I know it sounds hokey, but the way I think about writing is the same way that I think about fishing: you have to be aware of your surroundings if you want to catch the big one. We learned so much this semester about writing--from context and audience awareness to breaking the rules and taking risks. And there seems to be one thing that underlies everything that we talked about--before you know what to write, you need to immerse yourself in the writing of that genre to know how to write it. It's the same way with fishing--you have to consider the river that you're casting in (its temperature, its currents, its typical stock, and its history) before you know what fly to choose and your style of casting. Every time I sit down to write, I do the same thing: I think about the genre I'm writing in (its audience, its conventions, its subject, and its history) before I decide my content and style.