To drive a standard is to be in tune with one’s automobile. It’s to recognize when it’s time to shift, up or down. It’s to know when to put the vehicle in neutral or when to stay in motion, fluctuating between the brake and gas pedals.
writing
Why I Studied Poetry
I could name a number of reasons for why I chose to study poetry in graduate school. I could say I was lost, and it would be true. I didn’t know what to do after some job opportunities closed during my final semester as an undergraduate. Where was I to go? What work was I to do? Such questions haunted me. They found some alleviation in the suggestion from my college mentor: apply for graduate school.
Revisited: Why I Write
I am a worrier. I worry about real things, such as bills and projects and deadlines and health. I worry whether I come across as self-centered or self-pitying. I worry that I am those things. I worry about how not to be those things. I worry a lot.
Of Writers and Coffeeshops: The Sequel
When I first published “Of Writers and Coffeeshops” in 2011, I was amazed by the response. Several readers commented and shared whether they could or couldn’t work in coffeeshops. Unfortunately, those comments have been lost. They didn’t survive the move from one site to another. I’m not sure it matters too much; the readers and I were defeated by one Amber Avines. Her first job after graduating college was as a television reporter. She can write anywhere and under any circumstance. A lack of caffeine or a crowded coffeeshop won’t and doesn’t faze her.
Of Writers and Coffee Shops
I’ve always struggled to write while sitting in a coffee shop. I’ve tried, but I rarely write anything of quality while in one. I’m distracted by the conversations I overhear. I find myself watching how people interact with each other or developing a curiosity about the work they’re doing.
Editors Can’t Be Writers
A notion exists that editors can’t be writers. Why, though, can’t editors be writers? Some people try to explain the impossibility by stating that editing other people’s work all day results in a weariness that precludes the writer from writing. It’s a valid point, but it’s worth pondering whether a person who writes professional copy or repairs automobiles all day can go home and write poetry or fiction. Can that person? Usually, people say yes. Why, then, can’t the same be said of editors?