Sharpen your pencils: I'm teaching two classes at Hugo House this fall. Member registration opens today and general registration opens August 22. Scholarships are available: apply here by August 25!

• Wall-to-Wall Writing Prompts will be a fun-for-everyone one-day writing bonanza. I'm bringing in all my favorite prompts. If you're eager to kick start some new writing, this one's for you. Come with some overheard lines of dialogue and leave with six story openings and a plan to finish at least one. Meets Saturday, September 30, 1-4 pm. Sliding scale pricing available for this class. Please call Hugo House at (206) 322-7030.
• Fiction I  is a six-week intro to fiction, with a special focus on character, plot, and landscape. We'll read short stories from James Joyce, Jamaica Kincaid, Flannery O'Connor, Sherman Alexie, and Louise Erdrich, among others. Writing prompts in and out of class will be geared toward writing a short story, though of course all the skills covered are applicable to novels. We'll also learn the basics of the workshop model. Meets Saturdays from October 14 to November 18, 1-3 pm.

Hope to see you then!

This spring, I'm teaching a six-week class on contemporary fairy tales at Hugo House. We'll read Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood and Sarah Shun-lien Bynum and Alissa Nutting, among other fantastic writers. We'll talk about some of my favorite techniques, like everyday magic and intuitive magic. And we'll try our hands at writing our own fairy tales. Class meets Wednesday nights 7-9 pm from May 25-June 29. Registration is currently open for Hugo House members; general registration opens March 22. Scholarships are available and applications are due on March 25.I'm also teaching a 75-minute webinar on Saturday, April 16 called Powerful Objects via Inked Voices. We'll talk about one of my favorite topics: how objects create a special kind of magic in fiction and how useful they are in developing character, plot, and emotional resonance. It's a lecture-based class that will include writing prompts and a Q&A. The class will meet at 12 pm EST / 9 am PST and is just $25. We'll talk about Cynthia Ozick's story "The Shawl," so please read that in advance. You can register here.Speaking of fairy tales, right now at the Henry Art Gallery, you can see Paul McCarthy's White Snow, a wildly whimsical and subversive take on Snow White. A few years ago, I saw his gonzo installation WS at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, a similarly subversive spin on Snow White but somehow less rich than the wood sculptures on view at the Henry. White Snow seems more artful, crafted, and thoughtful, whereas WS was a big raunchy frat party. The Henry is now free on Sundays (huzzah!), so go check it out. Perhaps it will inspire you!

There are still some spots in my 30-minute, $10 online class Powerful Objects, meeting December 9 at 7 pm.  This micro-class is via OneRoom, an online platform designed specifically for creative writing classes allowing real-time interaction via video. The format of the micro-class is a great way to sneak in some writing in this busy time of year, if I do say so myself. Here is the class description:

Italo Calvino wrote that “the moment an object appears in a narrative, it is charged with a special force and becomes like the pole of a magnetic field, a knot in the network of invisible relationships.” We’ll read Kate Bernheimer’s short-short story “Pink Horse” to see how she uses imagery and detail to bring out the psychic power of a particular object. Then we’ll do a writing exercise exploring a character’s relationship with an object. Register here.

In 2016, I'm teaching 1000 Words a Week, a six-week class in which--you guessed it--we will write 1000 words a week. It's like NaNoWriMo but at a more merciful pace. Class meets Thursdays 7-9 pm, starting January 14. General registration opens December 8; if you're a Hugo House member you can register today. Scholarships are available! Apply by December 14. Class description here:

Each week we’ll write 1000 words using big-picture and fine-grain prompts. In class, we’ll lightly workshop pieces, focusing on questions like “What creates energy in this story?” and “What do you want to know more about?” Stories may be part of a larger work or stand alone. We’ll also discuss writers’ thoughts on writing, from classics like Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” to newer essays like Rikki Ducornet’s “The Deep Zoo.” Students will leave class with 5000 new words. Register here.

Finally, I am teaching a mini-lesson called The Priceless Detail at Hugo House's Write-O-Rama, this Saturday at 12 pm & 1 pm.  Here is the class description:

Good liars know that selective detail, not a pile of facts, make a more convincing story. In discussing Chekhov's exceptional use of detail, Francine Prose notes that we live in detail, remember in detail, identify, recognize, and recreate in detail. But finding the right detail in fiction takes a lot of sifting. We'll look to excerpts from Chekhov for inspiration, then immerse ourselves in an exercise drawing on keen observations of our own experiences. Register here.

Wishing you a writing-full season & 2016!

