Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing

Gone Writing – Day 32

Posted on February 2, 2016

i have nothing left to give said the muse

disconcerting news that forces my writer’s imagination

to find release in solitary thinking

in fantasies

dreams

words that propel me into ian’s blue hawaiian spiral wings

send me soaring over

red hot molten rock that burns the trees

winding through lush green valleys

forests that climb up steep cliffs where ropes

of sugar sweet white fizz cascade down

until my brain whirls like an airfoil

pours out novel words

new lines

to paint a story

like the goddess of fire gushes passion from her pit

and coats the earth’s crust in black

and silver

mahalo pele

 

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Gone Writing – Day 31

Posted on February 1, 2016

Totally unrelated to the writing. Or maybe not so unrelated.

 

In 2013, Tesla’s Elon Musk released the Hyperloop (Alpha) white-paper. In order to accelerate the development of a functional prototype and to encourage innovation amongst students, his company SpaceX organized the Hyperloop competition.

A couple of students of Delft University of Technology decided to accept the challenge and formed the Delft Hyperloop Team to design the best Hyperloop pod possible. They invited other students to apply for a spot on the team and I was super proud when my son Olivier, who studies aerospace engineering at Delft University, was accepted and put in charge of the pod’s batteries.

Since, the team has worked crazy hard to design their pod and to realize their dream: winning the competition and changing the future of transportation.

 

Their design passed the first hurdle back in October and, with 120 other teams, they were invited to present their design at the Spacex Hyperloop Pod Competition Design Weekend and the Texas A&M University this past weekend.

This team, these incredibly smart and innovative students was awarded second prize, just after MIT. They will go on and and build their half-size pod and test it on Musk’s personal Hyperloop track in California this summer.

 

How does that relate to writing?

Be bold. Accept challenges. Push the envelop. Work crazy hard. Be creative.

Dare to dream!

And then live that dream. Like this team of amazing young people does.

 

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Front row, fourth from the left, the curly-headed boy: my son Olivier

 

 

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Gone Writing – Day 30

Posted on January 31, 2016

A friend posted a picture on Facebook of a heron that he said looked like a murderbird plotting a murder. ‘Whoa,’ I commented, ‘I thought I was the murderbird plotting murders. Is that bird gonna write my books now?’

 

No, seriously. I do slip a lot of dark into my young adult stories and my adult thrillers, including murder, unintentional killing, suicide, and other vicious betrayals of and by mankind.

Why?

I ask myself that question with every new story and usually end up blaming my muse, even if I know, deep down, that I must have a dark and ruthless streak or his ideas and inspiration wouldn’t strike a chord.

For what it’s worth, I never set out to write about death. I do know that a story will be dark and more often than not death crops up. That happens mostly when I’m plotting the story and often in what I used to call my ‘but what if…’ phase and now call my ‘push the envelop!’ phase. It’s when I force my thinking past my personal limits and boundaries, when I put all civility aside.

Other times I realize during writing the first draft that the story needs more drastic action to raise the stakes for my protagonist. And is there anything more drastic than death?

 

But… that’s water under the bridge now. The heron has taken over and left me contemplating my future.

 

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Shall I set sail? Or did I just think up a thrilling new death?

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Gone Writing – Day 29

Posted on January 30, 2016

muse-inspired thinking

on the road through

barren black fields of lava

rolling hills of yellowed grass

rainforests crawling up steep cliffs

i open the window and let the

wind brush

my skin

the camera ready

i put my feet up

and smile all the way from the

warmth of the valley of the kings

to the icy winds on sky father’s mountain

and think up new adventures

 

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Waipi’o Valley or Valley of the Kings

 

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Gone Writing – Day 28

Posted on January 29, 2016

Four weeks on the road and I moved from San Francisco to Hawaii, not just to write but also to research the third book of the Boreas series, and more specifically Wayfinding or Polynesian navigation, finding your way without instruments, like compasses, maps, or GPS but solely on what you see around you, the stars, the rising and setting of moon and sun, the ocean swells and how waves lap against the hull of your ship, the currents, the winds, the direction birds fly.

