Professor,
Communication, Arts, and the Humanities
The University of Maryland Global Campus
Good news: The narrative style is working. It lets me channel the research such that Emmett is narrating his story (with a little bit of help from me in the background)! When I started writing about 10 days ago, I used a standard, very structured, academic, follow-the-outline writing method, and frankly, […]
One of the struggles of writing Emmett’s book has been about how the story will come out; i.e., straightforward biography a la Sergeant Joe Friday? Or, something more akin to my personal style of writing, which is close to a narrative nonfiction style? I’ve gone back and forth with this […]
Maybe this is all an off-shoot of the intense, compressed writing bloc over the past week, but I’ve noticed for the past several days that I have been — and am — mad at Emmett Wilson. This isn’t the first time I’ve been made at him, but this has been […]
…for a little Maroon & White celebration!
When I read microfilm, I usually come across titillating bits and interesting articles unrelated to Emmett Wilson, and save them. These little items tell me that people of Emmett’s day weren’t as uptight as we think, and that even 100 years later, we still have a lot in common. Today, […]
If you’ve been following along the blog over the past few days, you know that the first chapter is about Emmett’s family. (Well, my family, too. Emmett is my cousin.) The first chapter is in pretty good shape; actually, it is probably going to be divided into two more sections […]
So, yesterday, I uncovered the fact that Emmett’s father, Dr. Frank Wilson, may have been operating — literally — for years, without a medical credential. I thought I had this big ‘get’, but no. It turns out he wasn’t breaking any laws. Hell, back then, if you wanted to be […]
It’s natural during the writing process to come up with new questions. I have a good one today. A major character in the first chapter-in-progress is Emmett’s father, Dr. Francis Childria Wilson. He was a beloved community doctor in Emmett’s boyhood home of Chipley, Florida. People in Chipley loved him. […]
Still pushing the first chapter through, folks, one page, one section at a time. It does feel Sisyphean, but it is moving. I estimate finishing the first draft of chapter one by Friday of this week — hopefully sooner. The one distraction is that I do have to grade […]
Folks, I am here to report that I am in need of a mental epidural. It has been about 50 hours of wrangling with my first chapter. It is a rough, unpolished stone; there is probably about another 25 hours of polishing this damn thing, but I can see it […]
Tell my story. 