My sixteenth set of writing prompts for Ploughshares, and the last post in this series, compiles 29 all-time favorite prompts from writers and writing teachers across the internet. Here's how it begins:

To round out this year of blogging about writing prompts, I polled writers and writing teachers for their favorite writing prompts–generally, simple prompts that have been useful to them as writers, students, and teachers. One such prompt that I found extremely useful in my early days of writing was, “Write about an obsession.” From this straightforward suggestion, I learned a lot about what can drive a compelling story.Some of these prompts are accessible and instructive; others offer wonderfully evocative images and ideas. For ease of reference, I’ve grouped the prompts into several categories, but certainly some would fit into multiple boxes. It is my hope that these twenty-nine prompts–some specific, some quite open-ended–will help you jump-start any stalled works-in-progress and generate lots and lots of new material.continue reading

The prompt I mentioned as one of my favorites encountered as a writing student, "write about an obsession," resulted in my story "Go East," published in Pindeldyboz back in 2006. It's about one of the most addictive computer games ever. Guess which one!

My 15th set of writing prompts for the Ploughshares blog explores triangular relationships in fiction, with discussions of Mavis Gallant's "Lena", Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum, and Peter Mountford's The Dismal Science, and featuring Kathleen Skeels' wonderfully suggestive drawings. Here's how it begins:

In a previous blog post, I mentioned my difficulty with conflict and tension.  For this reason, I love triangular relationships, which bring up conflicting desires, competing loyalties, and dilemmas. All the things that make a juicy story go. When I was just starting out writing fiction, when my writing tended to be a formless blob and I learned that good writing needs a shape, a design, I turned to the idea of things happening in threes, and then I turned to triangles. As I learned along the way, there are many, many ways you might use triangles in your fiction.Continue reading

My latest blog post for Ploughshares explores the sense of touch in writing, with wisdom from Aristotle, Ann Hamilton: the common S E N S E at the Henry Art Gallery, Natalie Goldberg, Diane Ackerman, and John Edgar Wideman, and with a bit of inspiration from Hieronymus Bosch. Here's how the post begins:

Touch is the sense common to all species. So wrote Aristotle in Historia Animalum and De Anima. And so is the premise for the art show Ann Hamilton: the common S E N S E, which I’ve been helping out with here in Seattle, and which explores the sense of touch and our relationship to nature, as well as our ability to be touched, emotionally and intellectually, through the private act of reading.This got me thinking about the importance of touch in writing. Like the sense of smell, touch is a tad neglected when compared to the senses we gravitate toward first: the visual and the auditory. But think about how connected you’ve felt to a text when the author captures a particular tactile sensation or visceral reaction? How do those moments create emotional and intellectual resonance?continue reading

My twelfth set of writing prompts for the Ploughshares blog explores writing from the perspective of characters unlike yourself, with insight from Jodi Angel, Chris Abani, and Keith Ridgeway's great short story "Rothko Eggs". Here's how it begins:

A crucial lesson I learned early on in my attempts at writing fiction is that every character is you–and not you. Characters have parts of you inside of them because you wrote them. But they are still not you. Chris Abani once said in a workshop that readers will always wonder if your characters are you–even if your main character is a Chihuahua. There’s not much to do about this wondering except write the characters you want to write with complexity and empathy.continue reading

In the spirit of back to school season, I wrote a blog post for Ploughshares on rolling up your sleeves and learning by imitating the writers you admire. I've done the prompt on structure a couple of times now with Chekhov stories; one of the stories that came out of that exercise ended up in Propeller Magazine last December. As always, do let me know if you try out the prompts and if they're helpful!

My latest blog post for Ploughshares offers writing prompts inspired by abstract art, with wisdom from Jeanette Winterson, and features a fantastic, electric illustration courtesy of Amy Frierson.Back when I was slogging through the first draft of my first novel, I looked to visual art every morning as a prompt. I had a big stack of Dover art stickers that I would randomly choose from, and stick in my journal, and over time, I found that Kandinsky helped me write my protagonist. I have no idea why. But when you're focusing on just getting words on the page, you do whatever works, right? Now I'm working on a couple projects dealing with art more deliberately, one of which I've written a bit about in these posts; the other is a bit too embryonic, but I'm excited about it and look forward to telling you more here when the time is right.

I put together a whopping 24 summer-inspired writing prompts for the Ploughshares blog, which should keep you writing for the rest of the summer. Or at least for 300 or so minutes.

