Writing Journal
As a way to explore your writing experience you are going to create a writing journal that you will bring to class and refer to whenever we’re discussing each class members’ progress that past week. No one but you will read it, so feel free to express whatever you need in it.
The journal can take any form you wish: a physical journal where you write (and draw) by hand, a word document, a Google doc, a private blog. You can switch during the semester if you find that you’d like to try a different medium for your journal.
In your writing journal you will do the following:
1. Log the hours you have written each week and provide a summary of how each writing session went. How much detail you go into is up to you. You could simply say “three good pages” or “lacked focus.” You could also go into depth about the experience and what you discovered about your writing practice or about the piece you’re currently working on. It’s up to you, but make sure to come to class with a record, however long or short, of how your writing sessions unfolded in the past week.
2. Jot down ideas for current or future projects. These ideas can take the form of arguments you think you want to make, sources you think you should read, connections between sources you have read and the topics you want to explore, possible titles, possible places where you’d like to publish certain pieces, and so on. Don’t trust that next week you will have access to the ideas you had today unless you write them down.
3. You can also use this journal to write about your feelings regarding your writing practice or feedback you’ve received about your work in class or elsewhere. From deep frustrations to the high you get from an exquisite writing session, feel free to explore those emotions in your journal if you find it useful to your practice and to your health and happiness as a human being.
Assignment Delivery
You will not physically deliver your writing journal, but you will refer to it during each class session, so please have it with you every time we meet.
The journal can take any form you wish: a physical journal where you write (and draw) by hand, a word document, a Google doc, a private blog. You can switch during the semester if you find that you’d like to try a different medium for your journal.
In your writing journal you will do the following:
1. Log the hours you have written each week and provide a summary of how each writing session went. How much detail you go into is up to you. You could simply say “three good pages” or “lacked focus.” You could also go into depth about the experience and what you discovered about your writing practice or about the piece you’re currently working on. It’s up to you, but make sure to come to class with a record, however long or short, of how your writing sessions unfolded in the past week.
2. Jot down ideas for current or future projects. These ideas can take the form of arguments you think you want to make, sources you think you should read, connections between sources you have read and the topics you want to explore, possible titles, possible places where you’d like to publish certain pieces, and so on. Don’t trust that next week you will have access to the ideas you had today unless you write them down.
3. You can also use this journal to write about your feelings regarding your writing practice or feedback you’ve received about your work in class or elsewhere. From deep frustrations to the high you get from an exquisite writing session, feel free to explore those emotions in your journal if you find it useful to your practice and to your health and happiness as a human being.
Assignment Delivery
You will not physically deliver your writing journal, but you will refer to it during each class session, so please have it with you every time we meet.