Thinking about a college teaching gig?

January 29, 2024 / melissaolsonpetrie / Leave a comment

Vintage postcard: Overlooking Castaic Creek on the “Famous Ridge Route” between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, California.

3 resources for new university adjunct faculty & instructors.

DEFINITION: Adjunct faculty may be called lecturers, faculty associates, or have similar titles. Adjunct or contingent faculty are contracted to teach one or more university courses each semester. While they are not on the tenure track, adjunct faculty hold advanced degrees in their subject areas, and teaching may be their full-time job.

The default for many new or inexperienced university instructors is to teach the same way they were taught. However, what worked for them — successful, and most likely, high-performing students — may not work for today’s college students. For example, some students may score high on traditional lectures followed by multiple-choice exams, but those lecture/ Scantron-test scenarios don’t always foster a deep understanding of course content.

However, a second default for new adjuncts and instructors may be more useful — namely, returning to their roots as students. By studying successful college teaching, new instructors can create classroom experiences that are more rewarding for their students (and themselves). Effective college teaching can be learned, and the following resources may help:

NOTE: For adjunct faculty and tenure-track professors alike, college teaching skills are often learned on the job. Novice instructors have subject-area expertise, but they may have zero teaching experience. Many instructors are expected to teach courses while they’re learning how to teach. At the same time, each of their students is paying $20 (or a lot more) for each class session. No pressure.

1. Communication within a Course – Book: Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, 2^nd Ed., by James M. Lang (2021)

The little things make a difference. Imagine you’re listening to a music broadcast, and you hear a song you love and want to know its title. However, the program just keeps going and going, and you never learn the title of that song. Many students have this type of experience in their classes, and the small teaching techniques that Lang discusses can reduce student’s frustration and help them learn.

Simple things, such as giving students a preview of the day’s lesson can help. Better yet, explain how a day’s activities fit into the course’s overall learning goals (knowledge or skills the instructor will need to measure on exams or projects), so everyone in the classroom can focus their time more productively.

Throughout his book, Lang details classroom techniques, supported by research, that facilitate meaningful teaching, learning, and communication.

Lang’s other books include On Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teaching (2010) and Small Teaching Online (2019).

2. Alignment to Course Goals — Video: “Teaching Teaching & Understanding Understanding” (2009)

“Teaching Teaching & Understanding Understanding” is a short film about teaching at the university level that offers a true north sort of message, with a few dashes of humor.

A key takeaway is that if you are aligning your course content, activities, assignments, and assessments with the course’s overall learning goals (see the college catalog or departmental course description for these), you’re headed in the right direction. The film’s keyword is alignment. As in, the “Constructive Alignment” theory from educational psychologist John B. Biggs underpins the film’s content.

Bonus points for linking the film’s points back to Lang’s Small Teaching methods to communicate to students how specific elements of your course connect to the overall learning goals. Explain to students what they should learn and why. Double bonus points for incorporating activity-based opportunities for student learning.

3. Deep Learning – Book: Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice, 2^nd ed., by Maryellen Weimer (2013)

Speaking of active learning… Weimer encourages instructors to go beyond delivering information to passive students. Ever spoken before a passive audience? People dozing off? Multitasking on their phones? Whether your audience is students or coworkers, imagine how well passive learners will retain your detailed, exceedingly important information. Not well.

Active learning — such as think-pair-share strategies that ask students to grapple with course content together — are more likely to foster deeper learning. Deep learning goes beyond the surface level — such as vocabulary terms memorized for a test (and often forgotten) — so that students may retain and apply what they’ve learned. It’s much like the difference between watching home repair YouTube videos that make tasks look easy, until you try to do the actual jobs yourself.

Weimer notes that learning can be a messy process, and she encourages instructors to position students to work in collaboration with other students (take an active role in their learning), as well as to reflect on their own attempts and progress toward the course goals.

Weimer’s many books include Essential Teaching Principles: A Resource Collection for Adjunct Faculty (2016).

To some, college teaching might seem like a dream gig. Show up in class for three hours a week and viola! Easy peasy. Get paid. However, much like ballet, there are hours and hours of work going on behind the scenes to make those classroom hours, online portals, assignments, and assessments work to prepare students for success in higher-level classes and careers.

