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Real Writers in Action: Colby Cuppernull
Colby Cuppernull is a Graduate Assistant for DePaul’s Writing Center Staff and works as a Faculty Assistant in the School of Education. In addition to working as fiction editor on the literary journal, Threshold, and acting as executive board member on the English Graduate Student Association, he is also founder and president of the DePaul Writer’s Workshop. His published works include the short story “How to Be Alone” in Umbrella Magazine, and the article “Celiac in the City,” published in Gluten-Free Living. Prewriting Colby describes his process for generating ideas as “varied:” “In my academic writing, ideas usually come from a kernel of information from a class discussion or the reading itself. It may be something the professor mentions in one sentence, or a note I made in the margin of the text. It may also be something I was thinking about during class discussion but didn’t get a chance to voice. When I have to write a paper for class, I try to write it about whatever interested me most in the subject matter. Papers (or anything for that matter) are a lot easier to write when what you are writing about is of interest to you. Generating ideas is different for my fiction and nonfiction outside of academic work. Random ideas hit me in the shower, in the middle of the night, at work, etc. But I also get ideas from flipping through the newspaper or watching TV. Basically, something hits me and interests me, then a character comes from this idea or a plot, then it’s just a matter of building on that.” He does not, however, use brainstorming techniques. “I think the best brainstorming you can do is done all along,” he says. For academic writing, he advises writers to pick out points of interest while doing their class readings or during lectures. “If you have these jotted down, coming up with paper ideas will be easy.” When narrowing down his topic, Colby always tries to approach it from the angle that interests him most. “That isn’t to say I ignore other factors,” he adds, “but my strategy is to take the requirements of the paper, think about what we’ve discussed and emphasized in class, and then add my personal interest to it.” Organizing When starting a new project, Colby likes to work from a written outline. “There are some people who just sit down and go and that works for them; I am NOT one of them. During my early days of college, I went at my papers in this way. I had an idea, and I would sit down and belt it out; but my papers were convoluted, disjointed, and when I got stuck, I got really stuck. I quickly found that outlining, even just loosely, made the entire process much easier.” His outlining methods differ from project-to project. “For a short paper, I’ll generally write a thesis statement at the top of a piece of paper and then number I-V. From there, I make a loose outline of simple ideas, loosely jotted down. Section I are ideas for introduction, II-IV are my main points and ideas that fit into each. V is my conclusion (which in x years of writing has never once had anything written under it on an outline…I usually wing it when I get there).... If a paper requires references to texts, I’ll put quotes down under the main points that fit. I do the same thing with everything I write. Fiction, essay, article…anything.” His outlines tend not to be overly-specific, but just enough to jog his memory during drafting. “I can’t emphasize how much this loose outline helps me,” he says. “All of my ideas are down in front of me... My outlines end up with a lot of arrows and scribbles, but in the end they help immensely. The reason I do it, is that if I don’t, my brain fires off way too many thoughts, and I try to type them all down, but they aren’t arranged coherently. It makes revision that much harder. With an outline (and the more detailed the outline the easier writing becomes) I’ve already done the thinking. The writing is just taking the notions that are written down in chicken scratch and making them sound pretty.” Drafting Colby likes to have all his materials in front of him before he starts. He always tries to write on a full stomach, “otherwise I’ll get up and eat something. Sometimes I have light music on, other times I need complete silence.... I do my outline before anything else. I like to do the outline immediately before writing the paper. That way, the ideas are still fresh in my head, and more importantly, I’m still excited about them. If I let an outline sit for a few days, it loses its value.” Colby does all his drafting sitting in front of a computer. “I would like to say that I write by hand and then transfer it. That’s a very romantic sounding way of going about things, but not how I tend to do it.” He is also very careful with the spelling, word-choice, and syntax of his first drafts. “When I’m typing, I know when I make a typo or when I’ve written something that I don’t like, and I will stop, delete it and correct the issue. But at the same time, I like to try to get it all down on the page and do the really heavy revising later.” Occasionally when he’s writing, Colby finds that “the flow of a piece will take over my planning and lead me down another direction,” although, he admits, this usually happens more with his literary work than with his academic pieces. “Sometimes the ideas, characters, etc. take on a life of their own, and you have to just be confident in them and allow that to happen. You can always revise…and revise…and revise…and revise.” For papers fewer than twenty pages, he tries to finish his first draft in one sitting. “For me, if I leave it alone and it is unfinished, it is very likely to stay that way…or worse…it is likely to feel like two separate pieces when I return to it." Revising Colby admits that he doesn’t spend much time revising his academic work. When he does, he tries to sleep on it for a night and go at it the next day. “Because you’re dealing so much in ideas and evidence, I think it’s important to get all of that out while it’s fresh. The longer you sit on it, the less connected the end product will be.” With his literary work, he’ll take several days off from a piece to let it ferment and to gain a more objective perspective on the piece. His primary concerns during revision are continuity-related. He tries to make sure all his ideas are connected and flow into one another. His second concern is with his argument. “Is my evidence sufficient? Is my argument clear? Have I covered possible retorts?” Clarity and concision are two qualities he looks to foster in his papers. “With literary work,” he says, “I look at different things in each revision. How are my characters developing? Are they round, real people or are they flat? Is my plot moving well? Is something too obvious? Not obvious enough? I try to look at it like I would look at something I were reading for a class.” He seldom produces more than two drafts of his academic work, and only seeks outside opinions on it if it is a very important project. With his literary work, he claims that he has “a bad habit of showing anyone with eyes.” Revision is a never-ending process with his fiction. “For as long as the piece is out there it will be in revision.... I could find my own novel in the library and start revising it.” Editing Colby does his last round of proof-reading during the revision process, but most of his mechanical errors are caught as he’s drafting. “My advice would be to pay attention as you write…compose it as if you were speaking, that way, you can “hear” the sentences, how they flow, how they sound, and if they are mechanically correct.” -- Fall 2006 |
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