Writing and Reccing and RL'ing
Aug. 29th, 2010 09:51 pmWeekend Update. . .
We had a lovely weekend of warm, dry weather. I spent part of it reading three dozen essays from my first-year writing classes. The course is called English 101, but it really should be called "Following Directions 101" -- judging from many students' performance, it appears that we need a college-level course in this area. (Lesson #1 -- "Use a flat, two-pocket folder" does not mean "punch holes in your paper and put it into a large three-ring notebook." Lesson #2 -- the phrase "please double-space and use 12-point font" does not mean "oh, go ahead and single-space and use 8-point font if you feel like it.") Overall, the papers fell into the usual bell curve: there were several strong ones, several illiterate ones, and a vast mass of the ordinary/acceptable/mediocre.
On Saturday, I went to the local farmers' market and bought fresh tomatoes, goat cheese, basil, and french bread, from which two days' worth of delicious sandwiches were had.
I wrote 1400 words of Minerva_Fest fic -- and then junked them. If your story is on the road to nowhere, and you continue its journey, guess where you'll end up? So I stopped, turned around, and started over. I think (hope) I'm on the road to somewhere now, with 250 words written on the new trip.
Finally, I'd like to direct your attention to two superb stories from the pen of the incomparable![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
atdelphi, who is my invariable answer to the question, "Which fanfic author do you most wish you could write like?" She's given us the following pieces of perfection:
Faithless Ganymede (Snape/Dumbledore), a meditation on love, hate, sex, the body, the mind, the spirit, god, faith, and power. In 540 words. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sophia_gratia, this one's for you.)
and
A Short, Smart Smack (Filch, Apollyon Pringle, OC), which is probably the most moving depiction of Argus Filch I've ever read. (Pringle was the caretaker who preceded Filch; he was at Hogwarts when Arthur and Molly were students).
We had a lovely weekend of warm, dry weather. I spent part of it reading three dozen essays from my first-year writing classes. The course is called English 101, but it really should be called "Following Directions 101" -- judging from many students' performance, it appears that we need a college-level course in this area. (Lesson #1 -- "Use a flat, two-pocket folder" does not mean "punch holes in your paper and put it into a large three-ring notebook." Lesson #2 -- the phrase "please double-space and use 12-point font" does not mean "oh, go ahead and single-space and use 8-point font if you feel like it.") Overall, the papers fell into the usual bell curve: there were several strong ones, several illiterate ones, and a vast mass of the ordinary/acceptable/mediocre.
On Saturday, I went to the local farmers' market and bought fresh tomatoes, goat cheese, basil, and french bread, from which two days' worth of delicious sandwiches were had.
I wrote 1400 words of Minerva_Fest fic -- and then junked them. If your story is on the road to nowhere, and you continue its journey, guess where you'll end up? So I stopped, turned around, and started over. I think (hope) I'm on the road to somewhere now, with 250 words written on the new trip.
Finally, I'd like to direct your attention to two superb stories from the pen of the incomparable
atdelphi, who is my invariable answer to the question, "Which fanfic author do you most wish you could write like?" She's given us the following pieces of perfection:Faithless Ganymede (Snape/Dumbledore), a meditation on love, hate, sex, the body, the mind, the spirit, god, faith, and power. In 540 words. (
sophia_gratia, this one's for you.)and
A Short, Smart Smack (Filch, Apollyon Pringle, OC), which is probably the most moving depiction of Argus Filch I've ever read. (Pringle was the caretaker who preceded Filch; he was at Hogwarts when Arthur and Molly were students).