Orphaned or abandoned literary magazines are casualties of higher ed mergers

November 29, 2023 / melissaolsonpetrie / Leave a comment

Vintage postcard: Chicago, Minneapolis & St. Paul Railway Depot, Stoughton, Wisconsin.

Lit-mags lose when colleges and universities consolidate, cut back or close

Sometimes campus mergers in higher education can result in orphaned or abandoned literary magazines. More lit-mags may become unresponsive or inactive as colleges and universities continue to consolidate, cut back, or close.

Example: University of Wisconsin System mergers

A decade ago, many of Wisconsin’s 26 state universities and colleges had literary magazines.

Wisconsin had 13 four-year state universities and 13 state-run two-year colleges (separate from technical and private colleges).
Today, several of those literary magazines (most often from two-year colleges) are no longer publishing after a shuffling and reshuffling of campuses.

Two rounds of mergers brought Wisconsin’s two-year colleges under the umbrellas of nearby four-year state universities. The UW System now describes itself as, “13 universities across 26 campuses…”

Case study #1: Luce

Luce was the literary magazine at the University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan (a two-year college). When the UW System reorganized and then reorganized yet again, UW-Sheboygan became UW-Green Bay’s Sheboygan Campus. In other words, UW-Sheboygan became part of a four-year university. However, UW-Green Bay already had its own literary magazine, Sheepshead Review, and Luce faded away (at least for now).

Elsewhere in the UW System, other college lit-mags may not have survived campus mergers or related changes, including:

The Windy Hill Review at UW-Waukesha (now UW-Milwaukee at Waukesha County)
Fox Cry Review at UW-Fox Valley (now UW-Oshkosh, Fox Cities Campus)
Mush Literary Magazine at UW-Marathon County (now UW-Stevens Point at Wausau)
Rock River Review, at UW-Rock County (now UW-Whitewater at Rock County)
Others?

No longer anyone’s job

Mergers are often made in the name of cost-cutting. In higher-ed mergers, almost all university employees see their jobs change. The faculty members or university staff who advised or managed literary magazines usually see new (or modified) work assignments, as well as increased workloads. These job changes may not include their previous lit-mag work.

Supposed redundancies

Administrators hunt down opportunities for cost savings in any campus merger. It’s not hard to guess their reactions upon realizing that after a merger they have not only one lit-mag to support, but maybe two or three more as well. Chop! Mergers and “redundancies” don’t mix.

What’s a writer to do?

On their websites and Submittable listings orphaned or abandoned university lit-mags may appear to be operating with business as usual. Information about behind-the-scenes staffing and funding changes may not be announced.

As always, writers should look for proof of life, so to speak, such as updated website content and recent publications. Also, check out Duotrope and other sources of literary marketplace information.

Even after doing their research, writers may discover that they’ve submitted work to a university lit-mag that has gone silent. No responses. No publications. Nothing.

What about submissions and fees?

Note that some orphaned lit-mags may continue accepting submissions and submission fees. My sense is that this is an oversight (not intentional), at least for university publications. And I hope refunds would be arranged.

For what it’s worth, major scheduling and staffing changes in higher ed often occur during the lull between academic years, namely in the summer. A magazine’s faculty adviser or manager may end an academic year with the publication of a magazine they hope won’t be their last. By the time fall rolls around, the class or the program or the paid jobs that supported that literary magazine may be gone. Who’s left to mind the lit-mag when the paid staff’s gone and the student workers have likely graduated or moved on with their degree programs?

Case study #2: Green Mountains Review

The home campus of Green Mountains Review used to be Northern Vermont University. Currently, the NVU website leads with, “We’re Now Vermont State University!” This points to yet another campus merger.

As a writer, I’ve had a manuscript “in progress” at Green Mountains Review since February 2022. I discovered the university’s name change/merger info when checking to see what was going on at the lit-mag. In other words, I was wondering about the lag, especially upon seeing their website’s last news item was from November 2022.

I’m not alone in wondering about Green Mountains Review, according to a recent Lit Mag News article “Who holds lit mags accountable?” by Becky Tuch. She asks useful questions about who is accountable for unresponsive or inactive lit-mags, especially when submission fees are involved, such as the $3 that Green Mountains Review had collected for each submission until recently.

