Practicing writing

I suspect that many of the few souls who drop by this humble blog are aspiring writers and/or people who enjoy others' writing. If you are one such soul, you may enjoy checking out this blog of the Phantom Professor, where I have been spending some time recently.

The Phantom Professor's site began with tales from an adjunct English professor writing about teaching 19 year old kids who wear Prada and Gucci and drive BMWs, but don't know the difference between "to" and "too" or "its" and "it's." Although she disguised the identities of the school where she taught and those about whom she was writing (referring to some subjects as the "Ashleys" and the "Brads"), it was clear to anyone who has ever so much as driven by the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas where this professor found her material.

The Phantom Professor was outed and her teaching contract not renewed. But she made lemonade from the lemons, seizing upon writing and editing assignments that came to her, presumably, due at least in part to the publicity surrounding her blog. She also continued to write on the blog, adding interesting stories, some funny, some sad and some hopeful. Her blog is one of my daily visiting spots.

Why am I writing about this, you ask? Well, now the Phantom Professor (actually, Elaine Liner) has graciously offered to conduct an online writing workshop at her blog. I'm trying to make the time to participate in this, in between staying on top of matters and work and pursuing the exciting career opportunities on the horizon. I thought you might enjoy participating as well, or at least reading the contributions of those who are.

This week's assignment was to write an opening sentence and post it in the comments where requested (titled, "Assignment 1: Compelling Sentence). The sheer variety of the offerings (211 at last count) is amazing . . . and some of them are very impressive! Curiously, these words are among those appearing in the "compelling sentences" of multiple authors:

blood
spandex
life
father
rain
eyes
vomit(ed)

Check it out . . . it's well worth a read!