Writing Process Blog Tour: How Do You Write?

A boatload of gratitude is sent to Ed Kearns for inviting me to participate in the MY WRITING PROCESS BLOG TOUR, a path linking writers’ blogs in a discussion about approaches to fiction and non-fiction. Ed's recent publication of the short story collection "Ten Men," detailing loss in various broken lives of American men will be followed by his upcoming novel "Write Me Wrong," a cross-genre narrative of one man's struggle to reconcile life as an author, husband and father. Ed's answers to the MY WRITING PROCESS BLOG TOUR, performances, and collections of his work can be found, viewed and purchased here.

What are you working on? 
I’m working on a collection of stories recalling immigration of Ukrainian and Russian Americans fresh out of post-Communist Eastern Europe, taking from anecdotes on living and adapting to American life and retracing while reexamining national loyalty, through the 1990’s into post-9/11 era. Also, I’m finalizing edits on an upcoming prose and poetry collection, A Realistic Place: stories of finding normal.

How does your work differ from other writers of your genre?
I have been told that my fiction sounds like poetry and my poetry sounds like fiction. If that makes it different, that’s alright, but I do strive for all sentences to have strong rhythm, to stand off the page, and to make the reader think twice about what they have just read.

Why do you write what you do? 
The writing inspiration happens most after encountering found language or content, like hearing the news, bad news in particular, which the papers aren’t lacking in. I think recently my writing is a mix of characters’ coping with the absurdity of the world while examining how to get through it with some of your nerves and wits intact.

How does your writing process work? 

The beginning of a session always begins with lots of free-writing about how I don’t know how to write, and as soon as I realize I’m becoming self-centered and deprecating, I remember the bit of story idea information that set me off to create and go from there. I really enjoy writing late at night, when it’s quieter outside, with one song on repeat setting a tone and making a secret soundtrack for the work. 


Next week you'll hear from the unparalleled Dolan Morgan, author of debut story collection, That's When the Knives Come Down (Aforementioned Productions) releasing August 20th, 2014, and Editor at the Atlas Review literary magazine. Check Dolan's blog for his answers!