NEW REVIEW—> @richard-siken.bsky.social Richard Siken’s “Crush” - the 20th Anniversary Edition
How “Crush” Taught Me to Become Undeniable
tinyurl.com/3nn7af8h
#poemsky #reviews #poetry #writingcommunity #substack #writing #booksky #reading #authors #writersteachingwriting
It's all "I don't think this class should be required for engineers" until we break out the cover letters.
#writersteachingwriting
Nothing gets my engineering students focused like the cover letter & resume unit.
Game on.
#writersteachingwriting #teachers #writinghelp
My first year on substack: most-read poems, writer lessons, community insights, and new poetry projects coming in 2026.
seanjbates.substack.com/p/it-was-a-y...
#writingcommunity #writersteachingwriting #poemsky #authors #craft #writinghelp #process #yearinreview #substack
#EnglishTeachers and #writersteachingwriting... Do your #students not understand what a draft is?
I tell them a draft is a moment in time. They ask me if they have to start over for each draft. ???
You need to learn how to cut. The best lessons are when you overwrite the thing and arrive at what you wanted to say...
then you get #revise and pieces fall into place and you write the essay that knows what it wants to say.
#writersteachingwriting
#Writing angry in the moment is good writing, but perhaps poor #reading.
But seething cold fire historic fury... that stuff I can wrestle to the page somehow.
As always, time is an ingredient.
#writersteachingwriting
Read. Your. Journals.
Establish a review for the day, the week, month, the year. There are nuggets in there you forgot about. I swear!
#writersteachingwriting #craft #process #writing
I tell my #students... " #Writing or this class is mostly about how comfortable you are with being uncomfortable. Can you let it be bad before it's good?"
#writersteachingwriting
He's backkkk.
Narrative Electric Co. chewing on when speculative fiction turns into warning or maybe a little too prophetic.
This has me thinking about #LeGuin and #Omelas all over again. And definitely #OctaviaButler 's evergreen #ParableoftheSower.
#booksky #writing #writersteachingwriting
I love #teaching citations in terms of power and gatekeeping. Like my #students respond to the framing of "this will allow you to be heard, lend your work credibility, and save you from bad faith accusations of plagiarism" rather than what amounts to "because I said so". #writersteachingwriting
& this is how #teaching holds hands with #writing, how when you're enveloped in a #wip you can see it everywhere. It reveals. The #writer must go into the field and then return to the page. And I realized I carried it all: that raw memory and #firstdraft with me.
🧵(11/17) #writersteachingwriting
Are you an #outliner or a #seatofyourpantser when your #wip is a first draft?
My students today are testing an Outline vs. a blehhh Vomit Draft and reflecting on their own #process?
I'm a panster. I think I'd outline after it has some shape.
#writersteachingwriting
Writing can be a battle of emotions before you even put them on the page.
Dealing with the struggle to come up with a thesis is almost more important than the thesis itself; we can revise as we write, but not when there is nothing to revise.
#writersteachingwriting #writingprocess #teachers #poets
Today my students flourished as we discussed bell hooks' "A Place the Soul Can Rest". One of my anti fascist acts is giving that essay to people and talking about the spaces in their lives using hooks' terms and ideas. Read, think, discuss, write.
#writersteachingwriting
#bellhooks
#teachinglife
It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. ... It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” -Ira Glass
#writersteachingwriting #writinghelp #writingcommunity
Today I start the "teach your opinion don't preach your opinion" unit. Let's see which of my students are hidden debate-lords.
#writersteachingwriting
#teachera #professors
Oh, #WaltWhitman is gonna make my students blush today. But it'll be worth it!
#writersteachingwriting #poemsky
My students did NOT like John Donne's "The Flea". One student said 0/10, would not accept this #lovepoem.
It was great to watch them cut through the language and understand the implications of the reasoning.
#writersteachingwriting
Good morning to the feeling of how #substack posting makes me revise my #poems. Something about the demand I put on myself cuts through the fear of what I'll find. Chase the happy.
#process #writersteachingwriting
I find it easier to write everyday, even the one sentence. After my death and resurrection from the flu, I feel the rust. But everyday keeps me 'in shape' and makes the process less precious.
#writing #writingcommunity #amwriting #writersteachingwriting
"Colleges vs. DOGEbros: Elon, AI, LMS, and the Erasure of Writing and Community in HigherEd"
Pres. Musk + AI are killing #college + perpetuating a culture of docile #DOGEbros w no critical thinking skills.
#writersteachingwriting #booksky #amwriting #academicsky
open.substack.com/pub/mikespry...
I told my students that any writing class was an emotional challenge at its heart. How will you handle discomfort? Will you trust the process? Will you ask for help?
I read some of my own writing reflections. You're not alone. This is writing.
#writing #writersteachingwriting #craft #process
It's Vomit Draft day in my classes. One of my favorite days. My overwriter/perfectionists learn to sit with an unfinished idea.
My underwriters learn to celebrate the step, the progress, the fact they started an essay weeks before it's due.
Which are you?
#craft #process #writersteachingwriting
10 years as a distance runner means I speak athlete. Bank reps. Minutes not miles.
You can improve at the skill by doing it.
But even better...writing will make you a better editor, reader, and writer! How often are we served such a virtuous circle?
#craft #writersteachingwriting #writing #process
Writers. Have a project that's for you. Something that you feel less stakes with, something just for fun.
Memoir takes a piece of me and today I need my escape to the pleasure of world building, a little control. I need to refill the tank.
#writing #craft #process #memoir #writersteachingwriting
I can't wait to get back into this draft and add what my friend called "poet chapters".
I love the potential opportunity to defy what I assumed the *rules* were for memoir.
#memoir #genre #craft #writing #writers #writingcommunity #writersteachingwriting
Think about catharsis. My story builds dread. Denying catharsis can hurt more. The hurt is the wondering: why is no one saying anything?
I love "The Lottery" for this reason; it's up to the reader to be uncomfortable and decide what to do.
#writing #writersteachingwriting #booksky #poemsky
#craft
My students need community. Writers need community. Extrinsic motivation can fade and fall away.
Cultivate community and it will be your intrinsic motivation, the good fuel.
#writing #writingcommunity #writersteachingwriting #writers #writinghelp #authorsky
