HOW WE WRITE HOW WE WRITE THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT A BLANK PAGE EDITED BY SUZANNE CONKLIN AKBARI A publication of the DEAD LETTER OFFICE via5 punctum books brook&yn, n.y. HOW WE WRITE © 2015 Suzanne Conklin Akbari http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Tis work carries a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 International license, which means that you are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and you may also remix, transform and build upon the material, as long as you clearly attribute the work to the authors (but not in a way that suggests the authors or punctum endorses you and your work), you do not use this work for commercial gain in any form whatsoever, and that for any remixing and transformation, you distribute your rebuild under the same license. First published in 2015 by Dead Letter Ofce, BABEL Working Group an imprint of punctum books Brooklyn, New York http://punctumbooks.com http://babelworkinggroup.org Te BABEL Working Group is a collective and desiring- assemblage of scholar-gypsies with no leaders or followers, no top and no bottom, and only a middle. BABEL roams and stalks the ruins of the post-historical university as a multiplicity, a pack, looking for other roaming packs and multiplicities with which to cohabit and build temporary shelters for intellectual vagabonds. We also take in strays. ISBN-13: 978-0692519332 ISBN-10: 0692519335 Cover art: Detail of Wabi Sabi Agnes Martin, Yvonne Wiegers (yvonnewiegers.ca). Facing-page drawing: Heather Masciandaro. Book design: Chris Piuma. 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Hieronymus Bosch, Ship of Fools (1490-1500) Table of Contents xiii Suzanne Conklin Akbari Introduction: Written Chatter and the Writer’s Voice xxv About the Images xxvii Who We Are 1 Michael Collins Wilderness Group Tour 9 Suzanne Conklin Akbari How I Write (I) 19 Alexandra Gillespie How I Write (II) 25 Alice Hutton Sharp Te Community You Have, Te Community You Need: On Accountability Groups 35 Asa Simon Mittman Tis Would Be Better If I Had A Co-Author 45 Jefrey Jerome Cohen On the Necessity of Ignoring Tose Who Ofer Temselves as Examples 59 Maura Nolan How I Write (III) 73 Richard H. Godden Errant Practices 83 Bruce Holsinger Cushion, Kernel, Craft 95 Stuart Elden Writing By Accumulation 107 Derek Gregory Travelling Trough Words 119 Steve Mentz Wet Work: Writing as Encounter 131 Daniel T. Kline Writing (Life): Ten Lessons Introduction Written Chatter and the Writer’s Voice Among twenty snowy mountains, Te only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird. —Wallace Stevens, “Tirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” When we write, we write alone. Being alone means control, productive solitude, introspective bliss; it also means loneliness, isolation, even fear. Our writing environments have, however, become intensely social through the emergence of a range of online platforms, including websites and blogs but also including more casual and short-form media, such as Facebook and Twitter. Te much lamented decline in the circulation of hand-written letters has given way to ubiquitous written “chatter,” which simultaneously nourishes the lonely writer and threatens to distract her from her “real” writing. Tis little book emerges from that world of written chatter. Following a roundtable discussion on dissertation-writing, organized by me and hosted by the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto, one of the participants—Michael Collins—wrote a wonderful blog post that arose from the roundtable but moved beyond its scope to address the conditions of writing more generally, including not only the emotional and intellectual demands posed by the task but the real, material image: On the deck of the schooner Hindu, xiii Provincetown Harbor, July 2015. HOW WE WRITE I NTRODUCTION conditions of academic writing in graduate school.¹ Michael’s heard from a number of people that such a collection might be thoughtful engagement with his own experience of writing— useful—not in describing how to write, but how we actually posted and reposted on a number of Facebook pages—led to do write. an outpouring of personal accounts of the dissertation-writing Based on input from friends, colleagues, and students, I years, both from those currently in the trenches and those for decided that what would be most useful would be a very short whom those years are very much in the rear-view mirror. What volume, with about a dozen contributors each providing an emerged was a clear sense of the diversity of writing practices essay of 2000–3000 words. Wondering what sort of range that are out there: there’s no single “right” way to write, and of contributors to include, I asked grad students and recent exposure to that range of practices might help those who are graduates, who said that what they found particularly useful in the process of mastering academic writing to feel more con- were accounts by more experienced writers—not exactly the fdent in their own abilities, most of all by demonstrating that same as senior scholars, as this could also include those with such “mastery” is an ongoing—potentially limitless—efort. ample writing experience before the PhD, or who concurrently Like the thirteen verses of Wallace Stevens’ poem, which write in other modes. Accordingly, the contributors range from gives this book its subtitle and epigraph, what follows is thir- graduate students and recent PhDs to senior scholars, working teen individual yet related parts that make up a single whole. in the felds of medieval studies, art history, English literature, Each essay refracts its writer’s experience, generating a spec- poetics, early modern studies, musicology, and geography. All trum of perspectives where much common ground appears— are engaged in academic writing, but some of the contributors and much variety. Tis is how it came into being: in response also publish in other genres, including poetry and fction. Sev- to Michael Collins’s blog post and the ensuing written chatter eral contributors maintain a very active online presence, includ- (especially on Facebook), Alexandra Gillespie and I wrote a ing blogs and websites; all are committed to strengthening the joint post, generously hosted by Jefrey Cohen and his collab- bonds of community, both in person and online, which helps to orators at the In the Middle blog, titled “How Do We Write? explain the efervescent sense of collegiality that pervades the Dysfunctional Academic Writing.”² I was fascinated by the volume, creating linkages across essays and extending outward way that this conversation seemed to strike a nerve for many into the wide world of writers and readers. readers, both across the blogs and on Facebook, and therefore Te dissertation-writing roundtable I mentioned took place decided to try to fnd a way to gather some of this material on 25 May 2015; Michael’s blog post appeared on 26 May, and to make it more readily available. I began to ask colleagues the joint blog post by Alex and me appeared on 30 May; another whether they might be willing to contribute some thoughts participant in the roundtable, Alice Hutton Sharp, also wrote up on their own writing process for a very short volume, having her refections, published on her blog on 5 June.³ As I write this, 1 http://nfdtxt.com/2015/05/26/wilderness-group-tour-phd-dissertations- and-writingsupportaccountablity-groups/ 3 https://theaccidentalphilologist.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/ 2 http://www.inthemedievalmiddle.com/2015/05/how-do-we-write- the-community-you-have-the-community-you-need-building- dysfunctional-academic.html an-online-accountability-group/ xiv xv HOW WE WRITE I NTRODUCTION reading over the essays submitted by the contributors—some Spurred on by this comment, I asked Michael if we could use his still in draft form, some appearing in draft as blog posts over the “pebble”—that is, his blog post—as the frst essay in the group, last few weeks—it is mid-July. In other words, this book is the followed by me and Alex, and then others in roughly the order product of conversation, is itself part of a conversation, emerging that they participated in the conversation, starting with Alice from a rapidly proliferating series of short-form writing on the Hutton Sharp’s blog post, which also emerged from the 25 May topic of how we write. One commentary generated another, each roundtable. Te Table of Contents, accordingly, demarcates the one characterized by enormous speed, eloquence, and emotional ripples in the pond that arose from the pebble of Michael’s blog forthrightness. Tis collection is not about how to write, but how post: contributors were invited because they had commented we write: unlike a prescriptive manual that promises to unlock on one of the posts, or because they had reposted a link with the secret to efcient productivity, the contributors talk about additional comments, or simply because the conversation had led their own writing processes, in all their messy, frustrated, exuber- to their virtual door. ant, and awkward glory.