Word: bolker
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...Bolker: Absolutely. I get withdrawal symptoms when I don?...
...Bolker: Not much. Actually, I’m a fairly disciplined writer. Most of what’s in that book came in response to the hundreds of doctoral students I’ve talked with and what they’ve told me. All of them are very good at distracting themselves. The hardest part often is just to sit down. When Larry Weinstein and I were at the Writing Center, we used to joke that the single most important implement for a writer was a pot of glue: you paint it on the chair and then...
...Bolker: In my day at Radcliffe, we weren’t permitted in Lamont. They were afraid we would pass out from the smell of the sweat socks or something. On the second or third floor of the Radcliffe library, there were these cushy leather chairs where I would go every day. I’d sit sideways in them and write five pages a day. I did that when I wrote my undergraduate thesis. I did that when I wrote papers. You accumulate a lot of writing that way. Most of it isn’t any good...
...Bolker: I think when writing is a habit, you don’t end up in that 11th-hour reading period bind. Bill Perry, who was the head of the Bureau of Study Counsel, described writing by saying, “First you make a mess and then you clean it up.” Just as you don’t drive your car with the emergency brake on, you don’t mix the creative and the critical parts of writing. First you throw everything at the page and then go back and look with a steely...
...Bolker: It began because we had a wonderful boss at Expos, a man named Don Byker. When I was hired, Don said that one of the things he wanted me to do while I was here was to develop a skill I could take with me. “Therefore, you and Larry will design and open a writing center,” Don said. Larry and I and a third person set up office hours and we also ran workshops that were open to anyone in the University. There was a huge range of people, from this first-year...