My eighth post for the Ploughshares blog digs deep into a somewhat-neglected sense, smell.  Take a whiff. (Did I miss any synonyms for smell in this post's tags?)Related:The Kobe RopewayThe High Line's DebutThe Winter Garden

Just in time for those real long summer wanders I love, my seventh set of writing prompts for the Ploughshares  blog tackles the wonders of walking and the importance of place, with wisdom from Luis Urrea. The uber-talented Melanie Masson was very generous in lending a few of her gorgeous landscape photographs to the post.As I'm nearing the half-way point in this year of blogging about writing prompts, I'll just put it out here: any requests for particular topics? So far I've covered portraits, eavesdropping, architecture, objects, dance, and music. I have other topics lined up, but I'm open to suggestions. Leave a comment here, tweet at me, or send me an email. And thanks!

My sixth set of writing prompts for the Ploughshares blog dives into the vast territory of creative writing involving music, with wisdom from E.M. Forester, Milan Kundera, and Maya Sonenberg, and a short list of reading suggestions from Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" to a forthcoming novel on the inventor of the theremin.

In my fifth set of writing prompts for the Ploughshares blog, I consider dance as a launchpad for writing. 

My fourth set of writing prompts for the Ploughshares blog takes inspiration from objects, with wisdom from Italo Calvino, Elizabeth Kostova, Cynthia Ozick, Charles Baxter, Kate Bernheimer, RT Smith, and more.In other news, an excerpt from my student Amber Murray's intriguing essay "Thoughts on Abstract Thought and the Practice of Moving Things Around Until They Sit Just Right," from this winter's Visual Inspiration class, is up on the Henry Art Gallery's blog! Exciting!

My third set of writing prompts for the Ploughshares blog takes architecture as its starting point.

Over on the Ploughshares blog, my second writing prompt revels in the wonders of eavesdropping and overheard conversations. Whether you recently overheard some choice nuggets of wisdom or gossip or are  looking to sharpen your ability to write dialogue, click on over to join the fun.

Today I kick off a series of 16 blog posts issuing writing prompts for the Ploughshares blog. The posts will discuss using art, architecture, dance, eavesdropping, and all sorts of other sources of inspiration to keep your writing going. I'm excited to be embarking on this new project. The first post uses portraits on Google Art Projects to write monologues, and a game on Twitter, and the posts will appear every two or three weeks. Check it out, write, share, tweet! Wee!

There's a real dreamy exhibit on at Photo Center NW until May 28. I'm especially fond of Erin V. Sotak's "SUGAR and Spice," which depicts a bride in a blue-papered drawing room about to eat a cube of sugar that is surely poisoned, and Christine Shank's "You Promised to Listen," an ethereal room filled with light and dust motes and a thick carpet of fuscia, white, and green flower buds, all suggesting an altercation gone seriously, and beautifully, wrong.If you're in Seattle, and in need of an art fix, do check it out! And if you're not, 26 of the pictures are available online.

Last month, I took an afternoon class at Richard Hugo House with Shin Yu Pai called "Maps for a Narrative Atlas" to, as it were, tickle my psychogeographic fancy. After some discussion of Denis Wood's Everything Sings and Rebecca Solnit's Infinite City, Shin sent us out into Capitol Hill to map some specific, observable aspect of the neighborhood and then try to transcribe what we found into text. I decided to focus on everything visible between parking signs and power lines, plus any sounds. I ended up with a catalogue of mostly tags and graffiti animals, an "urban bestiary" as one of the workshop participants noted (incidentally, this is a topic for another post I've been meaning to write as well as the title of a fascinating forthcoming book).Here's that catalogue.E. Olive Street, from 11th Avenue to 12th Avenueshoescrowspropeller affixed to pole, swayingcrowsparking sign: Hellawasted, Action for Animals, sad ghostbright yellow bits of a torn fliercrowsfuzzy green tree budsZ overlaying UNasty Nate Comfyfaded blue outline of a skeletonLost Cat: Adult Male Mostly Black with a White Belly. Will Give Generous Reward if Found and Returned to Owner. Contact Arlene.bright yellow flier, intact: Our Neighborhoods Under Attack! scary black towers descending upon single family homes with crash-pow comic book burstsNotice of Public Meetingfuzzy green tree budspolice car siren12th Avenueshoescrowsguttural other-bird song; rattle and click11th Avenue from Howell Street to E Olivecrowsparking sign: Hello My Name Is Nick Nack Records4 hour parking sing: No Big Deal, smiling prehistoric fish with wings, Nasty Nate Comfy, Blinkchildren squealingstick man with a briefcase and devil horns apparently going to hell4 hour parking Valid Here: love birdsnight owl with steaming cup of somethingshoes