WRITING, as if FOR LIFE
A 5 Week Course Engaging the Challenge of Internal Exploration & Creative Expression
Instructor: Robert L. Kehoe III
Assistant: Erik van Mechelen
March 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
noon-1:30 (central—ZOOM)
Why
There is a telling moment, early in Charles Dickens’s, David Copperfield. At the time, the young hero is suffering from the death of his father. Adding the unspeakable pain, for fear of impoverishment David’s mother has taken up with a cruel partner who subjects him to an oppressive menu of emotional and physical abuse. It is at the point of nearly unbearable humiliation that David describes what kept him from complete stupefying despair.
“It was this. My father had left a small collection of books in a little room upstairs, to which I had access (for it adjoined my own), and which nobody else in our house ever troubled. From that blessed little room, Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, Humphry Clinker, Tom Jones, The Vicar of Wakefield, Don Quixote, Gil Blas, and Robinson Crusoe, came out, a glorious host to keep me company. They kept alive my fancy, and my hope of something beyond that place and time—they, and the Arabian Nights, and the Tales of the Genii—and did me no harm; for whatever harm was in some of them was not there for me; I knew nothing of it.”
As a testament to the power of the literary imagination, David goes on to say that “this was my only and constant comfort. When I think of it, the picture always rises in my mind, of a summer evening, the boys at play in the churchyard, and I sitting in my bed, reading as if for life.”
There’s an adage going back to ancient philosophy that suggests, everyone desires to know and be known; to know themselves—their family, their friends, their place and environment—and to communicate something about their experience. Whether we find ourselves in dire circumstances, like David Copperfield, or have lived charmed lives of comfort and convenience, we all long to establish a deeper connection with ourselves and our surroundings; to make sense of both the monotonous and traumatic experiences that are a part of every human life. Throughout history writing has proved a source of that making sense, deepening our understanding and capacity for communication. But it can also prove to be a tortuous and vexing challenge; as frustrating as it can be disorienting. Because ultimately writing encompasses the harrowing task of introspection and internal self-discovery. It is an inner search that paves the way for external expression. It is the conversation we have with ourselves in order to be heard, and perhaps understood, by others. Where David Copperfield was reading as if for life, it is the author who is always writing, as if for life.
Whether you’re a seasoned writer, or you’re just embarking on the journey, this five-week online course is designed to provide creative, conceptual, and practical resources to strengthen your confidence and command of your own personal exploration and production. Students will be challenged to engage their literary aspirations through a series of readings, discussions, and writing exercises.
But where most writing programs and courses assume the position of teaching you how to write a certain kind of work (fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, etc.), this program offers a different proposition in the form of a question. Instead of beginning with the assumption that we will teach you how to write, this will be an occasion for you to openly ask the following questions:
That is, what are your motivations, aspirations, and natural affinities? Where are your talents and limits? What imaginative or productive literary challenges do you want to overcome? Are you an essayist trapped in a poet’s habits, or poet who’s been stuck working on a novel that would come alive as a collection of verse? Do you yearn to write a memoir or family story, but have never had the time or courage to take the first step?
In sum, we want you to ask: What kind of writer am I?
And for those who have an established sense of their literary trajectory, we want to ask: What are my next steps on the journey to deepen my ability to successfully convey what I want to say?
This five-week course will help you begin, or continue on, your literary journey. In addition to the weekly readings, meetings, and writing exercises, we will help you initiate or craft a larger writing project. This project can be for personal edification (e.g. a memoir) or publication (e.g. an essay targeted at a magazine/website, poetry collection, novel, etc). The desired outcome is that you will walk away with a better sense of how to advance your project, which may include pitch suggestions and/or editorial introductions.
The timeline and order of proceedings are as follows:
What
5 weeks, approximately 5 hours per week (25 hours in total)
Weekly Group Meetings: 1 hour
We will gather once a week to address and discuss the week’s reading, exploring how our encounter with the essay in question informs our own experience of the writing process. The focus will be primarily textual, but students are highly encouraged to share personal reflections or inquire about particular technical or stylistic challenges that emerge from the weekly reading. Upon course registration you’ll receive all readings via email.
1 on 1 tutorials (3 total): 1 hour
Students will have the opportunity to get hands-on attention and input on the reading experience and writing process.
Written work: Case by case, but we anticipate that students will need to minimally plan for 1.5 hours per week.
Weekly responses:
Each week students will respond to the reading assignment in writing, with the option to communicate in prose (fiction or non-fiction), poetry, or even outlining bullet points that demonstrate the student is working out ideas to be converted into stylistic form. Prose responses should not exceed 750 words. Poetry should not exceed, 30 lines.
Larger project-sketch:
Throughout the course instruction and tutorials will give attention to a larger project each student will determine on their own. This project can be something that’s already in the works, or a completely new endeavor. It can be an entirely private enterprise, or something in search of a public audience. It can be short, long, or something in between. The purpose of this aspect of the course is to work through whatever challenges the writer faces in conceiving, outlining, and executing (in some cases, to the point of publication) whatever they’re envisioning.
Revisions:
TBD, but minimally plan for 1 hour
Meet and greet: Before our first group session, Erik (assistant) will set a 15 minute meeting with each student, introducing himself, the course, answering questions, and gathering information to better support each student’s ambition and goals.
March 3: Why We Write
Reading: George Orwell – ‘Why I Write’
Writing: Creative writing exercise or essay in response (prose not to exceed 750 words, poems not to exceed 30 lines)
March 10: The Author is in the Work
Reading: Joyce Carol Oates – ‘Where Is an Author?’
Writing: Creative writing exercise or essay in response (prose not to exceed 750 words, poems not to exceed 30 lines)
March 17: The Spectacle
Toni Morrison – ‘Literature in Public Life’
March 24: The Quiet Zone
Reading: Saul Bellow – Saul Bellow’s Nobel Lecture
Writing: Creative writing exercise or essay in response (prose not to exceed 750 words, poems not to exceed 30 lines)
March 31: The Wildness of Language
Reading: Seamus Heaney – Read or listen to ‘Crediting Poetry’, Nobel Prize Lecture
What you take with you:
-3 written responses (short stories, poems).
-Confidence to develop your own questions and paths of expression.
-Larger project sketch and guidance.
-Pitch suggestions and guidelines (if applicable)
-Letter of recommendation, w/potential referrals (if desired)
-Option to further develop by entering the Apprenticeship.
Who
Robert L. Kehoe III, writer, editor, and teacher. He has edited award winning writers at The Point Magazine, and his work has been featured at Arts & Letters Daily, the Prufrock Newsletter, 3 Quarks, and Digg.com. As an editor he is known for his ability to work with writers at a variety of experience levels. His essays and commentaries express an eclectic, and occasionally iconoclastic, appreciation of philosophy, politics, literary culture, and athletics. In essays like ‘Federer as Crisis of Faith’ and ‘What We Despise,’ Robert’s eye for hidden twists and ironic turns is on display. He is also gifted with a conversational disposition, evinced in published interviews with leading thinkers to pro athletes. As an instructor he brings the same sensibility, attending to details, actively looking and listening for the writer’s voice, conveyed through their experience, knowledge, and capacity for expression.
Erik van Mechelen was one of Robert’s first students, now working on his third novel. For a living Erik helps people express their ideas online, serving as ghostwriter to governors and business leaders. Erik has guided hundreds of students in an online behavior design course and was head coach of a college junior varsity team. He also co-founded a community learning series for artists in Minneapolis called Test Kitchen. Though it may be a lifelong journey, he believes good writing is the fast-track to good thinking. And good thinking helps us live better together.