August 24, 2014
Discover The Art of Blogging at UofT
It has been ages since I taught The Art of Blogging at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies, but I’m so pleased that the course is being offered this fall. Online is such a fast world that blogging has changed a lot since I last taught the course, and so has some of my thinking about blogging. Moreover, teaching small blogging workshops (like at the Wild Writers Festival in Waterloo!) has taught me a lot about the best way to present this kind of material and get students engaged. And so all of this will really culminate in a fresh and exciting class, I think. I’ve revised the course outline significantly (you can view it here!). We’re going to focus on learning to love the unpolished nature of the blogging, and embrace its work-in-progress-ness, and there will be lots of writing exercises to get students used to blogging efficiently. We’re going to explore using blogging in a way that fits neatly into your life, and even how blogging can make you live your life a bit better. I look forward to good discussion, sharing of experiences, lots of inspiring blog reading, and delving into the history of this fascinating medium as we all move forward as part of its future.
Would love to take this course if I lived in your city! Speaking of fitting blogging into your life, can I ask how you combine blogging (and other computer writing) into a life busy with small children? Are you mostly at the computer during naptime and after bedtime, or do you manage to get some work done with your kids underfoot? (With the latter, I’m always worried about instilling too much screen fascination, but the time away from the kids is, of course, never enough!)
Hi Maia! Nap time and evenings are when I work. I do get some work done too when the kids are around, but never count on that. But I am forever stuck to my computer anyway, because I find it’s an important lifeline to the wider world when you’re home with children. I need to do this less just to keep my kids from developing bad habits, but I also don’t have the same philosophical concerns about “being present” with my children that some parents have. I show up every single day–that’s present enough for me! It is also helpful to be able to write fiction with the Annie soundtrack in the background. I am pretty good at tuning out…
Ha! I belong to the laissez-faire school of parenting myself, for the most part. Many moments of real present-ness, to be sure, but lots of letting be (both him and me!). Thanks for this.