Writing – Page 30 – Gemma D. Alexander

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American Gods, Neil Gaiman, Nicholas Christopher, Tiger Rag, writing fiction

In Which a Review of American Gods Turns into a Writing Riff

Fiction changes lives. I haven’t written fiction since middle school. (Except that one NaNo novel in 2008, but that was therapy.) Even so, I am subject to that universal writerly neurosis – I secretly think that deep inside me lies hidden the great American novel. At least I think it’s universal. Maybe other technical writers are perfectly happy with what they do. Maybe novelists secretly dream of writing that perfectly researched narrative nonfiction.

Anyway. When I got back from Airwaves, an idea for a story popped into my head; a few characters, some themes, a couple of scenes. This is nothing new in itself. I’ve walked around narrating stories in my head that I had no intention of ever writing down since – well, since I stopped writing them down in middle school. But these characters wouldn’t go away. Whatever else I was doing, a part of my brain was thinking about these broken characters and the shit they were going through. Since another good chunk of my brain has been following my kids around in this manner for the past five years, it left precious little attention for the tasks at hand, which has, unfortunately, been noted at the day job. Read More

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Gone Postal, Kontinuum, No Clean Singing, Solstafir, Svartidaudi, Three Imaginary Girls

A Second Serving – Interviews in Iceland

Gone Postal

Far more interesting than my usual navel-gazing posts are the interviews I had with Icelandic musicians who are among the most intelligent, interesting, and entertaining people I have ever met. I left every interview with a better understanding of not only their music, but of music in general.

Earlier I listed some of these interviews. At the time I was still working on more, each of which, in one way or another, posed some kind of writerly challenge. Even though my mistakes are perhaps more apparent here than on the first batch, I hope you get more from these interviews than just my lessons-learned. There is some great music here. Read More

Joseph_Paelinck_-_The_Dance_of_the_Muses

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loafing, muse, Salma Hayek

Where the Muse Takes Me

One of the many things I love about the movie Dogma is Salma Hayek’s portrayal of The Muse – a feminist spirit determined to create her own art, reduced to dancing in a strip club where the patrons are consistently struck with great ideas. The creative muse is always portrayed as female, perhaps because artists in the past have usually been male. Or at least, female artists have not seemed to rely as heavily on the idea of the muse. Perhaps because women have seldom had access to that room of one’s own that offers the luxury of a tryst with the muse, female artists have had to take a more workmanlike approach to their art. Read More

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Hugo House, WriteoRama, writing courses

Write-o-Rama Write-up

Last Saturday was Write-o-Rama at Richard Hugo House, Seattle’s own literary center that supports local writers in myriad ways. Hugo House is one of the premier writing centers in the country. Its programs include writers-in-residence, writing retreats, literary series, and classes for adults and teens that range from fiction to poetry to zines and marketing. Write-o-Rama is an annual Hugo House fundraiser that still manages to give to the writers. Students can choose their cost for a full day of one-hour workshops donated by the teachers, and membership to the house is included at most registration levels.

Write-o-Rama was my first experience with Hugo House, and it was a great introduction. In the course of one day, I took classes on tweeting, story structure, alter-ego development, science as inspiration, and review writing. With only one hour for each class, and about half of that time dedicated to writing exercises, the teachers really only had time to introduce one or two ideas. But it was a great way to get some focused practice, see how many different directions people can go with a simple assignment, find out where to go to learn more, and check out the teachers before committing to longer, more expensive classes.

I came away awed by the talent of Seattle’s writers, both the teachers and my classmates. I also took home a long list of follow-up reading and ideas for more writing to try at home. And a new membership to Hugo House. I need the discount on all the classes I’m going to take.

I’m thinking about starting with “The Mechanics of Plot Topiary.”

Write-o-Rama raised over $5600 for Hugo House.

Category Archive Writing

In Which a Review of American Gods Turns into a Writing Riff