Not long ago, I wrote about setting up the companion website for A Writer’s Craft. That is now up and running, but one thing I had always wanted to add was a discussion area, where teachers could talk about using the book and teaching introductory creative writing in 4 genres, and where students and teachers could share writing prompts, opportunities for undergraduate writers, etc.
In developing the companion site, we had talked about a number of services that could be used, since Palgrave.com doesn’t have a discussion feature for their companion websites. In the end, I settled on using GoodReads, which has the advantage of being linked to the textbook (on GoodReads) and open to all viewers. Anyone can read the discussions in a group, though to post to the group you need to login with GoodReads, Facebook, or Google and then join the group. That seems fairly easy for anyone to do, and I’ve found that GoodReads is a social media platform that isn’t too invasive — I can use it as much or as little as I want.
I called the group A Writer’s Craft Community to set the name apart from the title of the book and to emphasize that it is a community discussion. I hope this will become a good resource for anyone teaching introductory creative writing (though I also hope instructors will want to use my book).
So far, Teachers have discussion topics on:
- Teaching 4 Genres
- Sample Syllabi (I posted mine)
- Workshop Strategies & Alternatives
Writers have discussions for:
- Writing Prompts
- Undergraduate Literary Magazines
I plan to add discussion topics in both folders, and I hope that people who are using the book will add to the discussion and maybe even suggest topics. Incidentally, I decided to have two groups, Teachers and Writers, because some people may get the book to use outside of a classroom. Though the Writers area is primarily aimed at undergraduate writers in an introductory class, teachers may add writing prompts, and the discussion could move on to topics of interest to any writer.
Kendall Dunkelberg 