In a follow-up Lit Mag News article, Tuch noted that Green Mountains Review has ceased publication. She links to the article, “‘Green Mountains Review’ Shuts Down Amid Vermont State University Budget Cuts.” And about those fees…

In today’s environment of increased university cuts, the tally of orphaned or abandoned lit-mags may continue to grow, reducing opportunities for writers, editors, designers, readers, and more.

Halloween Story Confections

October 31, 2023October 31, 2023 / melissaolsonpetrie / Leave a comment

Vintage: Mystic Tray from Haskelite Manufacturing of Chicago.

5 podcasts & online readings for going scarily into the night

It all started with “Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti, or rather podcaster Jacke Wilson’s reading and discussion of “Goblin Market” on his History of Literature Podcast. Although the episode was available months earlier, I didn’t get to it until last October, and it was perfect for Halloween.

As the autumn holidays approach, I’m looking for more Halloween podcast goodness — a healthier pastime than, say, a trip to the candy stash that’s supposed to be for the trick-or-treaters.

Here’s some of what I found (or returned to):

1. “Goblin Market”

Already mentioned… Episode 415 “Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti on the History of Literature podcast. Rossetti’s extended narrative poem follows “two sisters seduced by the fruits being sold by a pack of river goblins,” writes Wilson.

See the Poetry Foundation’s website for the full text of Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” from Goblin Market and other Poems, originally published in 1862.

2. “The Tell-Tale Heart”

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe – History of Literature’s episode 450. The classic dark tale benefits from Wilson’s discussion of Poe’s life and the story’s oh-so-telling details.

See the Poe Museum’s (Richmond, VA) website for full text of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” which was first published in 1843.

3. “Spooky Stuff! Halloween Romance”

“Spooky Stuff! Halloween Romance Interstitial” – For romance novel fans, this episode from the fifth season of the Fated Mates Podcast recommends “some of our favorite recent witches and demons and incubii and ghosts and vampires and others,” write hosts Sarah MacLean and Jen Prokop. The hosts also “try to get to the bottom of why paranormal romance and monster romance [don’t] feel like Halloween romance.” NOTE: Adult themes, NSFW, headphones recommended, etc.

4. Apex Magazine

Apex Magazine’s Episode 99 featuring “Over Moonlit Clouds” – For dark speculative fiction, including this lycanthropic/aviation/societal dilemma by Coda Audeguy-Pegon, check out Apex Magazine, which posts narrated versions of its stories regularly.

5. Ouija Board insights

Ouija Board: What We Ask of the Dead – For the nonfiction minded, this essay by Kaia Preus from Arizona State University’s Superstition Review offers some contemporary perspectives and history on Ouija Boards.

Return to these podcasts and publications for recent offerings about, say, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” “devils” in the romance genre, or just more of the “Strange. Surreal. Shocking. Beautiful.”

3 Resources to help writers get back on track: Motivation (lack thereof)

June 28, 2023 / melissaolsonpetrie / Leave a comment

Vintage postcard: Forest Drive, Near Observatory Tower, Peninsula State Park, Door County, Wisconsin.

For some reason, meeting writing goals and finishing projects seem more difficult these days.

What’s getting in the way of your writing?

Is it the specter of AI replacing you as a writer? Or fears that AI could copy, replicate, and surpass your writing, as has happened to some visual artists?
How about the publications (markets) you’ve been watching that closed to submissions while they figure out how to handle all the AI-generated stuff?
Is it the revelations about contests/lit mags/publishers that continue to accept submissions (and fees) but never publish anything or much of anything?
Have you received just one rejection too many?
Is it that life is getting back to normal, and suddenly there’s so much to do (besides writing) now that lockdowns are in the rearview?
Is it just summer?
Is it just me?

Setting writing goals, seeking inspiration, and addressing common frustrations seem to help. Or at least they sound good. Here are a few resources for writers:

1. 1000 Words of Summer

In her Poets & Writers Magazine article, “1000 Words of Summer: How an Accountability Project Opened Up My Writing Life,” Jami Attenberg discusses how a now-worldwide project started, “In 2018 my friend Anne Gisleson and I decided to write a thousand words a day, every day, for two weeks straight.” The #1000wordsofsummer project’s sixth year started on June 17, 2023, and Attenberg has been posting daily on her Craft Talk newsletter, as well as on Instagram and Twitter. Even if you’re starting this project late, there’s still time to read the newsletters and get a writerly boost.

