Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing

Posts by Mina Witteman

Gone Writing – Day 18

Posted on January 19, 2016

While watching the sun rise over Lanikai Beach, Kirsten and I talked about how music and beats and general noise, like the lapping of waves on the beach, spurs us on while writing and the different kind of music or sound we need when we’re thinking, creating.   For thinking, plotting, creating I need a quiet beat, either classical music, native American chants or just nature sounds. I love the sound of water and the sound of wind. A wordless beat that half-hypnotizes me and shuts me off from the real world. Uptempo or downtempo depends on the kind of project I’m working on. When I’m ready to write the story I connect it to music that will drive me toward a certain mood, a state of mind that allows…

Categories: A Bit of Everything

Gone Writing – Day 17

Posted on January 18, 2016

The biggest advantage of traveling without Internet is time. Time to read. Time to write. On my way to my next destination I wrote three scenes for the novel, read two books and reread part of another. The first two books were excellent but dark reads. Becoming Chloe by Catherine Ryan Hyde is the heartbreaking story of two teens on the streets. Throwaways, as Ryan Hyde calls them, not runaways because runaways have parents who want them back. Nobody wants Jordy and Chloe back. A dark book but one with a hopeful ending. The other one was The Nest by Kenneth Oppel, one of my favorite writers since his Silverwing trilogy, with gorgeous dark illustrations by Jon Klassen. The Nest is a harrowing story, of the sort that grabs you by the throat and…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, YA books

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Gone Writing – Day 15

Posted on January 16, 2016

One more day and night to go before I travel on to my next destination.   These past weeks were intense with days of glorious, sometimes even demonic writing and days of calm and reflective composing. Days of solitude and days when my muse popped in to shake up my thinking. Days when I shamelessly called in my writer friends Jim, Donna and Scott to brainstorm about this wretched project of mine. Days that I plunged so deep into the dark that I was beyond grateful to be enveloped by the loving care of the Adelson family. Good weeks. Productive weeks. Weeks that taught me my writing soars when I’m alone.   The book ain’t half done and I have decided that I need to come back here to finish it. It’ll be a few months…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, YA books

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Gone Writing – Day 14

Posted on January 15, 2016

Fog view. Fog brain. One scene written. Protagonist fleeing from the light into the dark. Will she find her way back to the light? No.   I’ve thought long and hard about the novel’s ending and I’ve decided there is only one plausible ending. Bad. Sad. Dark. There will be light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, but she won’t see it. Or maybe she does but too late. Showing the reader how she slides down the slope and away from the light will be the biggest challenge of this project. I will need to make the reader believe that she has not other options left. Then again… how often does the story take me into a different direction? Everything can change with the first, second, third, fourth…

Categories: A Bit of Everything

Gone Writing – Day 13

Posted on January 14, 2016

Until today I was so wrapped up in my story that I never realized that there was more than yesterday’s flash fiction kernel that started it, or maybe not started it but at least unconsciously spurred me on to write it. I should’ve known when I started my journey at Schiphol Airport and took out my passport, because I carry my passport with me in a Penguin card holder that depicts the cover of D.H. Lawrence’s The Lost Girl. I should’ve known when I pulled out my travel pouch and notebook to scribble down my thoughts during the 11-hour flight to San Francisco, because I carry my pens, sharpies, pencils, my good luck trinkets with me in a Penguin travel pouch that is printed with the cover of Jack Kerouac’s On…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, YA books

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Gone Writing – Day 12

Posted on January 13, 2016

Besides writing longer novels, I write short stories. For the young but also for adults. My adult short stories are flash fiction pieces, often no more than a few lines or 250 words at the most. I love writing flash fiction. It forces me to be concise, sharp, snappy. It forces me to be harsh and merciless. Not necessarily topic- or story-wise, although my flash fiction often turns out a tad gruesome, but harsh and merciless when it comes to trimming the word count. I mostly write the flash fiction in English and there’s no fluffing up with a limited vocabulary. It pushes me to not skirt the core of the story but to go straight for the kill.   Sometimes a flash fiction story germinates and grows into a novel, like…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, YA books

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