 

There’s several ways you can research stories. One is sitting at your laptop and surfing the Internet. You can also go out and meet people, pick their brains, hear their stories, learn about their lives.

Obviously, the latter one will most likely bring you more, not just the facts, the data you need but the personal stories behind the information, like with Kevin, our ocean canoe guide. The problem with this way of research is that you have to go out, you have to approach people, talk to them, and that’s a hard one for me. Being of the shy, reserved kind I rarely walk up to people I never met before, let alone strike up a conversation. I stay in the shadows. I observe. I wait. I try to muster up courage to ask questions. I push myself.

And then usually fail and let the opportunity go by. The everlasting wallflower.

 

But now there might be an app that allows me to meet people and not feel like I have to jump off a cliff into uncharted waters: Flypside. It’s an app with which you can create a forward-facing timeline so you can share where you will be in the future and meet up with the people you choose – people with similar interests – and hang out, do business. Or, in my case, pick their brains. Or write together. Or talk books.

I think Flypside is the perfect app for me to navigate new waters without freaking out too much and I look forward to many Flyp-inspired meetings, because, scary as it is, this app gives me just the control I need to set sail and navigate beyond my limits, to find my way without fear.

 

 

 

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Gone Writing – Day 27

Posted on January 28, 2016

What else makes me happy?

 

 

Reaching my daily word count, even if it’s with a sad scene.

My muse crawling back up to me.

Finding the perfect wave ring to go with the book.

 

And this:

Tasting the salty spray in my face, while I listen for the quietest sounds within the thunder of 40 ft kahunas crashing down on the beach.

 

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Gone Writing – Day 26

Posted on January 27, 2016

Did a lot of writing today. Twice the daily target I had set myself.

No wonder, I hear you say, after yesterday’s inspirational sunset boat ride. Odd thing is that the inspiration was all related to another project. Not a scrap of new insights or ideas for the novel I’m working on now.

 

The ideas I gathered yesterday were all for the third book of my Dutch middle grade series Boreas, the twelve-year-old who sails around the world with his parents. The first book, Boreas en de zeven zeeën (Boreas and the Seven Seas), came out last June, the book birth of the second book, Boreas en de duizend eilanden (Boreas and the Thousand Islands) is scheduled for April 13.

In the third book – no title has popped up yet – Boreas and his parents cross the Pacific. That’s where yesterday’s inspiration, brought to me by the awesome Will Rich and Captain Anthony, will go, because Boreas will not only sail along the east coast of the US but also end up in Hawaii.

 

And yet the writing today soared. Totally unconnected to yesterday’s musings.

Why?

Three reasons, I believe.

The first one has to do with wind. I love the wind. Always did, always will. Can never blow too hard for me. Ever. Wind blows my mind free like nothing else, for as long as I can remember. My mother called me Wind Child when I was young because whenever there was a breeze I would climb up on the roof and just stand there, catching as much wind as I could. The combination wind and water works even better.

The second reason is being by myself. My writing thrives on solitude. I experienced that in San Francisco. I experience it here too. I do write when there’s people around me, but with far less concentration, with far less zeal than when I’m alone. I’ve always known I have misanthropic tendencies, but I never realized they were this strong and I realize now that being a writer is an antisocial profession.

Third reason is being away from my desk. An unexpected discovery, because I spend quite some time alone at my desk back in Amsterdam, but I figured out why. I think. My desk is not just connected to writing but to everything else I have on my plate, from finances to teaching to editing to my work as a Regional Advisor for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and chairman of the Working Group Children’s Books of the Dutch Authors Guild. Being away from Amsterdam creates not only a physical distance but also a mental distance and allows my writing to come first and gives it room to breathe and prosper.

So in the future, I’ll be carving out more time to commit myself to writing. It makes me happy.

 

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Categories: A Bit of Everything