Narrative, Dialogue, Style, and Prose (pun intended)

I sat there staring at the book on my desk. It didn't move. It didn't even flinch. It just sat there glaring back like an angry dog waiting for me to take one step closer. "Francine Prose" dominated the white section of the cover like a neon sign in the dark declaring some midnight debauchery or all-you-can-eat buffet. How do I sit here and write about something that is meant to teach me how to write without sounding like an imbecile?
I picked up Style: an Anti-textbook and began to dive through the required reading for another class. Afterwards, I found myself diving through the quicksand of Cicero, Longinus, and Quintillian for their poignant discourse on rhetorical musings and expositions (big words for dense texts). Why do I do this to myself? Oh yeah, I want to make my writing sing! I rounded out this meal of academic discovery with a slice or two out of the Norton Book of Composition Studies. The essays, the chapters of the aforementioned books, and the selections from the long dead rhetoricians all began to coalesce into a unifying stew of understanding.
Writing, rather the writing process, has taken a new light in the synaptic demesne of my dementia. Style, narrative, dialogue from the Prose selections echoed the tired dead words of those crazy Roman rhetoricians who live vicariously through their Greek predecessors' fame. The ideas behind structuring sentences, choosing words, building "refined" dialogues, and simplifying messages echoed Lanham's Anti-textbook distinctly while still paying homage to Aristotle, Plato, and even Gorgias. One who knows how to speak effectively also learns how to write effectively, according to the dead Greeks and Romans.
I find it very enjoyable when the work of several classes mesh into a coherent functional understanding. These lessons on style, grace, form, and clarity will not only influence my own writing but also how I instruct others in composition.

Careers in writing

I am a teacher. I remember reading to my younger sister when we were tucked away in a neglected corner of my grandmother's house. I remember many people who still owe their high school diplomas to the kid who sat next to them. I recall when i first stepped into a writing center at a campus far away in time and space from where I am now. Those first steps marked many decisions later, decisions that have formed the ground that my conviction as a teacher stands. My concentration is composition and rhetoric, and that voice will carry my drive into the classrooms of many aspiring young near-collegiate minds.
I have examined the careers offered for writers, authors, and editors in the field of writing and have found both the prospects of the freelance writer and the grant writer appealing. The schedules are open; the projects are not nearly as driven or forced in commitment as to deprive students of a very willing instructor. While the benefits are non-existent in the literal sense, the prospect of notoriety in even a minor sense and the added income to that of an instructor should substantiate a serviceable living. Make no mistake, my drive is to teach.
I love the written word. I am challenged by the project that plays with concepts of voice, style, organization, and the employment of good rhetoric. My freelance writing will comprise short fiction, rhetorical analysis, and selected technical works for non-profits. When my work expands a bit, I will write grant for non-profits as an extension of this desire. All these projects will in turn proved the maintained practice and discipline to accurately teach marketable skills to prospective writers.