invoke a response in or from them. Writing can be compared to telling a story. If you share an experience with another person, you expect that they will demonstrate that they heard you—hopefully with words, but even a nonverbal recognition could satisfy you in some cases. If we accept that this is also be true about writing, then the “perfect paper” is not at all clean and empty of feedback.

The “perfect” piece of writing is covered with commentary from the reader, and that commentary verifies the power of your writing. It proves that your work connected with your reader, made them think, and made them want to share those thoughts with you. That feedback might be in praise or it might be contradictory, but it recognizes you as a writer worth communicating with. Isn’t that the kind of respect and recognition that we all want?

The pristine perfect piece is definitely a myth, but unfortunately the comment-filled version of perfect writing can be just as elusive. While the pristine piece is a myth because it ignores an important aspect of writing, the marked up piece is rare due to very real and practical factors. When you submit a piece to your boss or your teacher, their focus is often on improving or fixing perceived errors. Their lives are filled with many demands and priorities that can make the ideal response, which takes time and focus, sometimes difficult to achieve. For this reason, when we receive comments on a piece of our writing, especially comments that address both our text’s strengths and weaknesses, we should truly appreciate our reader and our work. It’s the closest we can really get to the perfect paper.

While the Writing Center still works under time constraints, remember that we are here to help you experience this ideal version of the perfect paper: one that receives earnest, focused feedback from a reader who wants to engage your ideas and your work. And, when you find a good reader, whether in the Writing Center or among your colleagues/mentors, remember to value them and their feedback as they help you craft and re-craft the perfect paper.