Creative Writing

 Sorry I haven’t checked in more this week, I am in Anchorage at classes for my master’s degree in creative writing from UAA. It is like camp. They keep us busy from early morning to late at night with lectures and workshops and readings so we can’t get in too much trouble at the Blue Fox bar. I have heard poet Kim Addonizio say to write only “what you absolutely need to say.” Novelist Valerie Miner said be careful not get stuck in ” a self protective world of willed competence.” I think she meant the same thing runner Steve Prefontaine did when he said, “don’t be afraid to give up the good for the great.” Poet Derek Burleson said, “Sometimes I write in seizures.” Essayist Craig Childs said there’s only two things you need to know to be a writer, “what’s the story and who’s your audience.” Professor Sherry Simpson used Jackie Chan to teach us about writing and life in a series of clips from his movies. He said that real sharks work better than mechanical ones because you can’t fake fear. (And you thought writing was easy, skipping through the fields tossing daisies kind of stuff, didn’t you? The funny thing was, there were signs on the door of the building where she gave that lecture warning of a black bear in the area. I don’t think anyone went off in search of him.)