Craft
Talks and reading at UBC Creative Writing Department
I had the honour of sharing writing talk at UBC in January. Those large lecture halls are such odd/unfamiliar spaces to make ideas, creativity, information coalesce… It was invigorating and the students were keen, bright, focussed. Here’s a link to the write-up in the UBC Creative Writing website: https://creativewriting.ubc.ca/2018/01/hiromi-goto-visits-ubc-creative-writing-department/ Thank you, Emily Pohl-Weary, Ian Williams, and…
Read MoreHiromi Goto nineteenquestions interview
Interviews are odd things– they kind of start to blur together because there’s a tendency for interviewers to ask similar kinds of questions, such as, Where do you get your ideas, who are your favourite authors, etc. This interview was a little different because I asked if it could be conducted in the same manner…
Read MoreOn the Backlash Against the Writing Advice: “Write What You Know” :D
So many writers. So many developing writers. So much advice…. >__< I hope I can be forgiven for joining the fray. This isn’t so much advice but just some thoughts that’ve been percolating the past few months. For a long while, “Write What You Know” had/has been a refrain that made its rounds among certain…
Read MoreWriting Craft: Conveying Narrative/POV
For a great many of developing writers we often begin writing a story intuitively. We have a character, an idea, a vision, and a goal. And we begin. We don’t necessarily have the knowledge to name the component parts that make up a story. We don’t necessarily understand what, exactly, it is we are doing.…
Read MoreThe E-Racing of The Hunger Games : Race & Cultures in Fiction
I didn’t want to add to The Hunger Games hype but the recent swell of responses to matters tied with race compelled me to share some thoughts. For those who haven’t been following the situation, the film, The Hunger Games adapted from a novel of the same title, is currently wildly popular (Please note I haven’t…
Read More“A Brief Description of How I Write a Novel”
Just like the title says! My third article in “The Afterword” column of the National Post.
Read MoreManipulation and Intimacy in Narrative Fiction
Reading a work of narrative fiction can be compared to embarking on a type of journey. The reader embarks upon this journey willingly (unless it’s assigned reading for school, etc.), entrusting her well-being into the hands of the author. Of course this voluntary contract is non-binding– the reader can leave the book, unfinished, for whatever reason (Thankfully, this final power remains…
Read MoreQuestion # 3: How Do You Get Your Work Published?
If you have never had your work published in a professional venue (i.e. magazine not owned by family members, anthologies, newspapers, contest win leading to pro publications, etc.) and you are eager to do so you might like to ask yourself: Question #1: Have I worked long at developing my craft? and: Question #2: Have I…
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