Writing Craft & Process
Occasionally, I write about writing practices and perspectives that have worked for me. My hope is that any wisdom I’ve discerned for myself is beneficial to you as well. Click on the links below to read posts on craft and process. You can also find more reflections on these in my monthly Writing Updates.
In the Thicket
I am fascinated by small birds that can fly through bushes without smacking into the maze of branches inside. In a bush or a thicket, the chaos of limbs and twigs may seem to “bar the way” for orderly movement. But somehow, birds and other creatures have learned to maneuver the dense space.
Trust the Detail
Sometimes insight arrives suddenly and sometimes it grows over the course of years. This post reflects the slower variety of revelation.
A Darker Travel
While I give some basic outlines of my writing projects and progress in the monthly “Writing Update” posts, I thought it might be interesting to share some more details about my projects—what they’re about, where I’m at in working on them, what questions and discoveries are driving me. This first one is about
The Joy of a New Notebook
My birthday was earlier this month, and one of my presents was a new journal. This was fortuitous timing, since I have just come to the end of my latest poetry journal, a rainbow-tessellated hardcover I found at Goodwill. I started this journal December 31, 2022. It is full of decent drafts, terrible tries, and several pieces I am proud of, pieces that …
Writing Advice*: Getting Unstuck
Last week, I finished up running a residency for the MFA in Creative Writing program at SPU’s campus. The conversations were rich, the guest writers and lecturers delightful, and the student readings superb. Even now, as a staff member, I come away from the residencies inspired to write more and write more better.
Abstract Nouns
I’m a sucker for abstract nouns. I love how they sound at the end of a sentence, how they carry a weight other nouns envy. Abstract nouns are also, of course, problematic. Their vagueness can lend false importance to a sentence. They can be used rhetorically for unjust ends. Two people can use the same abstract noun and speak right past each other. So w…
The Literary Value of Flatulence
I had Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night before me during silent reading time at the beginning of my math class. Shakespeare had always been a struggle for me, but now all of a sudden things starting clicking. I was catching the flow of the narrative, keeping up with the witty banter, excited to see what would happen next to the characters.
The Beginning of Learning
Sometimes you have to learn something new. Recently, for me, that something new has been Shakespeare. Sure, I read Shakespeare in high school, briefly dabbled in the sonnets since then. This year, however, I set myself the goal to read one Shakespeare play per month.
The Serendipitous Book
“If you’re interested in time travel, you should read Before the Coffee Gets Cold,” my friend said. I opened the library app Libby on my phone, and found the audiobook by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. “Oof, a 12-week wait,” I said. I placed a hold, and for a couple months forgot about it.
On Writing Flow
Lately, I’ve been trying to reflect on my writing process: what works for me? Over the years, I’ve accumulated quite a pile of other people’s advice and practices. When it comes to writing (or probably to any art), each person’s process is their own. We become stymied when we try to fit ourselves into the mold of someone else’s method. We become free wh…
The Honey of Peace in Old Poems
Sometimes I make a serendipitous book acquisition. A title catches my eye, an author sounds vaguely familiar, the book has been referenced in something else I’m reading. I may sit down that day with the book and discover its magical wisdom, somehow exactly
My Three Words for 2024
At the end of 2021, I saw a friend post about her “three words” for the year. She had picked them in January, and in December, she reflected on what she had learned and what those words meant to her throughout the year. In 2022, I decided to do the same thing.
On the Usefulness of Dead Ends
I have amblyopia, which means my brain favors one eye over the other. When I was in kindergarten, I started wearing glasses to correct this imbalance. I also had to do eye exercises with a patch over my dominant (right) eye. One of the eye exercises involved completing mazes. This was a challenge, because my left eye saw things a little blurrier—lines c…
The Tourist and the Artist
Note: This piece originally appeared as “The Tourist vs. the Artist” on my WordPress blog in 2021. I have revised and expanded it here. I took photography all through high school. Though I enjoyed the classes and excelled in some advanced technical processes (e.g., color slides, silk screening), I never d…