Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing

Posts from the “Books” Category

Gone Writing – Day 22

Posted on January 23, 2016

my writer soul splits my life my heart and mind clashing like the sea and the land the fine line in between fractal and ever changing i find myself standing strong in the sand crushed by a big kahuna slipping on wet rock caressed by the fizz of foam     the want to stay afloat rips as waves slam me ashore the light wins over the dark the need to find my footing grazes as currents pull me under the dark steals the light i leave my skin behind will the surf to touch my nerves and meld me before i drown        

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, YA books

Tagged: , , , , , ,

Gone Writing – Day 21

Posted on January 22, 2016

I find myself on the island of Maui. Haven’t seen much of it yet, but going there reminded me of a family back in Amsterdam, who were so smitten by Hawaii they gave their children Hawaiian names: Maui, Lanikai and Ikaika.   Names are important in stories. They reveal a lot about your character. I choose mine with care, knowing that often the name changes as I get to know my character better. Sometimes I choose a name of someone I know because my character resembles that person. Like with the names in my debut Deedee’s Revenge. I needed a name for a courageous protagonist. I picked Deedee, after a distant cousin, at that time a spunky girl just like my Deedee was. Deedee’s brother, her nemesis, has my personal nemesis’s middle…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, YA books

Tagged: , , , , , ,

Gone Writing – Day 20

Posted on January 21, 2016

You don’t have a story until you write it. That’s my adage and a spinoff from my overall writer’s motto: no guts, no glory.   But … writing the story isn’t all. To me the most important part of writing is the revision process and I would like to add a second line to the adage: You don’t have a story until you revise it. Multiple times. A story needs to grow up. It needs to mature and it can only reach maturity if you mold and guide it, if you change and tweak it. I revise my stories multiple times and I think revision is where the true joy of being a writer blossoms. Yes, I also get discouraged every now and again, like when I hit the fifteenth…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, YA books

Tagged: , , ,

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

Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

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

Tagged: , , , , , , ,

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

Tagged: , , , , ,