College writing professor, novelist

Terry L.

You might be interested to know I failed college English three times. I hated it--everything about it. I didn’t see the point of being forced to study a language I had been speaking my entire life. Every time I went to write an assignment, I would choke, not sure of the tone I wanted to take, or how to go about starting, so I wound up turning in nothing, or something I had cranked out an hour before class, then wonder why I couldn’t pass.

I took an English class that changed my life--I know, that’s cliche, but in my case, it’s true. I went from hating English and writing to majoring in it, and now I teach that same class, and I try my best to make sure that my students get as much out of it as I did, twenty years ago. I have a BA in writing, and an MFA in fiction writing, and I understand what it’s like to stare at a blank piece of paper (now computer screen) and have no idea what I want to say or how to go about saying it.

The difference between now and then is, now I know where to start--I know the questions I need to ask myself before I begin, and I know the process of taking a few scratches on a piece of paper to an award winning essay, and I can show you how to do that, too. My goal isn’t to get you through one assignment, but to make you a better overall writer, giving you the skills to get you through the next assignment, and the next.