I’ve worked outdoors quite a bit in my lifetime, and if you walk around with a rake, you will find things to rake up. If you have a sonnet, you’ll find things to sonnet.
Fellow Canadian writer Karen Connelly wrote a series of books loosely about the same subject: her time in Thailand. First she wrote poetry. Then she wrote a non-fiction book. Finally, she wrote a novel, "The Lizard Cage".
That fascinated me when she talked about it during one of her workshops. Although neither she or I used the term "source code", that's exactly what it is. Or, rather, that's exactly how I interpret her progression of work -- I'm not speaking for her.
I adapted her approach to create EFFing (Emotion, Fact, Fiction) Writing to help me start with the emotion. Expressing emotion is definitely one of my weak spots (writing or otherwise), so I wanted to help myself inject more of it into my novel.
It's still a work in progress (the approach AND the novel), but I'm very happy with the results so far.
Mostly a side comment to how rich and deep this post is (thank you!!) but I’m so jealous of all the city art and book launches (and dancing!) happening!! Must visit soon to live that up :)!
WILD THINGS WITH COMMAS!!!!
"Source code" -- I love that!
Fellow Canadian writer Karen Connelly wrote a series of books loosely about the same subject: her time in Thailand. First she wrote poetry. Then she wrote a non-fiction book. Finally, she wrote a novel, "The Lizard Cage".
That fascinated me when she talked about it during one of her workshops. Although neither she or I used the term "source code", that's exactly what it is. Or, rather, that's exactly how I interpret her progression of work -- I'm not speaking for her.
I adapted her approach to create EFFing (Emotion, Fact, Fiction) Writing to help me start with the emotion. Expressing emotion is definitely one of my weak spots (writing or otherwise), so I wanted to help myself inject more of it into my novel.
It's still a work in progress (the approach AND the novel), but I'm very happy with the results so far.
I wrote about it a while back on my own Substack platform, if you're interested: https://www.towritewithwildabandon.com/p/how-to-start-effing-writing
I know that this is a bit of a tangent, but I figured there were enough parallels that's I'd pipe up!
Break a pen, both of you, at your upcoming readings!
Would be curious to dive deeper here …”more important than a poem’s legibility is its embodiment.” Love this. Poem as offering. Totally.
Mostly a side comment to how rich and deep this post is (thank you!!) but I’m so jealous of all the city art and book launches (and dancing!) happening!! Must visit soon to live that up :)!