2. Field Trips for Serendipity & Inspiration

Maybe you feel like you don’t have time to peruse a book or take a field trip, but maybe you’ll find information you need (a key, an inspiration) from an unexpected source. What book or artwork or object practically jumps out at you? Here are a few places that might coax creativity your way:

The recent releases shelf at your local library. What catches your eye? How might a source connect to your works in progress?
Museums, galleries, resale shops, flea markets, and more. Again, what are you drawn to? Ask yourself what the visuals, objects, and their histories could contribute to your writing. Maybe do some people watching too. For instance, I once saw a goateed woman haggling with a burly vendor over sewing notions at a swap meet.
Immersion in tastes, smells, and sounds. Indulge your senses at spice shops, confectionaries, farmer’s markets, ethnic restaurants, neighborhood sporting events, music recitals, and more. Sometimes just listening to buildings—the different sounds inside a high-rise and a hospital—can alert you to telling details for your writing.

3. Websites for Writers

Moderation (avoiding rabbit holes) is important, especially with websites, but sometimes hearing what other writers are saying is reassuring:

Writer Unboxed: This website “is dedicated to publishing empowering, positive, and provocative ideas about the craft and business of fiction… [T]he site now hosts more than 50 contributors, including bestselling and rising authors and industry professionals.”
Writer’s Digest’s 101 Best Websites for Writers: Past categories have included: Best Live Streams, Podcasts, and YouTube Channels for writers; Best Writing Advice Websites (including Writer Unboxed); and Best Genre/Niche Websites. The 2022 list came out in July, so the 2023 listings should be published soon.

In the end, doing something (anything short of a bonfire) with your writing is more productive than the alternative, right?

‘The themes of their writing scorned’

In Olsen’s chapter on the “Sense of Being Wrong Voiced,” I circled the quote, “There is a wide discrepancy in American culture between the life of women as conceived by men and the life of women as lived by women,” which Olsen attributes to historian Lillian Schissel, editor of Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey.

Back in the day, I don’t remember connecting Olsen’s points about women writers and women’s lives to the work I was doing with my MFA peers and professors, but I probably should have. Upon rereading Silences, some interactions came to mind, such as…

“Nothing happens.”

Although the statement is decades old, I remember who said it. I can still see him in the yellow light of the basement classroom at our Arizona university. Behind him, our instructor (who recommended Silences) seemed like an out-of-reach lifesaver as she chatted with another student critique group.

My peer had dismissed my fiction draft quickly and concisely because, according to him, “nothing happens.” As far as he was concerned, his critique of my story was complete. But we still had almost an hour to fill in our graduate long-form short story workshop. Finally, he asked, “If she wanted a drink, why didn’t she get on the casino bus with the rest of them?”

Why, indeed.

This peer’s question reminded me of a professor’s feedback on that same writing project: “An alcoholic would drink vodka, not whiskey.” His reasoning involved avoiding detection and costs, since I had specified a female character’s preference for Jack Daniels, her father’s favorite.

‘I speak of myself to bring here the sense of those others to whom this is in the process of happening (unnecessarily happening, for it need not, must not continue to be) and to remind us of those (I so nearly was one) who never come to writing at all.’ –Tillie Olsen, Silences

Apparently, I knew nothing about alcoholics — at least not their tropes of preferring cheap booze, acting out, and so on. But maybe it was just that I didn’t appreciate the clichés surrounding alcoholics? While “good” writers are supposed to avoid clichés in their sentences, shouldn’t they also avoid clichéd tropes in their characters?

I entered both critiques knowing my work-in-progress needed significant revision. The drafts focused on three generations of women and, by extension, the women’s circles of their church as they dealt with the alcoholism of one of their own. But to just dismiss the project as “nothing happens”? To “correct” details when the entire project was still in development?

Both interactions were frustrating. My peer’s underlying message: “Give it up.” The professor’s: “You don’t know what you’re writing about.” (I’m sure my professor offered more useful feedback, but his correction had the lasting impact.) I remember feeling that my work wasn’t being considered seriously. In rereading Silences, I realized (unfortunately) that I wasn’t alone.

‘One Out of Twelve’

“One Out of Twelve” is a rallying point in Silences. Olsen points out that in the literary canon, one in twelve (or less) are works by women writers. Same for publications, awards, anthologies, and more when Olsen’s book was published in 1978.

