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This chapter explores the connections between Le Lexique de l’auteur (the seminar of 1973–4 in which Barthes reflects on the genesis of the text that will become Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes), La Préparation du roman (his last Collège de France lecture course of 1978–80), and critical essays he wrote in the mid- and late 1970s on scription, the ductus, and writing as gesture (from an anthropological point of view, as in the posthumously published Variations sur l’écriture, and within the paintings of Bernard Réquichot and Cy Twombly). The main focus will be on Barthes’s reflection, across the two seminars, on the idea of the virtual work: his exploration of the modalities of literary genesis in the grammatical mood of the ‘as if’, and his development of ways of modelling literary genesis through the concept of the œuvre-maquette. This bringing together of modelling, genesis, and writing as process, placed in relation to the desire to write as a significant dimension of actual writing, is one of the strikingly original aspects of Barthes’s 1970s thought. It is one that the posthumous publication of the seminars and lectures allows us to understand.

This chapter is concerned with how writing can be used to enhance, extend, and deepen students' learning. Students normally think of writing as difficult and challenging—as a kind of work. And to some extent, it is. Even so, writing also has its pleasures, including the pleasure of discovery through the act of writing. One of writing's greatest pleasures is using one's minds actively and imaginatively—considering ideas, exploring them, and finding ways to express them effectively. Hence, the chapter shows that the teacher's goal is to help students experience writing as an opportunity to grow intellectually and imaginatively, to develop their thinking, and to enrich their learning. This can be done by designing assignments that engage them in meaningful, productive intellectual work. These assignments can often be linked with reading, another critical faculty that can help students develop.

This chapter discusses the different typologies of manuscripts and writing strategies. It introduces the concept of ratiocination, which is the most extreme form of “thinking on paper” and is the approach used by the so-called “syncretists”. It is stated that most typologies work with a model process as a kind of contrastive background against which any deviation in a concrete writing process can be highlighted. “Thinking with the quill” refers to the overabundance of strategies, and it inevitably raises the question of why Arthur Schopenhauer considered this form of thinking inferior to ratiocination inside the skull. The last part of the discussion is spent on the three major stages in the writing process: the avant-texte, the text, and the so-called post-text.

This introductory chapter discusses manuscripts, manuscript research, and genetic criticism. It states that the focal point of genetic criticism is the process of writing, and that the aim of this book is to demonstrate that the composition process is an integral part of what the works of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett convey. It also looks at the differences between the works of Beckett and Joyce, and provides a brief description of the rest of the book's chapters.

This original screenplay presents a fictional dialogue with Spike Jonze, drawing much of its content from interviews, speeches made by Jonze, and other writings concerning the nature of screenwriting. The dialogue traverses a consideration of the writing process and themes of Jonze’s two original screenplays: Her and Where the Wild Things Are.

This chapter recounts from a personal viewpoint the scholarly, genetic activity of working with the National Library of Ireland as it acquired its new Joyce manuscripts and also offers three short examples from the new manuscripts. The chapter narrates experiences of reconstructing Joyce's writing processes. The task for the National Library was threefold: to report on the documents' authenticity, contents, and value. The new Ulysses manuscripts at the National Library of Ireland are allowing scholars to begin to develop a more detailed and subtler sense of the drumskin on which Joyce tapped out his book. The gap between the known and the unknown will never be fully closed, but in small and large ways, the new manuscripts will help scholars of Joyce's writing processes move a little farther toward the known.

This chapter describes a curriculum- and classroom-based, collaborative writing-lab approach to language instruction and intervention. Included are details about how to analyze written story probes to establish baseline profiles, to guide intervention, and to measure progress. Dynamic assessment and individual scaffolding are described as tools for promoting language and literacy development of students with special needs. Evidence is reported supporting reliability of the story-probe assessment technique and for changes in language performance for 29 students with special needs (SN) and 123 classmates with typical language (TL), who participated in writing-lab instructional and intervention activities for at least half a school year at grades 2, 3, and 4. The students with SN showed changes that suggested that they benefited from the additional scaffolding they received from language interventionists in the classroom.

