Welcome to the Harpur Summer Online Faculty Writing Workshop.

First and foremost, we want to emphasize the flexibility of this week. Look over the whole week, but decide each day what to attend. There will be multiple opportunities to write and engage with your colleagues.

In the Schedule with Links, you’ll find descriptions of the days events. When you want to attend, start at the Schedule with Links.

The schedule is a hallway, events are rooms, the links open doors.

The password for all of them is: writing. The password is case sensitive. Authentication is activated– log in via your Binghamton account.

Take a few minutes to get to know Slack— we’ve posted a video at the page to get you started. Communicate with the group through channels. Make a channel to see if someone wants to do “Write on Site” at a time we don’t have scheduled. If you haven’t joined via the Welcome Email, You can join by following this link: Join Slack Now.Start with the channel that asks you to introduce yourself: What is your department? What is your project? What is on your mind about writing?

Our programs run in two, two-hour blocks, 10:00 am to Noon and Noon to 4:00 pm. We offer morning and afternoon Write on Site and Accountability Group meetings. You’ll find a description of these groups in the Workshop Schedule. Each day offers a Guided Workshop or How I Write talk. You’ll find descriptions of events in the Schedule with Links.

Workshops and talks will be recorded. You’ll find them here, in this program: Workshop Recordings. They’ll usually be up the night of the event.  

The opening guided workshop, Finding a High Place, Enhancing the View focuses on the week ahead; the closing workshop, Staying Found looks ahead toward the summer.

If you have any questions about the week and how you might get the most out of it, please contact us.

Be well,

Robert Danberg, Coordinator, Campus-Wide Writing Support

rdanberg@binghamton.edu

Madeline Gottlieb, Graduate Assistant, Campus-Wide Writing Support

mgottli1@binghamton.edu

Password is: writing

Tuesday, 5/26

10:00 pm – Noon Guided Workshop: Finding a High Place, Enhancing the View: Time, Goals and Writing

Link:  https://binghamton.zoom.us/j/96656106406?pwd=bjZkYUJnd1ltR3hjdVZQVjBlQnFNUT09

2:00 pm – 3:30 pm   Write on Site

“Write on Site” sessions are a virtual cafe. Participants log in via Zoom, turn off audio but leave video on.  Those who arrive first say “Hello” but typically, work begins right away. Latecomers simply log in and begin, or greet people via chat. Although the session is is open for ninety minutes, arrive and leave according to your goals.

3:30 pm – 4:00 pm   Accountability Group Meeting

Group meetings begin with each member describing their goals for the day, whether they met them, what might have gotten in the way, what worked, and plans for today or tomorrow.

Wednesday, 5/27

10:00 am – 10:30 am  Accountability Group Meeting

10:30 am – Noon      How I Write: Nancy Um

How I Write: Revise and Resubmit with Nancy Um (Professor of Art History and Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Inclusion, Harpur College) A conversation about the process of revision, editing, and responding to feedback in academic publishing. Moderated by Robert Danberg.

10:30 am – Noon      Write on Site

2:00 pm – 3:30 pm    Write on Site

Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85619809528?pwd=SlNiZDA4YlpDS3RkUjJ6QllGRVhZZz09

3:30 am – 4:00 pm   Accountability Group Meeting

Thursday, 5/28

10:00 am – 10:30 am  Accountability Group Meeting

Link:    https://binghamton.zoom.us/j/91755626357?pwd=TkZUL3JCY0ovMXdKaDBzeURsbHBzQT09

10:30 am – Noon     Write On Site

Link:  https://binghamton.zoom.us/j/96548090658?pwd=YTNQby9PRmYwQitPaTdzZHUyTkdNZz09

2:00 am – 3:30 pm    How I Write: Hatch/Reeder

Link:  https://binghamton.zoom.us/j/97819954484?pwd=N09GR3FOSWVrNWJmMElkREFUbE5ldz09

A conversation about faculty writing lives and writing goals in the context of the pandemic. Moderated by Robert Danberg.

Dr.Jessie Reeder is an Assistant Professor of English at Binghamton University, specializing in nineteenth-century British literature, imperialism, and form. Her first book, The Forms of Informal Empire: Britain, Latin America, and Nineteenth-Century Literature (Johns Hopkins 2020), asks how authors responded to British-Latin American relations in the nineteenth century by writing new narratives of transnational contact.