In the late 1990s, the literary landscape looked a bit better, based on my MFA comprehensive fiction reading list. The readings included 37 women authors among 113 fiction works listed or an improved ratio of about one out of three.

Today, the gatekeepers for publications, awards, and reviews could still do better. Voices silenced — women’s voices, LGBTQ+ voices, POC voices, differently abled voices, etc. — can mean missed understandings and lost connections.

The conversation about the challenges facing women writers continues. If you’re interested in reading more, check out:

Novelist Meg Wolitzer’s New York Times article — “The Second Shelf: From covers to marketing to awards, why do novels by women get different treatment than books by male authors? In 2012, Meg Wolitzer took on the elephant in the library” — was republished on Oct. 21, 2021, and is available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/books/meg-wolitzer-second-shelf.html (Note: The New York Times usually offers a few free article views a month.)
Novelist and essayist Jennifer Weiner blogs about the New York Times poor track record of reviewing fiction by women at: http://jenniferweiner.blogspot.com/2010/09/back-in-august-when-jodi-picoult.html The blog post dates back to Sept. 21, 2010, but has the representation of women authors among Times (and other) reviews changed much?

Why writers should read ‘A Swim in a Pond in the Rain’ — Let George Saunders help you see more in the fiction you read and write

February 16, 2023 / melissaolsonpetrie / Leave a comment

Vintage postcard: Lake Park and harbor view from lighthouse, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Reducing the churn in literary magazine submissions: Aligning writers’ work to editors’ missions

November 22, 2022 / melissaolsonpetrie / Leave a comment

Vintage postcard: Aquarium, Belle Isle, Detroit, Michigan.

The literary magazine universe doesn’t need to be this way:

Editors frustrated by an avalanche of manuscripts that are wildly inappropriate for their publication’s audience, mission, or market. Mismatched texts clog their submission portals, consume their time, and leave them so cranky that when they actually find a promising text, they may be too tired or frustrated to acknowledge it.
Writers clueless as to why they’re being rejected again, and again, and again. The whole submission process begins to feel like throwing darts at balloons in some literary carnival game. Merely a word or three of feedback from an exhausted editor feels like a win.
Readers struggling to understand what makes one literary magazine different from another. For example: Which literary magazine is sure to offer eco-fiction and eco-poetry? Which magazine tends to provide eye-opening perspectives from X community?

These types of misalignments aren’t unique to the publishing world. In teaching, an instructor may fail to communicate how course learning outcomes align with class activities. Think back to times when you were unpleasantly surprised about what was on a test. In business, an inept manager may harp on minutia (such as using envelopes that cost 8 cents vs. 9 cents apiece) while rewarding only mission-related work with year-end raises.

Both teachers and managers, should look at themselves first when they don’t receive what they want in terms of performance. The same can be said for lit mags and their editors.

What is a lit mag (short for literary magazine)?

Wikipedia offers the following, “A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters. Literary magazines are often called literary journals, or little magazines, terms intended to contrast them with larger, commercial magazines.”

Wikipedia includes a brief history of literary magazines, as well as a link to a “List of literary magazines.” Also see writer Clifford Garstang’s helpful 2022 Literary Magazine Ranking, a yearly compilation he bases on Pushcart Prize results.

Communication can be the key to reducing the churn in literary magazine submissions. Unfortunately, mission statements and “About Us” webpages are often vague, such as “We want to publish the best fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction available.” What does “best” mean? Each staff member may approach or define “best” differently.

Subgenre overload

Market listings for literary magazines — whether in Submittable, Duotrope, annual Writer’s Market books, or elsewhere — often push editors to offer more specifics about what they want to publish. This can be useful. However, such listings may also exacerbate miscommunication, especially in regard to subgenres. How much do you know about a lit mag that says it publishes a laundry list of subgenres?

