Ok, so this I thought was going to shorter than it will be. Today’s prompt was about housecleaning – what I could do to the project/manuscript to give it a better shape. To me, it is making sure there is a narrative thread. an arch to keep the reader engaged.
Which, I think I’ve written ever day now.
It’s funny because the last major edit I did was one that involved major housecleaning – I cut out entire sections, moved stuff around, “tightened the prose” so to speak. Turns out I cut in order to have space to add, to re-shape (again).
Christ, I hate editing. Editing is not my hyper-focus. I just want to be DONE so that I can move on to writing again.
Anyway, then I read this today by my fellow contingent faculty writing/blogger on IHE, John Warner. He talks about how contingency and racism (and I would add sexism) have warped the careers, the brilliance, of so many faculty members. And I think it still needs to be said, to be named: this is how contingency warped me, this is how pernicious and harmful it can be. “Old news” is only old if we’ve moved past it, and we clearly have not.
This book names it, claims it, narrates it, and I guess hopes to change things. The more stories we have, the more ways we have to name it, the more likely (I hope) that we are to change it.