Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing

Posts by Mina Witteman

To blog or not to blog

Posted on March 8, 2012

My good friend Richard Tulloch mused in his blog post of today over the tyrannical regime of blog hits. With that blog post, he touched a tender spot in my blogging system. Is blogging about numbers? Is it about the content of your post? Is it something else, something we can’t quite grasp? This is what I commented on Richard’s blog post: I remember one good friend – a famous Australian writer, not unknown to yourself, Richard – who told me at the onset of my blogging life, that the best way to start was to never check the stats. Of course, that heartfelt advice never actually landed in my brain and, being the math girl I am, I obsessively checked the stats, leaving me…

Creative Writing in Amsterdam – the basics

Posted on January 31, 2012

LiteSide Schrijft! Cursus creatief schrijven: Verhalen weven langs de Zijderoute. Borrelen er in jou ook verhalen, maar weet je niet hoe je ze op moet schrijven of welke vorm van schrijven het beste bij je past? Schrijf je al voor je werk, maar wil je je mogelijkheden uitbreiden? Dan is de cursus Verhalen weven langs de Zijderoute van LiteSide Schrijft! beslist iets voor jou! Are you, too, brimming with stories, but do you have no clue how to write them down or which genre fits you best? Is writing a part of your professional life, but would you also like to explore the creative side of writing? Now, you can sign up for the course Weaving Stories Along The Silk Road of LiteSide Schrijft! Inhoud cursus  In alle culturen…

I’m Flying

Posted on January 25, 2012

A short post this time. Just to let you all know that in a couple of hours I will be on my way to New York, to the Winter Conference of the SCBWI. Main objectives? Meeting with my friends from all over the world, expanding my network, and learn a thing or two about the craft of writing. I’ll be at the Marketing Intensive on Friday, where I hope to find out more on how we writers can market our books and find our readers. One of the speakers is Susan Raab of Raab Associates, a stellar marketing firm working the field of children’s books. We are trying to get her to come to the Netherlands and enlighten us here, too. Saturday will be…

You’re Not Icarus

Posted on January 3, 2012

Or how to fly through 2012. A long time ago the works of the inimitable Panamarenko — artist, engineer, poet, physicist, inventor and visionary — grabbed me. Panamarenko has dedicated his life to the force of gravity, or rather to beating that force, to flight and speed, to movement and energy, to spaceships, aircrafts and submarines. From the moment I came across his work I was awed by how his amazing mind works, mesmerized by his pencil drawings, lightly colored and with scribbled calculations all over them, and intrigued by his installations. One of his projects drew my special attention, the one where he crosses my love for myth with my love for science: the Icarus Project. We all know about Icarus and about how he…

Bart Moeyaert is a Dreamer

Posted on December 14, 2011

One of the people I admire immensely is Belgian author and poet Bart Moeyaert, so when my teacher, prize-winning author Benny Lindelauf, read a chapter from Moeyaert’s much-praised book Brothers (Broere), last Saturday, I sat back and let his beautiful prose seep into my inner world. In Brothers Moeyaert gives the reader a touching peek into his childhood as the youngest of seven brothers. Good things never come in ones, is my experience. And indeed this one didn’t either, for Bart Moeyaert turned out to be scheduled for a talk, an interview and a debate in Amsterdam. Needless to say that I rushed over to the Balie right away. I have to thank my dear friend Daphne de Heer of the SLAA — the association that…

I Survived!

Posted on December 3, 2011

The Literary Death Match. I can easily say that for me it was one of the highlights of 2011, even though it scared the shit out of me. People filed into the theater at the Smart Project Space, more people than I had anticipated. I ducked into one of the reserved chairs in the front row, my back turned to the masses, pretending they weren’t there. My muse and a couple of friends had my back, so I could concentrate on breathing. Breathing? What breathing? I didn’t breathe at all. Todd Zuniga and Megan C. Garr took the stage. They introduced the Literary Death Match and what it was about: 4 readers reading from their work, 3 jurors ready to slash 2 of the…