393: The Craft of Revision - Interview with William Germano

Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing William Germano

Bill is professor of English at Cooper Union, where he served as dean of the faculty of humanities and social sciences for more than a decade. During an earlier career in publishing, he served as editor-in-chief at Columbia University Press and as vice-president and editorial director at Routledge. 

His previous books on writing include Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books (third edition, 2016) and From Dissertation to Book (second edition, 2013). 

He has also written Eye Chart, a book about how we test vision, for Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons series (2017), and The Tales of Hoffmann, a study of Powell and Pressburger’s 1951 opera-film.  

Most recently he has co-authored, with Kit Nicholls, Syllabus: The Remarkable, Unremarkable Document That Changes Everything (Princeton UP, 2020) and his latest book on writing, On Revision: The Only Writing That Counts, which we’ll be talking about today.

 

In this episode William Germano and I discuss:

• When you should start from scratch and why it’s a great technique for your writing.
• What skill all writers need to master and how it will improve your writing and revising.
• Why he believes that if something is worth writing, it’s worth revising as well.

 

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

For more info and show notes: diymfa.com/393