Methodological writing on complex teams is examined from three perspectives: (1) in process, (2) ideal, and (3) methodological literature. Under the topic of in-process methodological writing, the reader will learn how to construct bins for methodological documentation, from logs and memos to coding and the ongoing construction of a methodological library. Periodic reviews of methodological work will also be discussed. Ideal descriptions of methodology, which are in constant flux, are required throughout the conduct of a project, and this section provides useful, hands-on examples of these forms and how they can serve team needs. In the last section, the reader will learn about new ways to kick-start team writing on methodological issues. This chapter emphasizes the importance of methodological writing to the endeavor of qualitative research, urging qualitative researchers to savor the joys of methodological writing as they would the joys of reporting on substantive findings.

This chapter focuses on discourses about duplicity in Madras. It discusses ensuing struggles over attestation as well as the anxieties and complications of the writing process as manifested in legal domains. It also looks at the creation of counterfeit consciousness and tackles efforts that rearranged the relationship between law and writing, without stabilizing juridical truth.

Shilts finally addresses his addiction to alcohol and marijuana, including in-patient rehabilitation and Alcoholics Anonymous. Shilts grapples with the death of his friend Gary Walsh from AIDS, and the unexpected death of his mother. Shilts offers a first-person account of physical abuse he suffered as a child for an anthology edited by actor Suzanne Somers. Shilts is passed over for inclusion in the documentary version on the life of Harvey Milk, while rights sold to his Milk bio languish and a film is never produced.

This chapter looks at the process of writing about writing. It explains that all forms of writing designate a relationship between writer and public and that style demonstrates both the ability and willingness to comprehend and participate in a worldview that is successive and grounded in history. It also explores the reasons behind the success of the theoretical style of writing.

The introduction reads a poem by Chen Dongdong in order to think through the libidinal and ethical motivations for genre study. It balances the urge to intervene, categorize, and create against the responsibility to artists, editors, and readers, ultimately finding that this conflict is best engaged using methodologies from translation, specifically Yan Fu’s concepts of fidelity, fluency, and elegance. This justifies the translation practice of the rest of the book, as well as the book’s mix of literary analysis, sociology, and history. The introduction ends with a brief summary of chapters one through five.

Shilts begins work on And the Band Played On for St. Martin’s Press – despite an initial struggle to find a publisher for the work. Shilts tackles the complexity of writing about an ongoing infectious disease pandemic with an unknown ending. Shilts unveils his thesis that AIDS succeeded because of government neglect, gay leaders public relations concerns, and news media reluctance to cover gay-related issues. Shilts employs “new journalism” techniques to tell the story of AIDS including reconstructed dialogue and internal thoughts. Shilts learns of the existence of a gay man infected with HIV still sexually active. Shilts uncovers and misinterprets the first “cluster study” on KS victims in southern California. Initial criticism of Shilts for “Patient Zero” concept raised.

Although revues today are known for having no narrative whatsoever, during this era, a script that included recurring characters and a threadbare plot was standard. This chapter looks at Harold Atteridge’s creative process in writing the script and developing the overarching structure for the shows, with an emphasis on the 1914 edition. The use of specific characters, scenes, and songs were carefully ordered to create a sense of motion and flow that made the revue work on stage. Some of Atteridge’s inspirations are considered, using multiple drafts of scenarios and scripts to understand how the writing process unfolded. The reception of the show and its impact on opening night, as well as what critics thought of the final product, is also included.

This chapter describes Nathalie Sarraute's day-to-day life that was arranged around the basic existential necessity that “writing was always difficult, but not writing was worse.” It reveals how Nathalie kept a disciplined routine of writing every morning for two or three hours in a café five minutes' walk away from home and kept domestic preoccupations and family responsibilities to a minimum. It also discloses how Natalie voiced every word in a low murmuring that went unnoticed in the surrounding hubbub and wrote slowly, which resulted to repeated corrections. The chapter emphasizes how Nathalie's books would take written shape only after pages and pages of fairly formless attempts and the beginning of the story in place for the rest to follow. It details Nathalie's writing process that would take about two years, after which she would revise exhaustively, before giving her manuscript to her husband to be typed.