For example, the Poets & Writers literary magazine database lists 38 potential subgenres, and recently a reputable Midwestern literary magazine designated 32 of them and excluded only six:

Autobiography/memoir
BIPOC voices
~~Commercial fiction~~
Creative nonfiction
Cross-genre
Erotica
Experimental
Feminist
Fiction
Flash fiction
Formal poetry
Graphic/illustrated
Graphic/health
Historical
Humor
~~Journalism/investigative reporting~~
LGBTQ voices
Literary fiction
~~Love~~
Lyric essay
Micro-poetry
Narrative nonfiction
Nature/environmental
Nonfiction
Poetry
Political
Pop culture
Prose poetry
Regional
~~Religious/spiritual~~
Serialized fiction
Short fiction
Speculative fiction
~~Speculative poetry~~
Translation
Visual poetry
War
~~Young adult~~

How much does a list of 32 subgenres tell writers, readers, or even staff members about a lit mag? From the editorial side, the rationale may be to keep options (or subgenres) open. But writers have likely responded with a raft of everything-goes submissions.

On the plus side, broad mission statements or subgenre lists offer flexibility for a magazine’s management, especially for college and university publications that change editors yearly. However, the outside view of vague descriptions or jargony missions is that the publication’s editorial targets are constantly shifting.

An unfortunate result is that the common advice to read a magazine to familiarize yourself with what it publishes often doesn’t work with the broad missions and shifting staffs of some publications. For example, one year a lit mag editor may include mermaid and ghost stories, but editors in previous and following years may reject such stories at the first hint of merpeople or specters.

Theme issues

Theme issues or special sections may be useful for editors, writers, and readers facing unclear or outdated mission statements.

Some publications, such as Fairy Tale Review, set a theme for each issue. Other magazines, such as Creative Nonfiction, intersperse theme and “regular” issues. When editors communicate their themes they often offer more information and details that help writers align and target their submissions.

A couple examples of upcoming theme issues (and their deadlines) include:

Creative Nonfiction. Theme: “Caring for the Heart.” Deadline 1/23/2023. “For an upcoming issue, Creative Nonfiction is seeking new narratives about caring for the heart — medically, technologically, or metaphorically. We’re looking for stories from healthcare workers and researchers; counselors and cardiologists and coaches; nurses and nutritionists … or any red-blooded writer with a heart.” See Creative Nonfiction’s website to continue reading the submission call.
Fiction International. Theme: “Refugee.” Deadline: 2/16/2023. “Fiction, non-fiction, and indeterminate prose texts of up to 5,500 words that address the theme of ‘Refugee’ are welcome. We will consider submissions of narrative, anti-narrative and indeterminate texts but only accept submissions reflecting the theme.…” See Fiction International’s Submittable listing for more information, as well as a link to the magazine’s catalog, which might offer insights into “indeterminate texts.”

Creative writing: Adaptations can update, critique, distill fiction

August 12, 2022 / melissaolsonpetrie / Leave a comment

Vintage postcard: Curry’s Lebec Lodge on the Ridge Route between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, California.

The best adaptations add to the literature & expand the conversation

Adaptation is a long-standing aspect of creative writing. The first adaptations I remember were cinematic — a couple 200-year-old novels re-imagined for the present day:

The movie Clueless adapts Jane Austen’s 1815 novel Emma for 1990s Beverly Hills where matchmaking perils become a story of surviving high school and finding love.
The movie/novel Bridget Jones’s Diary adapts Austen’s 1813 Pride and Prejudice for London in the early 2000s. The crux is Bridget/Elizabeth discerning the character and motives of potential suitors. Does the name Mr. Darcy ring a bell?

The number and array of adaptations of Shakespeare are legion. For example, Jane Smiley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Thousand Acres adapts King Lear and his three daughters for Iowa farm struggles. David Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle adapts Hamlet’s tragic brother-killing uncle for a family of dog breeders in rural Wisconsin.

Shakespeare himself was an adapter and borrower. For example, All’s Well That Ends Well traces back to Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron in a more troubling manner than most. Some have said this Shakespeare play is “a direct lift.” In today’s world, would Shakespeare be accused of plagiarizing or passing off a translated work as his own?

Beyond the word adaptation is a range of approaches — including homage, hauntings, satire, critique, retelling (slantwise or not), and re-imagining — that Margot Livesey explores within her book The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing. In the chapter, “Neither a Borrower Nor a Lender Be: Paying Homage,” she explores the gradations of borrowing from predecessors in literature, as well as art.

The adaptation process can approach writing as a series of conversations, instead of a solitary act of creation. “That is, we write in response to what we have read, and expect others to read what we have written and to write in response to us.” This quote, which came from a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee first-year writing program common syllabus, applies to a range of writing from adaptation to refutation. The notion of critical conversations is especially important given today’s changing reading patterns, namely more skimming and less deep reading.

