Thoughts about writing, and the universe.
Since coming home from the ski trip with students, I've had some time on my own. Students have been taking part in a Red Cross first aid course, followed by a Model United Nations simulation. I'm alone at home too because my husband is traveling, and so I've had a different kind of week--away from... Continue Reading →
A tension has been on my mind for a while, between the stories we tell in fiction and the question of meaning. It was on my mind in September 2020, then again two years later, December 2022. It seems that perhaps every year in autumn I find myself thinking about this theme. Here I am... Continue Reading →
On the first of May this year, Labor Day in Norway and around much of the world, the first-year class took its annual hike up the local mountain, Jarstadheia. The hike took us up 584 meters into thick snow--more than a foot along the top plateau. We formed a winding column of sixty or seventy... Continue Reading →
Sending out short story submissions is an endeavor. I devote a number of hours each month to identifying journals that are open for submissions and cataloging where I've sent which story. A new free tool for finding journals has recently come to my attention. Today, let's explore Chill Subs and see how it can help... Continue Reading →
I need to keep today's post short. I'll confess, as time goes on, my posts on Words Like Trees become shorter and shorter. Perhaps this is because I have other writing projects going; I haven't found it easy of late to fit blogging into my writing time. At the end of a two-week break from... Continue Reading →
On the second of January, I had a flash fiction piece published with Electric Literature's The Commuter. It had been about two years prior to this since my last publication, and I had been feeling discouraged. I am feeling grateful and reaffirmed to be able to get this piece out there, and it has been... Continue Reading →
In my English literature class this term, we have been working on writing theme statements. When we read the two novellas in Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen, we wrote something like this: "Yoshimoto expresses the idea that we can move towards healing from grief by forming human relationships and seeking acceptance." The theme statement helps us wrap... Continue Reading →
In this busy autumn term at school, I've been taking time to write when I can. I have a daily goal of devoting 85 minutes to my writing each day (and I include in that time blogging here on Words Like Trees, sending out story submissions, meeting with my writing group, as well as my... Continue Reading →
My biggest questions about stories the last few years have been focused on structure. What is the role of conflict? Do all stories really follow the same dramatic structures, or is this an oversimplification? What alternative story structures might exist (such as Kishลtenketsu), and how do they function in different cultural contexts? When I asked... Continue Reading →
My writing projects these last few months have been short stories. I'm using what I learned in the short story writing class I took through One Story this past summer, which used core principles of dramatic structure to map out conflict, and I think this is helping me make my stories more engaging for readers,... Continue Reading →
Words like trees 