Dr. Kevin Hatch is Associate Professor of Art History at Binghamton University. He is the author of Looking For Bruce Conner (MIT Press, 2012). His teaching and research traverses the twentieth century, with particular attention paid to the intersections of art, cinema, and new media in the postwar period.

2:00 pm – 3:30 pm    Write On Site

Link:  https://binghamton.zoom.us/j/2354988556

3:30 pm – 4:00 pm     Accountability Group Meeting

Link:   https://binghamton.zoom.us/j/97069472765?pwd=LzBjcWVpUWIzTzcvVmR4TXQwSllPdz09

Friday, 5/29

10:00 am to 10:30 am Accountability Group Meeting

Link:    https://binghamton.zoom.us/j/91755626357?pwd=TkZUL3JCY0ovMXdKaDBzeURsbHBzQT09

10:30 am to Noon.     Write On Site

Link:  https://binghamton.zoom.us/j/99369739881?pwd=VWpDZXcxdjVQYld0ejhxdSticjJxdz09

2:00 pm – 3:30 PM.    Guided Workshop:Summer Goals

You’ll reflect on the week, review your summer calendar, the daily demands on your time, and your project goals. You’ll identify two or three priorities and start the work of planning how to make your available time work for you.

Workshop Recordings

Each day’s Workshop/Talk will be recorded and made available that day. If you cannot attend that day’s Workshop live, therefore, you will still be able to watch and review it at your convenience.

You will be able to access the Workshop recordings below.

Tuesday, May 26: 10 AM – 12 PM — “Finding a High Place, Enhancing the View: Time, Goals, and Writing,” Robert Danberg (Senior Instructor, Coordinator of Campus-Wide Writing Support, Binghamton University Writing Initiative)

Follow the link to the recording in Google Drive. You must be logged in to Bmail.

Finding a High Place, Enhancing the View: Time, Goals, and Writing

Print the documents used in the video: Workshop Documents. Weekly Time Grid can be found here.For the grid, go to File>copy and make your own copy of the template to save in your google drive.

Thursday, May 28: 2 PM – 3:30 PM — “How I Write,” Jessie Reeder (Assistant Professor of English at Binghamton University, specializing in nineteenth-century British literature, imperialism, and form) and Kevin Hatch (Associate Professor of Art History at Binghamton University, specializing in the intersections of art, cinema, and new media in the postwar period)

The beginning of the recording is cut off. Kevin Hatch briefly described how he’d approached writing in a certain way, but found himself at an impasse about how to proceed in is career. He adopted principles to guide his work– the “wagon” he says he falls off of at times has to do with the times his writing practices veer from these principles.

I urge you to do two things: read on the craft of writing, both for practical advice and inspiration. Put together a practice that works for you.

More has gone into this workshop week than I can name and still keep an eye on the clock. Below, you’ll find work that informed the thinking behind the workshop. You could do worse than reading what you find here during Write on Site time.

You’ll find quickly that there are many common features– free writing, monitoring work and time, self-reflection, constance and moderation, planning, lower expectations to draft. Whatever makes sense to you is a good place to start. Try things out. See for yourself.

Helen Sword, Air and Light and Time and Space, “Behavioral Habits and Artisanal Habits”.

This is a long chunk of one of her many useful book. I wouldn’t typically copy something this long, but the Pandemic and a class. Sword touches on approaches advocated by many names you see on this list. She includes interviews with academics. Try her self evaluation: BASE.

Peter Elbow, Transcript: On Writing.

You’ll find his discussion of “the essential psychological fact of writing” here.

Natalie Goldberg, Wild Mind Free Writing Rules

Goldberg’s approach to free writing is different than Elbow’s, an academic. Her approach is intertwined with her Buddhist practice. The practice she developed and teaches has helped many writers who adopt it, especially writers who feel that their internal editors make writing difficult for them. Her book Writing Down the Bones is the place to start.

Anne Lamott, Shitty First Drafts

This much quoted section from Lamott’s Bird by Bird is consisted with much written about helping writers start to finish their work.

