Author Archive: Suzanna Anderson Creates
Six Words
“Narrative” is holding a contest for a six-word story. They had this to say about the form. “William Faulkner famously said that a novelist is a failed short story writer, and a short story writer is a failed poet. Hemingway, with his creation of the six-word story, combined poetry and drama into a short form …
Salinger’s “Nine Stories”
I finished reading J.D. Salinger’s “Nine Stories.” Each one is unique and offers interesting characters and situations. I especially love it when fiction refers to poetry. Robert Stone does this in “Bear and His Daughter” with the short stories “Porque no Tiene, Porque le Falta” and “Bear and His Daughter.” For some reason it amuses …
Prompt–Sunday, August 7
Think of a memory from childhood. Write something using an element from it, like an image, phrase, or situation. When I was a kid my siblings and I invented a game where we would swing in the backyard and see who could throw their shoe the farthest. Our toes met the sky as our shoes landed …
Lapping Blood
We meet the brooding vampires first. Think about it. Sookie Stackhouse series—Bill. Interview with the Vampire—Louis. Buffy the Vampire Slayer—Angel. Twilight—Edward. Is there a vampire story with the non-brooding vampire introduced first? Don’t get me wrong. I love vampire stories. I’m not a zombie fan or up for werewolves often, but I’ve read all of …
Acceptance!
Tuesday afternoon I received an acceptance letter for two of my poems to be published in the October issue of “Heavy Hands Ink.” I am very excited to share these poems! Here is the link to the website if you want to check out the magazine before then: http://heavyhandsink.wordpress.com/
Prompt—Thursday, August 4
Take the dialogue “If you don’t like chocolate you’re a communist” and write a poem or short story or what have you, just use the line. Here is mine: She had fondue and other fixings for the engagement party and introduced us to her foreign sweetheart. Jack, our friend since grade school, commented on her …
Prompt–Sunday, July 31
One character gets three books from the library. The driver says, “You read the weirdest books.” What is the character’s response? What happens next? My example as a prose poem: One day I went to the library and with my books in tow the driver says, “You read the weirdest books.” I look to him …
Prompts
Sometimes I was stumped when I sat down to write—when I started writing seriously. So I turned to prompts for help. I used books like “The Writer’s Book of Matches” by the staff of Fresh Boiled Peanuts and “The Write Brain Workbook” by Bonnie Neubauer, as well as ones my teachers gave me in class. …
Writing Goals
It’s always good to have some kind of goal in mind. Mine usually take the shape of long lists on my computer. Feeling creative enough to use glue, I made a poster with all of my writing/reading/translating goals and hung it near my writing space. So I can look at it but not let it …
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
I finished the book. Rarely do I respond out loud when I’m reading or have a physical reaction, so when I say “No!” for example or cry or feel my heart race, I really know the story has moved me. In the last ten pages I started crying, even stopping in the middle of a …
Suzanna and Writing 