Writing Between the Lines
2-Day Workshop on Academic/Professional Writing
(A more comprehensive, 3-day version of this workshop is also possible)

Neither can his mind be in tune, whose words do jarre, nor his reason in frame, whose sentence is preposterous.
                                                                                                                                            --Ben Jonson

The conventional wisdom is that writing reflects thinking. I am drawn to a different position: Writing is thinking--or, stated more cautiously, writing is a form of thinking. . . . Writers who indulge themselves by waiting until their thoughts are "clear" run the risk of never starting at all. . . . Writing is a great way to discover what we are thinking, as well as to discover gaps in our thinking. Unfortunately, that means we must be prepared to catch ourselves red-handed when we seem not to be thinking at all. . . . When the writing is not going well, we probably have nothing (yet) to say; most certainly we are not yet able to say it.
                                                                                                                                       --Harry Wolcott

I have never yet written anything, long or short, that did not surprise me. That is, for me at least, the greatest worth of writing, which is only incidentally a way of telling others what you think. Its first use is for the making of what you think, for the discovery of understanding, an act that happens only in language.
                                                                                                                                      --Richard Mitchell

When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miner's pick, a wood-carver's gouge, a surgeon's probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory. Is it a dead end, or have you located the real subject? You will know tomorrow, or this time next year.
                                                                                                                                           --Annie Dillard

I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten�happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.
                                                                                                                                        --Brenda Ueland

I have days that are complete losses. It's awful. I just sit and stare at the screen and nothing happens; hours go by and I write down a line and delete it, then write down another line and save it to delete tomorrow. And that's it. That was the writing day. I have known writers over the years, enormously talented, who are so self-conscious about it, who are so terrified of ever writing a bad sentence, that they can't write anything at all. I think a certain fearlessness in the face of your own ineptitude is a useful tool.
                                                                                                                               --Michael Cunningham

Let's get the bad news out of the way up front: This is a two-day workshop. No one, including you, can learn to write in 48 hours.

Now for the good news: You already know more than you think you do. So with some preparation before we start and focused concentration while we're together, you can learn a lot about how to learn to write.

For you to learn what you want to learn, I suggest you assume a "beginner's mind" and practice writing with patience and concentrated curiosity. Improvement in your composition skills will vary directly with the amount of wise effort you expend. You can't learn how to write simply by memorizing rules for clear composition. You can learn by finding a way for your writing to embody the rules. However, this will only happen when you actually sit down and practice--by playing, experimenting, working, reworking, and then reworking again and again and again. When you start composing with an attention to the sorts of ideas we will be discussing in the workshop and a devotion to thinking on paper (or a computer screen), your writing (and, perhaps, you, too) will change. The pleasure you will derive from your writing will almost always be hard won and well deserved.

We'll be whirl-winding our way through many topics, so come to the workshop prepared to zip and zoom alongside me.

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For further information, email or phone Dr. Flemons.
Email: douglas@contextconsultants.com
Phone: 954-296-8944