I always enjoy connecting with new interesting
people because I think the more we share, the more we learn, the more we live
and the more we can discover. Recently a very good friend got a “blog hop” with
some questions to explore the method to her art and she was kind enough to pass
along the “hop”, so to speak. Katherine Lipnitskaya is from Belarus and she
writes poetry in Russian, Belarusian and English. We share a mutual appreciation
for the written word and are both fans of capturing the essence of a moment and
exploring feelings through verse. Her blog offers an interesting perspective on
many things and apart from being thankful for the shoutout, I certainly enjoy
the friendship so far across the world and her talent for poetry. Her blog can
be found by clicking here.
So she got some questions in regards to her creative process and she passed them along to me, so here are the
questions and my answers as we explore the Method to my Madness.
What are you
writing?
At any given time I’m working on several projects
and right now is no exception. Here’s a rundown of what to expect from me in
the near future:
The Sequel to Only Human: Only Human took me 8
years to complete, so naturally it’s taken me a few months to write down about
30% of the sequel. It’s amazing how easy the story is flowing in comparison to
the other’s trek and it all has to do with breaking down that wall of writing
my first book and finding the story that will flow through all three steps of
the Human Cycle. Much darker in tone, I continue my exploration of the human
aspect and what it means to be human.
Young Adult project: I am currently a quarter of
the way done with a Young Adult project I’ve been working on for a while now,
which talks about a kid who dreams of flying. I’m amazed at how much more human
it feels than I thought it would and am just happy to let the story flow. It is
very personal in the sense that I touch on countless things from my childhood and
my life, from relatives to stories that still resonate with me, over twenty
years after I first read them.
An already finished poetry compilation to be
released very soon. I had actually lost touch with poetry for a long while,
instead focusing on riffs and lyric fragments for songs and last year I refound
my love for poetry, quickly penning over 60 poems thanks to the urging of
various lovely people that convinced me that maybe I had something worthwhile
to share.
A bilingual compilation which is 70% done at the
moment. Being Hispanic, I want to show what it’s like to live a bilingual life
and although some people won’t understand one language or the other, it’s my
invitation for people to spend time with friends who speak the other language to
discuss or to learn something new.
And along with this, I’m also working on a noir
novel, a Spanish poetry compilation, a philosophy project, two nonfiction works
about my perspective on life and I’m always adding to the blog, which goes from
essays/posts and poetry to short stories and anything I think can resonate with
people. Oh and my Daydreams on the Sherbert Shore, a stream of thought
adventure series from my blog where I invite fellow writers into my daydreams.
Why do you
write what you do?
I am fascinated by the aspect of humanity and what
it means to be human. I love fiction and have always gravitated towards that
vein of literature because through fiction we can discover what makes us tick
as humans. Our wishes, our dreams, our fantasies… it all speaks about what
drives and defines us and I’m interested in showing how fascinating we are.
As I mentioned earlier, poetry came about because
last year I posted a poem and was surprised at how much of a response it
received and it invited me to push myself and my writing in poetry as much as
possible.
And sure, all this sounds fantastic though in
reality, I write because I have a deep seeded need to write. I love to write,
am in love with the written word and truly can’t imagine myself not writing. In
fact, the more time passes the more I need to write and the more stories I want
to share because in these stories, we can connect, we can resonate and we can
enjoy the beauty of being human.
What is your
writing process?
Each project has its own spirit and its own method.
Some works I write on paper and pen, others I need to use a pencil, others I do
directly on the computer and I decided a long time ago I would not be a slave
to method, only to my stories and whatever message I felt I needed to share.
With Only Human, the process was quite interesting
because I overdosed on information, jotted down a rough route I wanted to
follow in my story and then allowed history, religious texts, geography and
folklore to guide me on my way, not to mention over 200 pages of notes. I wrote
down the titles of the 44 chapters and just let it flow. This means I had a
rough map though mainly a start and finish and did whatever I needed to do to
finish my adventure.
In the young adult project, I have about 100 index
cards with chapter, location, character and event descriptions, which influence
the story quite a bit. This means I basically already wrote the story in my
head and my hands are just basically catching up and filling in the gaps with
dialogue and details.
With poetry I rarely revisit a poem more than two
times. That’s because I love capturing the essence of a moment. Some people
like to tweak and adjust, and rewrite, and edit. To me, I love taking a picture
of an emotion using words so it’s as pure as possible.
With other projects, I can write short stories in a
single go or can take years until I finally see the path and write my way
through it.
In posts and essays I really meditate about what
personal experiences I can share to try to make a positive impact on people.
Some time ago I made a very clear and firm decision to try and make a
difference and be as honest as possible in the interest of understanding myself
and hopefully sharing something that helps someone else. I truly believe it’s
our time as a species to resonate and to give better than what we have done so
up to this moment.
And that’s about it, except I need to single out a
fellow blogger whom I follow and whom I think you should give a read to. Since
deciding is rather a pain, instead here’s five blogs you should read.
Linda Anderson’s blog is titled Dabbling Writer although she hardly dabbles. She writes beautiful snapshot shorts and fantasy
stories that truly leave you wanting more.
Cate Evans is a brilliant, witty, kooky English lass
with a talent for writing clever rhymes and wonderful messages of light and
life on her blog. Wonderful posts, lovely poetry and just a great person I'm honored to be able to know.
Rachel Karp is a quirky spunky writer with a lot to
say and a blog to say it on called Hippety Dippety.
Veronica Brannon is one of the most honest writers
I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading and her blog has a lot to offer if you
want to read about passion and life. What’s on your Mind.
María Rochelle is a wonderfully human writer who
writes from her heart and was kind enough to collaborate with me on a blog post
series last year. Her website can be found clicking here.
And like these wonderfully talented people I’m
fortunate to connect with countless other people to resonate and share our
paths in life and I’ll be sharing more of them in the near future.
So here's to reading and connecting.
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