"I'm a founding editor (with writer, Rachel Yoder) of draft: the journal of process. The concept is that we have a published short story by two established writers, and we ask the authors for the first drafts to appear alongside the final pieces. Then we do an interview with the author about the process of creating that early draft and making it into the final story."
"We had Greg Hrbek and Mary Miller in the first issue, and now we have Matt Bell and Stacey Richter in this latest issue. We have Dave Eggers and Amy Bloom in the next one. The magazine reveals to students that people don't just speak into the printing press. There's work. There are about 10 drafts between initial inspiration and what the final published, polished product looks like. That gives students some confidence, because they see that mistakes were made, and the writers worked on it."
"We do a workshop at the core of the course. So students write a short story to begin with, and everybody reads each other's writing. We all discuss it there, and we put work into editing the stories. Sometimes a student will be hesitant to share their experiences. I hear so much, 'I'm not a good writer,' or a student prefaces their story with, 'I'm so bad at this.' There's this real hesitation to express oneself or be confident that they have something to say."
"But the best part is, students will take the writing class and think about story structure in their music. It's all about communication and connection, expression. So when they learn, 'I can communicate through writing,' they go back and transfer it to music."
