Papers: A Master Collection on the Art of Writing

As a writer, I detest the idea of good €“ or even €œdecent€ €“ writing sitting in a drawer or on a hard drive, moldering away unread. As a €œmaster of writing,€ (I have a master of arts in English with a concentration in professional writing: that makes me a €œmaster,€ right?) I have a fair amount of what I consider to be worthy writing that has never been read by anyone other than the professor to whom each piece was submitted for a grade. I recently began to wonder if there might be anyone out there who would be interested in reading my €œmaster€ writing papers.

As with any body of work, the next obvious question had to be, €œWho is my audience?€ In other words, who would care? Sometimes, such as when you are writing a memoir or a stirring piece of fiction, the answer to the question, €œWho cares?€ may simply be, €œWell, I care.€ And that's all that matters. In this case, the words have already been written for a primary audience. The papers have served their original purpose of obtaining mostly A€s for me so I could graduate with honors.

*pats self on back*

But who would care now?

First of all, I believe writers might be interested in reading the papers I have written on the art of writing. Some may be considering whether to further their own education and will benefit from a €œsneak peak€ at what goes on in these master writing courses. This book may also be a resource for the self-taught writer who does not have the funds to participate in a formal writing program. It offers suggestions for readings and writing prompts that you may use as you follow along with my educational journey.

In this book, you will also find short stories, poems, and novel excerpts that I wrote throughout this program. I think you might enjoy these creative pieces, even though some of them are a bit rough. If nothing else, please feel free to whip out your red pen and practice your editing skills on my papers and stories!

You might also enjoy this book if you love to argue about literary criticism. I have a habit of not liking classic works that I €“ as an English major €“ am €œsupposed€ to love. For example, I abhor Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. (However, Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a favorite, so don€t get your thong in a knot thinking I may be biased against British authors.) If you love Austen and Dickens, you will love to hate my analysis of theirs and other authors€ work. You might even consider my writing controversial. What could be more fun than controversy?

There are plenty of people who might be interested in reading my papers. However, in the end, I think it boils down to the writing. If the writing is any good, the book will be engaging. I'm not saying everyone will enjoy the topic, but those who relish the written word €“ and I like to believe there are a lot more of us out there than is cool to admit €“ will enjoy reading about what I have learned about the art of writing.

About This Collection: I wrote the papers included in this book while pursuing a second graduate degree in the professional writing program at Mount Mary College (now Mount Mary University: my graduating class was the last to graduate from Mount Mary College prior to the name change in 2013) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.

There is so much packed into this one book! In addition to academic papers, you also get several original short stories, poems, and a behind-the-scenes peek into my fantasy novel.

I have organized these papers by course, with each course listed in chronological order according to when I completed it. At the end of these readings, you will find my full 90+ page thesis. I chose to write a creative thesis, as my main goal in completing this course of study was to graduate with a completed novel manuscript in hand. While I am still working on this novel, I will give you a sneak peak at my thesis draft of the first several chapters. You can tell me if you think my writing improved from the beginning of the program to the end.