Good Writing Advice

I want to start regularly posting good writing advice that I come across in class, in the Writing Lab, and in conversation.

"Cut you darlings."

If I had to choose my favorite or most useful piece of advice I've received about my writing, it's "cut your darlings." The professor who taught my first-year composition class (who is now my dearly beloved adviser) told us this in maybe the second week of class, and I swear it changed my life; something about that phrase seemed totally irreverent and liberating. It was as if I had spent my whole academic life until that point waiting for permission to highlight and delete. When I run into one of those times when I can't figure out what I'm trying to say, it's oddly reassuring to have this reminder that my paper and my subject are more important than that one perfectly articulated paragraph, and, by extension, my ego.

Oh James,

For better or for worse, we are going to spending a lot of time together over the next few months. Happy birthday you damned weirdo.

But really, it turns out that I love Utah and Ulysses. My poor mother is probably dying of shame. I guess it would have been to weird had I turned out exactly like her, so I had to mix it up a bit. Sorry, Mum! I promise I'm still city-loving, hairy-legged, feminist, vegetarian, coffee-drinker at heart, I just have soft spots for crazy narration, literary puzzles, and red dirt.

Can I just say

That the academic hiring process looks like an absolute nightmare. I am currently helping my department interview and evaluate three different candidates for a position at our school, and I get exhausted by doing about half of the work and running around that the candidates and professors have to do. I can't tell if I feel thankful and privileged to have this insight into a process I will almost definitely undergo someday, or if I should just give up now because the whole thing looks so grueling and absurd.

I am mad.

In support of women who have been raped, women who are poor/uninsured/on Medicaid, all women, actually, and the amazing Sady Doyle,  I have written a letter to my representative for what may be the first time ever. You can read if you like, after the jump.

Not to be totally irreverent...

...but did anyone else notice this quote from the NYT article about Jared Loughner a few weeks ago?

“He would get so upset about bigger issues, like why do positive and negative magnets have to attract each other,” recalled Mr. Gutierrez, the friend who joined him in target practice in the desert. “He had the most incredible thoughts, but he could not handle them.” 

Dude actually wanted to know "fuckin' magnets, how do they work?!"
As far as finding humor in terrible situations goes, this is pretty choice.

Stuff I've Seen Recently

The best surprise I've ever found in a public bathroom:

Hello again

Survived last semester! And here I am, trying to figure out how to survive this one. It should be easier to preserve my mental well-being this time around, but that also means that this is what my Saturday night looks like:

Add to that image the fact that I am the only person home right now, it is -5 degrees outside, and the Cure and my cats are keeping me company. My advisor says that the study of English Literature is like the aristocracy of academia, but somehow I appear to missing out on the glamor.

But of course I also kind of love this.

Current procrastination tools: Annals of Online Dating and Shitty First Drafts. I'm trying to expand my blog horizons (because I like totes have so much time for that), and I have been enjoying these two immensely.