The idea of a conversation acknowledges that novels, plays, and other creative works, no matter how highly esteemed, have weaknesses and strengths. Adaptations may update (for example, by revising uninformed mental health portrayals from past centuries), critique (for example, by addressing the lack of gender or racial diversity), or otherwise distill elements of the original.

Adaptations may:

Update (for example, by revising uninformed mental health portrayals from past centuries)
Critique (for example, by addressing the lack of gender or racial diversity)
Distill elements of the original

However, adaptations/responses/critiques should go beyond copying, plagiarizing, or copyright infringement. A worthy adaptation is “very much its own work of art, one that can be appreciated by readers with no inkling of its ancestor,” writes Livesey. The adaptation needs to add to the conversation, not just repeat it.

Writing prompt

Think about the books, plays, poems, or other works that have stuck with you. Maybe you’ve found yourself re-reading one or two of them. If so, ask yourself why. Why was this work so significant to you? Do you have something to say in response to the plot, main character, voice, subject, or a mix of those and other elements? Maybe you want to explore what made the original so compelling – how did it work? Or, consider the adaptations that you’ve admired. Is there something you want to add to the conversation through your own writing?

Reading recommendation

Outside of my classes or reading/writing groups, I try to include books on the craft of writing in my daily reading. Books such as Margot Livesey’s The Hidden Machinery offer reminders and ideas that enrich my works in progress. Even by reading ten pages a day, a craft book a month is useful in terms of continuous improvement as a writer.

Revision: Use the Read Aloud tool in Word to hear (and fix) glitches in your writing

April 27, 2022 / melissaolsonpetrie / Leave a comment

Vintage postcard: Highway from Torrey Pines, on the Coast Route between Los Angeles and San Diego.

One of the following sentences includes a misused word:

A. “I defiantly think that word should be changed.”
B. “I definitely think that word should be changed.”

Although B is preferred here, my students often type “defiantly” when they mean definitely. Neither spellcheck nor the grammar checker flags “defiantly” in this context. Nonetheless, imprecise and awkward word choices can be an issue in college essays, and in business and professional writing the stakes are higher.

Checking dictionary definitions can help pinpoint misused words, but another tactic is hearing your text read aloud.

Microsoft Word has tools for that

The “Read Aloud” tool in Microsoft Word helps you listen to your drafts. Hearing your words can help you identify (and fix) word-choice glitches, subject-verb agreement errors, misspellings, and more. Hearing the word “defiantly” when you meant “definitely” can spotlight a needed revision.

You’ll find “Read Aloud” on the Review screen’s toolbar in Word 2019, Word 2021, and Microsoft 365. You can customize this tool to read faster or slower, pause, skip forward or back a paragraph, and more. For more information, see the Microsoft support page, “Listen to your Word documents.”

If you’re using an older version of Word, you can still get the program to read your text to you. Add the Speak feature to your Word screen by following the five steps detailed by Microsoft at “Use the Speak text-to-speech feature to read text aloud.”

Pro tip: Find a fresh approach

Reading aloud, whether you read to yourself or use tech tools to read to you, is a strategy that professional writers use. I’ve seen reporters in newsrooms whispering their stories to themselves just before deadline. I’ve experienced the deep revision that comes from preparing to record a story for a website.

With text on screens, it can be easy to insert words and adjust sentences as you read. You keep adding the missing words or fixing the awkward sentences in your mind. However, the actual words in your file may say something different. Approaching your text fresh, so that you don’t rely on what should be there versus what is actually there, can help you avoid embarrassing mistakes.

Time can be a great resource for approaching a text fresh. In other words, put away your project for a week or more and then come back to it minus your assumptions. However, time can be a luxury that isn’t available when a due date or deadline is looming.

Whether you’re on deadline or not, hearing your words aloud can give you a fresh perspective that reading on screen over and over can’t.

Multilingual writers

Hearing a text can also be helpful for writers who are working in a second language. In my college writing classes, I’ve had students who are working in English when it’s their second or third language. I can point to a paragraph containing, for example, subject-verb agreement problems. When I ask them to read the paragraph aloud, they often fix the verb tense issues as they speak. They are often surprised when I point out the error in the text—the error they fixed when they read aloud.

