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Writing a University Thesis: or, Tales from the Academic Crypt

March 27, 2023

academia, criticism, mediocrity, society, writing

You probably think this post isn’t for you – unless you’re a student about to start writing a university thesis. But although in this post I indeed want to give some tips to students on their way to writing a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or even Doctoral thesis, there are important things we need to discuss about society and how our academic communities operate.

After all, much of what you experience in your everyday life is one way or another related to the academia. I’m not even referring to “knowledge” being born in the academia (I wish it were that simple). Rather, the people produced – that’s the right word – by the academia are your future employers and colleagues, mayors and decision-makers, and overall people you will have to deal with.

For those not familiar with me, I’ve spent 12 years at the university studying and teaching English literature. I’ve written a Bachelor’s thesis, a Master’s thesis, and a Doctoral thesis. I’ve seen the academia from the inside and let me tell you, the sausage metaphor applies.

Though I’ll structure the post around a way it would be most useful to a student – including what to expect, what to do, and what to avoid while writing a university thesis – I’ll add plenty of anecdotal details along the way that will make the post interesting to anyone.

Writing a University Thesis — University life involves learning when to talk and when to shut up. Writing a university thesis isn’t much different

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Unfinished Books: Do It the Right Way!

February 27, 2023

Literature

book, criticism, fiction, literature

Unfinished books are an inevitable part of reading. Perhaps you took a chance on a completely unknown author, or perhaps something everyone else praised just wasn’t for you. If we only read books we knew we’d like, we’d never discover anything new. Indeed, in some extreme expression of this strategy, we’d never read anything.

But is there a “right” way of abandoning a book you’ve started?

My own long (and occasionally painful) experience with unfinished books leads me to say: most definitely! This doesn’t mean there’s an objectively right or wrong way (hence the quotation marks above). As with everything else in literature, your mileage may vary. You are the sole authority on what “the right” way is, just as, if you’re a writer, you’re the sole authority on your own work. I’m here only to offer you the method; not the criteria.

And so, with this mini disclaimer out of the way, let’s see my way of dealing with unfinished books. You can then adapt it to your own preferences and make sure you’ll never abandon reading a book for the… wrong reasons!

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“Kill Your Darlings” May Mean Well: It Is Still Awful Advice

February 13, 2023

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

affect, book, creativity, criticism, literature, writing

You have surely heard this advice: “Kill Your Darlings”. It might mean well, as its motivation is to help you remove unnecessary text. But there’s a crucial detail: Why on earth would “darlings”, text associated with something you like, actually be unnecessary?

To be fair, I need to make a differentiation here. “Kill Your Darlings” means one thing in nonfiction and another in fiction. The dynamics are different, for reasons we’ll see in this post. But here is the sneak preview: Because “Darlings” is associated with something you like (we’ll see more details and definitions in a while), it refers to affect. And there is quite a bit of difference between nonfiction and fiction when it comes to affect, a way of feeling.

Though I will briefly speculate on what “Kill Your Darlings” may mean in nonfiction, most of the focus of the post will be on fiction. I’ll first start with some definitions – what “darlings” are, and what “Kill Your Darlings” really means. Then, we’ll take a brief look at why killing your darlings is awful advice when it comes to fiction. Finally, as I said, I’ll end the post with a brief speculation regarding what killing your darlings involves in nonfiction.

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