Austin Woerner's Memory Palace
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WOC190 Spring 2023 Session 3

Day 14

Wed. Mar. 1

  • Reflect on postcards-turned-poems

  • How to keep writing without deadlines?

  • Share “I Remembers” (if time)

Homework

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WOC190 - Final project
WOC190 - Final project

Due at midnight (11:59pm) on Sunday May 14 (China time)

Choose one of your three essays—the one you’re proudest of, or most interested in improving—and revise it into a complete, polished work that you could imagine being published in the Literary Atlas of DKU, or elsewhere.

➤ Finish your final revision

Your final revision is due at midnight (11:59pm) on Sunday October 16, China time. Please upload it to the folder “Final Project” on SharePoint.

➤ Fill out course evaluation

Please don’t forget to fill out your course evaluation before midnight on Sunday (China time). Just as you need feedback from your teachers, your teachers need feedback from you. (And please note that I don’t pay much attention to the numbers, but I read the written feedback very carefully. If you want to give me useful feedback, writing detailed comments in the text boxes is the best thing you can do.)

➤ Read my aphorisms about writing

At the end of every class I like to summarize the main things we’ve learned in a list of aphorisms. If I gave these to you at the beginning of class, these abstract statements would be meaningless to you. Hopefully now, through concrete practice, you’ve come to understand how at least some of these ideas can help you develop skill as a literary writer. Here they are:

  1. Literary writing depends on details. Details are what make you feel "there."

  2. Good details characterize. They answer the question, "What kind of _____ is this?”

  3. Abstract and concrete language support each other like the beams of a roof.

  4. Observation gives us power: the power to explain language's effect.

  5. Meaningful contrasts create tension.

  6. Tension is the force that animates art. It is uncertainty; it is the potential for motion.

  7. Objects in literature are inherently symbolic. They are symbols, or have the potential to become symbols.

  8. Form answers the question, "What is it that am I writing?" 

  9. Form generates itself.

  10. What is a form? A form can be named, it can be practiced, and it structures thought.

What are some examples of form? A list is a form. A poem is a form. Concrete language is a form. Abstract language is a form. A scene is a form. An aphorism is a form. "Once / now" is a form. "They say / I say" is a form. A memoir is a form. A character profile is a form. An essay is a form. A story is a form. Anything can be a form if it can be named, be practiced, and structures thought.

On revising:

  • Writing is not stacking blocks; it is weaving a fabric. Beware cut-and-paste.

On endings:

  • Plant in your reader’s mind the one thing you most want them to remember.

➤ Keep writing!!!

This one needs no explanation :)

Austin Woerner