Celia Lisset Alvarez's Blog, page 9

From Davie to Cozumel via Sioux City: Lessons from the Trenches

After three and a half weeks of studying nonfiction, my students and I finally had our first workshop. I'm happy to report it was a success, and full of useful lessons.



The first three pieces workshopped all had a strong sense of place at their center. Yazmin wrote about a trip to Cozumel, Chip wrote about his family's yearly trek to Sioux City, Iowa for Christmas, and Michael wrote about Davie, a South Florida suburb. Each of these places is pretty challenging, in the sense that they are...

From Davie to Cozumel via Sioux City: Lessons from the Trenches

After three and a half weeks of studying nonfiction, my students and I finally had our first workshop. I'm happy to report it was a success, and full of useful lessons.
The first three pieces workshopped all had a strong sense of place at their center. Yazmin wrote about a trip to Cozumel, Chip wrote about his family's yearly trek to Sioux City, Iowa for Christmas, and Michael wrote about Davie, a South Florida suburb. Each of these places is pretty challenging, in the sense that they are...

Cinderella's Slipper Vs. Abraham Lincoln's Hat, or Joan Rivers, Barbara Walters, & the Guinea Pig

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
Of course not. To the writer, this is an easy question. The writer creates or sometimes recreates experience, which cannot occur without someone being there. You can have the richest setting ever written, the clearest, most compelling prose or poetry, and the most convoluted, original plot—if you don't have good characters to pin them on, they will fall apart.
I use the term "characters" with some...

Begin Where You Are

One of the first chapters of Zinsser's On Writing Well I make my students read at the beginning of the semester is "Writing About Places," where he gives tips on travel writing. I won't rehash what he says there, which is excellent. Rather, my intention is to convince the beginning writer of the importance of setting, whether you are writing about traveling or some other kind of nonfiction, or a story, novel, poem, play—whatever.



I remember how, when I was very young, I would skip over...

Begin Where You Are

One of the first chapters of Zinsser's On Writing Well I make my students read at the beginning of the semester is "Writing About Places," where he gives tips on travel writing. I won't rehash what he says there, which is excellent. Rather, my intention is to convince the beginning writer of the importance of setting, whether you are writing about traveling or some other kind of nonfiction, or a story, novel, poem, play—whatever.

I remember how, when I was very young, I would skip over...

My New Blog

I have started a blog about writing called Writing with Celia at http://writingwithcelia.blogspot.com/. It's of special interests to beginning writers, so please visit and subscribe if you are interested in reading about the basics of writing and the kinds of advice I give my creative writing students.

My First Poems in Spanish

After years of being asked to write in Spanish, I finally gave it a shot, and have published my two first poems in Spanish at Pterodactilo. See what you think: http://pterodactilo.com/numero9/?p=1940.

Why You Should Be Writing Nonfiction

Most beginning writers want to be novelists or poets. Some of the savvier ones recognize that what they really want to be are screenwriters, millionaires, or celebrities. Hardly anyone these days wants to write nonfiction, except for some of the older beginners, who then only want to write their memoirs.



Yet, nonfiction—creative nonfiction, as it is called in the biz—is exactly what the beginning writer should be writing, no matter what the long-term plans for writing something else might...

Why You Should Be Writing Nonfiction

Most beginning writers want to be novelists or poets. Some of the savvier ones recognize that what they really want to be are screenwriters, millionaires, or celebrities. Hardly anyone these days wants to write nonfiction, except for some of the older beginners, who then only want to write their memoirs.

Yet, nonfiction—creative nonfiction, as it is called in the biz—is exactly what the beginning writer should be writing, no matter what the long-term plans for writing something else might...

Another Blog about Writing?

I suppose it's pretty arrogant to add even more writing advice to the blogosphere—kind of the writing equivalent of using CFCs. However, after years (I won't calculate how many) of being able to teach only one creative writing class every now and again, I have to let it out. I suppose it's karmically no worse than if I had decided to blog about politics, or movies, or any other bloated topic.

Which brings me to my first lesson, one particularly suited to the post-blog era: though the story...