My favorite definition of a writer is: "A writer is a person who writes." Perhaps ten years is the average apprenticeship, as my mentor Carolyn Doty used to tell me. Master writer (and teacher) Linda Rodriguez has a blog about how writers are like pianists--they both need regular exercise in their genre. Here is the beginning of her essay and a link to the entire piece on the Writers Who Kill blog:
"Pianists know they must practice every day, playing scales and
various exercises that stretch the fingers
and give them the flexibility and
dexterity that they will need to play complicated compositions. Long ago, I
read in one of Madeleine L'Engle's wonderful journals of life and writing about
this need for writers.
'Nobody can teach creative writing–run like mad from anybody who
thinks he can. But one can teach practices, like finger exercises on the piano;
one can share the tools of the trade, and what one has gleaned from the great
writers: it is the great writers themselves who do the teaching.' –A Circle of
Quiet
Linda
Rodriguez has published three novels in the Skeet Bannion mystery series, Every Hidden Fear (Minotaur
Books),
Every Broken Trust (Minotaur Books),
finalist for the International Latino Book Award and the Premio Aztlan Literary
Award and a Las Comadres National Latino Book Club selection, and
Every Last Secret (Minotaur Books),
winner of the Malice Domestic First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition and
finalist for the International Latino Book Award. She also has published two
books of poetry,
Heart's Migration
(Tia Chucha Press) winner of the Thorpe Menn Award for Literary Excellence and
finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award, and
Skin Hunger (Potpourri Publications; Scapegoat Press). She edited
Woven Voices: 3 Generations of
Puertorriquena Poets Look at Their American Lives (Scapegoat Press), second
place, International Latino Book Award. She is the 2015 Chair of the
AWP Indigenous/Aboriginal American Writers Caucus, immediate past president of
Border Crimes chapter of Sisters in Crime, a founding board member of Latino
Writers Collective and The Writers Place, and a member of Wordcraft Circle of
Native American Writers and Storytellers, Kansas City Cherokee Community, and
International Thriller Writers. Learn more about her books and events at
http://lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com/
Xánath Caraza, award-winning author,
teaches at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and makes presentations in
Europe, Latin America, and the U.S. She is Writer-in-Residence at Westchester
Community College, New York. She writes for La Bloga, Periódico de Poesía,
Revista Literaria Monolito, The Smithsonian Latino Center, and Revista Zona de
Ocio. She is originally from Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. More information and news at Xanath Caraza