Robert Boice, Selections from Profoessors as Writers, Spontaneous and Generative Writing and Ensuring Regular Productivity

Boice’s work is central to thinking about how successful writers in academic settings. Here, he offers a way to think about three key points: write on demand (don’t wait for inspiration), constancy and moderation (move away from binge writing and develop a way to work in smaller chunks over time) and be planful.

Eviatar Zerubavel, Selections from The Clockwork Muse

Zerubavel’s book offers several practical and sensitive insights into how we structure time and tasks.

Eric Maisel, Selections from Fearless Creating, “Creatures from the Sea: Working Part One, Part Two, Part Three”

Maisel has written many books about his work with writers, artists, actors and musicians. This chapter address how to get your self to work and how to cope with “inner and outer” distractions and interruptions.

The accountability group structure is adapted from Paul Silvia’s How to Write a Lot.

In a face to face retreat, when everyone has been able to get away for a certain amount of time, groups begin and end the day with reporting and goal setting. It turns out this helps people get more done.

This online workshop is different– we are doing this amidst your everyday lives.

So, while some of you may want to use these groups everyday because you see yourself with time each day, others may see the group (often at first) as plenty. Under these circumstances, I consider accountability group meetings to be an opportunity to talk, briefly, about how you’re thinking on your project.

So, if you come to the group today having worked on a project, you’ll use this prompt

• How did work go today?
• What facilitated the work?
• What do I want to do next (by tomorrow, or by Thursday, etc.)?

Or, use the meeting to help you start to orient yourself. If you came to the meeting, spoke briefly on your project, and kept notes on what you said, you’d might develop the clarity you seek. At the very least, you won’t deny yourself the opportunity to hear what your colleagues are doing. Use one of these prompts at each meeting:

• What is your project?
• What needs to be done?
• What problems need to be solved (subject matter problems)?
• What preparations do you need to make?
• What will sustain the work?
• Where are you in the process?

Log in via Zoom. Leave you video on and mute audio. Those who arrive first say “Hello” but typically, work begins right away.

Latecomers simply log in and begin or say “Hello” via chat.

Our “Write on Site” sessions are scheduled for ninety minute sessions, twice per day– 10:30 am to 12:00 pm and 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm.

You’ll find links to the sessions in the daily schedule.

Sessions will be hosted by Robert Danberg or Madeline Gottlieb, Campus-Wide Writing Support Graduate Assistant.

During the week, we will be using Slack for communicating between faculty participants, answering last-minute questions, and sharing notes or messages.

You will be invited to join the Slack page, “Binghamton Faculty Writing Retreat”. We encourage you to introduce yourself, post channels, and communicate with other faculty participants.

Click here for more videos about navigating through Slack.

Password: writing

password is case sensitive. Authentication has been enable, so use your Binghamton account to log in to Zoom.

Below you’ll find a list of books and resources that inform the Summer Faculty Writing Retreat and come recommended by writers. You can also visit the Write at BU Site for more information.

Academic Writers and Writing Productivity

Professors as Writers — Robert Boice

How to Write a Lot — Paul Silvia

Air and Light and Time and Space: How Successful Academics Write — Helen Sword

Getting Things Done — David Allen

The Clockwork Muse — Eviatar Zerubavel

Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks — Wendy Lauren Belcher

Finishing School — Cary Tennis

Style/The Writer’s Art and Craft

Stylish Academic Writing — Helen Sword

The Writer’s Diet — Helen Sword

Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace — Joseph Williams

Several Short Sentences About Writing — Verlyn Klinkenborg

Economical Writing — Deirdre McCloskey

On Writing Well — William Zinnser

So, You Want to Write — Dorothea Brande

The Art of Memoir — Mary Kerr

Free Writing, Creativity, and the Writer’s Life

Writing Without Teachers — Peter Elbow

Writing With Power — Peter Elbow

Writing Down the Bones — Natalie Goldberg

The Artist’s Way — Julia Cameron

Art and Fear — David Bayles and Ted Orland

Fearless Creating: A Step-by-Step Guide To Starting and Completing Your Work of Art — Eric Maisel

Writer’s Memoir

Bird by Bird — Annie Lamott

On Writing — Stephen King

Draft No. 4 — John McPhee

Resource Site

The Writing Initiative maintains a site, Resources for Writers, where you’ll find articles, suggestions for practice, and links to other resources.