Writing the essay for Invictus Writer Laura Rose Allen as we publish her essay Ugly Little Monster has proven to be more difficult than I thought. Laura, for me, was an enigma. At some point as a teacher, you realize it’s impossible to predict the trajectory of each individual student relationship. Sometimes it’s very...
Now that Kyle’s collegiate career is near its end, I’m going to give him the Dr. Cox-like hug that my J.D. has so wanted. I will do this on the very special occasion of the completion of his Invitus Writers essay, The City That Stopped The Cynic, a travelogue that traces his trip to...
Now that David has finished his essay, Waystation, for the book, I thought it time to share my first impressions of him with the rest of you. This seems fair to me since all my students love to tell their story about their first impressions of The Mean Professor King. David was part of my...
We are slowly assembling the components of this book, but we’re inching ever closer. Today we’d like to present to you the Introduction, which was written by David C. Ake. He’s the unofficial ringleader of the student group, and in this piece, he’ll explain what this project means to the students and he’ll introduce...
Almost every Friday this semester I’ve brought my laptop, ear buds, and a pad of paper to The MT Cup (clever name right?), a little coffee shop in The Village. The Village is a run-down social hub for Ball State students. There’s a few bars here where students can get cheap, watered-down beer and...
2 a.m. and I am staring wide-eyed at the computer screen. A piece of notebook paper sits next to it, with the words “Act Structure” scribbled across the top of the page. I stare from the computer screen, to the piece of paper, back to the computer screen. Hopelessness is the only term I...
“Your grammar is atrocious. I’m beginning to suspect that you don’t know what you’re doing. Maybe you do, but I suspect that you don’t.” Those were some of the first words I had ever received from my Intro to Magazine instructor, Brad King. It was first attempt at writing a magazine article one that...
David Ake, the main student editor on this project, wrote the introduction for our project. He begins with a quote from my first lecture in Introduction to Magazine Writing, the class where several of the group got their start. "Many of you have gone through your whole life having people tell you that you...
I’ll have more to say on this particular matter once we finish, but for now let me simply say this: we write because we are writers. We tell stories because we are storytellers. We would do these things whether we had an audience or not. But it’s nice to have an audience.
No matter how self-deprecating a writer gets, they always – always – want to hear those words uttered by casual friends. Not close friends and family, mind you. Those don’t count. We throw those compliments aside because they are given out of love. They are not earned out of shock and awe. As writers,...
Recent Comments