For English speakers who are working in other languages, the Read Aloud tool can also be useful. The tool can be set to read in an array of languages.

Bookshelf: 3 how-to books on novel writing to keep your project moving

March 16, 2022 / melissaolsonpetrie / Leave a comment

Vintage postcard: Moonlight on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, “America’s Super Highway.”

Working in tandem with a how-to book on the craft of novel writing can keep you connected to the big picture of your project. Writing creatively and critically at the same time can inch your novel project closer and closer to a satisfactory conclusion. Yay, a book!

Companion craft books (how-to books) can be lifesavers. They can keep you from drowning in detail or drifting wildly off course.

For example, sometimes you’re driven to figure “it” out. “It” may be big or small—from fixing the whole plot (big) to researching a telling character or setting detail (small). Depending on your tolerance for uncertainty, skipping a day (or more) of writing could become easy. Too easy. Weeks or months may pass since you’ve worked on your so-called passion project because you can’t figure “it” out.

Another example is that you may approach a novel project by writing and writing and writing. You think (hope) that one day your hefty word count will make great-American sense. However, you can end up with a hundred-thousand sprawling words that don’t fit well into current publishing models, unless you’re Diana Gabaldon or Thomas Pynchon.

Whether you’re just getting started or you’ve encountered one of those days when you don’t know what to do, how-to books on the craft of novel writing can keep your project moving forward. Nonetheless, while the following books, workbooks, and videos are great resources, the key is you. You need to keep working, keep trying.

Here are three how-to books on novel writing I recommend:

Story Genius by Lisa Cron

Story Genius by Lisa Cron. This 2016 book’s subtitle and sub-subtitle explain Cron’s approach, “How to use brain science to go beyond outlining and write a riveting novel* [*Before you waste three years writing 327 pages that go nowhere].”

Story Genius chapters on novel-craft include “What To Do” tasks that prompt you to examine the parameters of your current project. The tasks help writers avoid common glitches, such as neglecting to identify a main character or forgetting why your protagonist wants what s/he wants.

“The reason that the vast majority of manuscripts are rejected—either by publishers or by readers—is because they do not have a third rail,” writes Cron. “Story is about an internal struggle, not an external one… [T]he internal problem predates the events in the plot, often by decades.”

Also check out: Curious to learn more about the “brain science” aspect of storytelling from the subtitle? Check out Lisa Cron’s 2014 TEDx Talk “Wired for Story” or her previous book by the same name, Wired for Story.

Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody

Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book on Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need by Jessica Brody. Brody adapts lessons originally intended for screenwriters to the needs of novelists. To make a story worth telling, Brody says you need “plot, structure, and character transformation. Or what I like to call the ‘Holy Trinity of Story.’”

The book provides exercises, checklists, and examples of how novels (and later movies), such as The Help, The Kite Runner, and Bridget Jones’s Diary, follow the 15-beat structure at the center of Blake Snyder’s 2005 screenplay-writing book Save the Cat! Brody adapts Snyder’s beat sheets, four-act structure, A- and B-stories, and more to the needs of novelists.

Brody includes manuscript percentages to help novelists know “What Goes Where.” For example, the “All Is Lost” beat should occur at about 75 percent of the manuscript with the “Dark Night of the Soul” following at 75-80 percent. Whether you’re writing novels for schoolchildren or adults, genre manuscript lengths can range from 160 manuscript pages to almost 600 pages. That’s why Brody’s percentages are useful across genres.

Also check out: If you have access to LinkedIn Learning, check out Brody’s course, “Write a Bestselling Novel in 15 Steps.” By using the Save the Cat! Writes a Novel book along with the online LinkedIn course you can speed up or slow down, as needed, to run your novel project through the “Save the Cat” method.

Writing the Breakout Novel & Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass

Writing the Breakout Novel’s subtitle, “Insider advice for taking your fiction to the next level,” refers to the author’s background as the president of Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York and the broker of publishing deals with “six- or seven-figure advances.”

Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, published three years later in 2004, offers “hands-on help for making your novel stand out and succeed.” By going beyond reading and notetaking with Maass’s “breakout” book, the workbook satisfies the need to dive into planning and drafting. Both the book and the workbook offer eye-opening information that can shake you out of the leisurely sail that you think might be a novel. Following the workbook lessons helps you to write smarter and stronger to create a more marketable novel.