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Writing at Its Best

Stephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:18:05-05:00

Writing at Its Best by Thomas Garcia This is the second installment in our series of reflections on the nature of "good writing." For Thomas Garcia '16, Princeton Writes' Social Media Coordinator, writing at its best inspires, vexes, connects, and destabilizes – the four horsemen of the written word. Good writing inspires. When I picked up a tattered copy of The Sea-Wolf in the 7th grade, I did not expect the one-hundred-year-old words to give me chills. An abiding spirit was imbued in the sentence flow, the foundation of the plot, and the characters’ intricacies. This spirit epitomizes the immortal nature [...]

Writing at Its BestStephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:18:05-05:00

Writing at Its Best

Stephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:21:47-05:00

Writing at Its Best by Emily Reardon This is the first in a series of reflections on the nature of "good writing," a phrase more often invoked than defined. While each of us may have a different take on what constitutes such writing, there is much to be gleaned from others' definitions. For Emily Reardon '16, Princeton Writes' Undergraduate Fellow, good writing has the power to change our perspective – sometimes dramatically. When I think of writing at its best, I think of a trick I once played on my sister in the summer. While she was out fighting the ocean current [...]

Writing at Its BestStephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:21:47-05:00

You Are a Writer

Stephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:25:45-05:00

You Are a Writer by Kathy Taylor This month, Princeton Writes announced an essay contest designed to encourage members of Princeton's staff to exercise their gifts as writers and to recognize those who express themselves in a particularly clear, creative, and compelling way. Some may hesitate to take advantage of this opportunity on the grounds that they are not "writers," reserving this title for novelists and journalists or other professional wordsmiths. But as Kathy Taylor, a member of the selection committee that will award the Princeton Writes Prize, points out in this guest post, anyone who conscientiously embraces the challenge of [...]

You Are a WriterStephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:25:45-05:00

Writing with Others in Mind

Stephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:26:28-05:00

Writing with Others in Mind We typically write in solitude, immersed in our own thoughts and surrounded by our own things. Interruptions – intrusive conversations, incoming emails, needy colleagues – are generally unwelcome in these moments, unless, of course, we are not really in a mood to write. But when we single-mindedly focus on the sheet or screen before us, it is difficult not to be self-centered; not to view the world through the lens of our own needs and expectations. Yet, the more we withdraw into ourselves, the less likely we are to take our readers' unique identities into account. Their [...]

Writing with Others in MindStephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:26:28-05:00

A Poetic Perspective

Stephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:38:16-05:00

A Poetic Perspective In this poem by the late Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, a journey that every writer must be prepared to make – from intimidation to liberation – is given metaphorical expression through the troubled history of Northern Ireland, the poet's birthplace. From the Frontier of Writing The tightness and the nilness round that space when the car stops in the road, the troops inspect its make and number and, as one bends his face towards your window, you catch sight of more on a hill beyond, eyeing with intent down cradled guns that hold you under cover and everything [...]

A Poetic PerspectiveStephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:38:16-05:00

Roger Rosenblatt on “Useful” Writing

Stephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:41:50-05:00

Roger Rosenblatt on "Useful" Writing In Unless it Moves the Human Heart: The Craft and Art of Writing (2011), the distinguished – and exceptionally versatile – writer Roger Rosenblatt includes a parting memo to the students in his course, “Writing Everything,” at Stony Brook University. Here is an excerpt: “You may not need this postscript as much as I need to give it to you. But there is something about writing I haven’t told you, in part because it smacks of the sentimental and abstract – two of the monsters I’ve hoped to drive from your work. And yet, if I [...]

Roger Rosenblatt on “Useful” WritingStephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:41:50-05:00

The Nature of Writing

Stephanie Whetstone2013-06-25T12:00:49-04:00

Writing is an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary process that stretches from grade school to the grave. We do not wake up one day accomplished writers, our apprenticeship complete. On the contrary, every day demands a new commitment to this craft, moving us forward – and sometimes backward – in incremental steps that are only apparent when we cast a long look back. To write well, we must make the written word our constant companion – inspiration, nemesis, conscience, and, above all, clay. Never stop kneading and shaping it; never claim to have mastered it, but never despair of making it your servant. The novelist [...]

The Nature of WritingStephanie Whetstone2013-06-25T12:00:49-04:00

Writing at Its Best

Writing at Its Best

You Are a Writer

Writing with Others in Mind

A Poetic Perspective

Roger Rosenblatt on “Useful” Writing

The Nature of Writing

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